André, born Andrey Hovnanian is an Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

n singer. He won the Best Male Singer trophy at the Armenian Music Awards

Armenian Music Awards

Armenian Music Awards is an annual music awards ceremony first held at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California on October 7, 1998. It was created and produced for the first eight years by Peter Bahlawanian who wanted to support Armenian artists and make Armenian culture more mainstream.Pipeline...

 in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In addition, he performs as a (musical) actor at the local theater in Stepanakert

Stepanakert

Stepanakert is the largest city and capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent republic, though is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan...

, in the Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...

.

Early life

At the age of three André started singing with his family as audience. Three years later he began taking piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 classes, and at the age of nine he wrote his first song, which he called Prayer, showing his appreciation towards God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

. His professional singing career started at the age of 15 when he won the music contest Road to Renaissance. For the last few years, André has been the lead vocalist of the pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

-jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 band Karabakh, with whom he has toured all over Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic , or Artsakh Republic is a de facto independent republic located in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia...

. He has participated in numerous music festivals in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, winning many of them and finishing top three in a few others. He performed a track with Australian American R&B/Pop Singer Samantha Jade

Samantha Jade

Samantha Gibbs, commonly known as Samantha Jade, is an Australian R&B/pop singer-songwriter, former child model, and budding actress from Perth, Western Australia. She has written songs for artists such as Ashley Tisdale and JoJo. Jade released two singles under Jive Records but a scheduled album...

 titled Come Back.

Armenia enters Eurovision

In 2006 he was the first artist to represent Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Armenia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 with the song "Without Your Love" performed by André. Armenia had never entered the competition before, therefore it had to compete in the semi final. André was the first performer of the semi-finals...

, performing one of the 37 songs in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

. There André sang "Without Your Love", a mixture between modern Western

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

 and traditional Armenian music. The song was composed by an Armenian celebrity, Armen Martirosyan

Armen Martirosyan (musician)

Armen Martirosyan He studied the first music lessons in his early childhood and the first teacher was his grandmother, who taught him the nuts and bolts of the notes...

, the conductor of the Armenian Jazz Orchestra. The instrumentation and arrangement was done by one of Armenian music business' most highly regarded persons, Ara Torosyan

Ara Torosyan

Ara Torosyan, who is known in the Armenian music industry by his pen name Murzo, is a multi-award-winning music arranger and record producer. With a special gift for music, he is widely recognized to be one of the best music arrangers in his native country of Armenia...

. ARMTV presented their Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Eurovision Song Contest 2006

The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, Greece on 18 May and 20 May 2006 . The hosting national broadcaster of the contest was Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi . The Finnish band Lordi won the contest with the song "Hard Rock...

 entry to the public on March 15 2006. After qualifying through the semi-final André finished in 8th place in the competition with 129 points.

Albums

• Es em (It's Me) (2003)
• My Love To You (Single) (2005)
• Miayn Ser (Only Love) (2005)
• Without Your Love (Single) (2006)
• 1000x (i.e. 1000 times) (2006)
• My Love to you (DVD) (2008)
• Yerjankutyan Gaghtnik (2008)
• ANDREnaline (2010)