Biography
Rosy Armen was born to Khurshut Hovannisian from Nakhitchevan and to Nvart Alozian from a suburb of Ankara. The Armenian couple had met each other after having immigrated to France in the 1920s. Rosy Hovannisian Armen was born in Paris, France on May 1, the same day as the May Day worker's holiday. Rosy has been singing since the age of 4, when she would lead the youth orchestra of her school until she eventually started singing solo songs. Despite her parents disapproval of a career in singing, Rosy Hovannisian, later Rosy Bedrossian continued on with her passion and eventually, took the stage name Rosy Armen and had success also singing next to established French music stars in France.
This success made her a well-known figure not only in France, but also all over Europe, the Soviet Union, United States and the Middle East where there were many Armenian communities and through her participation in Persia's Persepolis festivities.
In 1970, she took part in the selection rounds for representing Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest. She sang the song "Gwendolyne". Julio Iglesias who was singing the same song during the competition went on to represent Spain with the song.
Her repertoire includes music from Aram Khachaturian, Michel Legrand, Boris Pasternak and Yevgeny Yevtushenko who gave her poems to sing. She also partnered with Julio Iglesias.
At the height of her career, French television covered her concerts abroad through the efforts of Michel Lancelot et Roger Benamou. In France, she gave concerts in best music theaters including lOlympia in Paris. She also sang at the Carnegie Hall in New York, at the Los Angeles Music Center, at Place des Arts theater in Montreal, and Luzhniki Palace of Sports in Moscow.
After the 1988 earthquake in Armenia, Charles Aznavour invited her to record alongside him and other singers the song "Pour Toi, Arménie", a song that remained in 1st place for 10 weeks in a row in the French Top 50. In 1990, she did a tour in Armenia in order to help the people recovering from the earthquake and to show France's support to Armenians. Already popular in the Armenian diaspora for many decades, she has become very popular in Armenia as well.
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