Armenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song "Boom Boom" written by Hayk Hovhannisyan, Hayk Harutyunyan and Sosi Khanikyan. The song was performed by Emmy, who was selected internally by the Armenian broadcaster Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV) to represent Armenia in the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf, Germany. Emmy's selection as the Armenian artist was announced on 11 December 2010, while the song was selected through a national final, which took place on 5 March 2011 where four songs competed. "Boom Boom" was selected as the winning song following the combination of votes from a professional jury and a public televote.
Armenia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2011. Performing during the show in position 4, "Boom Boom" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. This marked the first time that Armenia failed to qualify to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest from a semi-final since its first entry in 2006. It was later revealed that Armenia placed twelfth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 54 points.
Background
Prior to the 2011 contest, Armenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest five times since its first entry in . Since 2006, all of Armenia's entries have featured in the final. Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been fourth place, which the nation achieved in 2008 with the song "Qélé, Qélé" performed by Sirusho. In 2010, "Apricot Stone" performed by Eva Rivas placed seventh in the final.
The Armenian national broadcaster, Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV), broadcasts the event within Armenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. AMPTV confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest on 19 June 2010. Armenia has used various methods to select the Armenian entry in the past, such as a live televised national final to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. However internal selections have also been held on occasion. The broadcaster organized a national final to select both the 2009 and 2010 Armenian entries. The broadcaster opted to internally select the artist for the 2011 contest, with a national final being organized to select the song.
Before Eurovision
Artist selection
The Armenian representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was internally selected by the Art Council of AMPTV. During a press conference on 11 December 2010, Emmy was announced as the Armenian entrant. Emmy had previously attempted to represent Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest by competing in the national finals in 2007 with the song "You've Done It" and in 2010 together with Mihran with the song "Hey (Let Me Hear You Say)" which placed second. During the press conference, the broadcaster announced that a national final would be held to select her song.
Evrotesil 2011
Following their artist reveal, AMPTV announced a public call for song submissions in English or Armenian with a deadline of 23 January 2011. 70 songs were submitted by songwriters worldwide and a jury panel together with Emmy selected four songs from fifteen under consideration to proceed to the national final, which were announced on 21 February 2011. The national final took place on 5 March 2011 at the AMPTV studios in Yerevan, hosted by Gohar Gasparyan and Khoren Levonyan and broadcast on Armenia 1 as well as online via the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv. All four competing songs were performed by Emmy and the winning song, "Boom Boom", was selected by the 50/50 combination of votes from a professional jury and a public vote. In addition to the performances of the competing songs, the show was opened by Armenian 2010 Junior Eurovision winner Vladimir Arzumanyan with "Mama", while the interval acts featured Armenian Eurovision 2006 entrant André, Armenian Eurovision 2007 entrant Hayko and Avraam Russo with their recently released songs.