The artist was part of the Armenian performance during Eurovision 2010.
The string of calamities continues. After the tragic death of Raffaella Carrà, we are sorry to hear of the loss of Djivan Gasparyan.
Who was Djivan Gasparyan?
Djivan Gasparyan was born on October 12th, 1928 in the village of Solak in Armenia. He had had a difficult childhood with the disappearance of his mother when he was still young. He discovered the duduk when he was 6 years old. In 1947 he went to Moscow for a concert, receiving from Stalin’s hands a “Pobeda” watch.
A folk musician and composer, he was famous across the world for performing the duduk. In 1956 he won his first prize and in 1959, his first gold medal at the 4th Unesco International Festival. In the same competition he won a silver medal in 1962, and a bronze in 1973. That year he also received the title of People’s Artist of Armenia.
He has participated in the music of several films including “The Last Temptation of Christ” or “Gladiator” and had been celebrated with UNESCO medals as well as a Grammy nomination in 2006.
Djivan and Eurovision
In 2010, while Armenia was represented by Eva Rivas with her song “Apricot Stone”, he was part of the delegation as a guest artist. He appeared as a duduk player on stage and became the oldest person to participate in the competition at that time, he was 81 years old. He appeared in the opening scene of the Armenian scenography. They finished in seventh place with a total of 141 points.
We would like to send our condolences and thoughts to Djivan’s friends, family and fans in this difficult time.
