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Armenia: Yerevan (11/11) / The Happiest Surprise

It was the encounter with the Armenian pop music.

I was familiar with the traditional Armenian music somewhat, but have never imagined there would be an exciting local pop music scene in such a tiny country.

The first song I heard was at a hotel cafeteria. It's got this crazy groove with a man's voice so passionate and capturing. I rushed to ask a hotel guy who that was. He just said "Tata".

Though I wasn't sure "Tata" was the name of the song or the artist, or maybe a genre, I went into the music store and just utter the word. --And it sure worked like a magic word!

Tata turned out to be one of the biggest star of Armenian pop music.

Unfortunately, I didn't find much more. I just got 2 CDs, Tata's latest and one compilation, and that was that. Nonetheless I fully enjoyed all the songs blasted out in streets of Yerevan.

I was also very lucky to catch some of the biggest stars to perform live at the Armenian Independence Day Cultural Festival (September 21was their Independence Day and the city held this great 3-day big festival).

I was feeling real sick, however, and had to leave before Tata came out! Back in my room, sick in bed, I could hear his name being called and all the cheers of crowd...