Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s band Varchaband has played their debut concert in Yerevan. The sold-out event, which required pre-registration, was held on 30 January and featured Pashinyan playing drums. Parliamentary speaker Alen Simonyan also participated in the event, giving some introductory remarks before the show.
Varchaband takes its name from the Armenian word Varchapet, which means prime minister — the name then becomes a play on words, where the -pet ending is swapped for -band.
A poster for the event showed Pashinyan playing drums along with the tagline ‘We play, you dance’.
Individual clips of the concert are available online, which include the band playing both original songs and covers, but a full recording of the event has not yet been made public.
The show opened with several DJ sets before Varchaband took the stage.
One of the main songs featured in the promotional material was ‘Real Armenia, the Republic of Armenia’, a song that Pashinyan himself penned. The song references the concept of ‘Real Armenia’, developed by Pashinyan and his government, which insists that Armenians must accept modern Armenia within its current borders. The song was also played at the concert to much fanfare.
The concert closed out to a flood of pink balloons being released from the ceiling.
It is unclear when Varchaband will play their next show.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
