“They did better than England!”: Tony Iommi recounts the time he wrote a Eurovision song for Armenia
Kerrang.com
At a press conference to announce his new solo album From The Dark, Tony Iommi revealed in conversation with Frank Skinner how he came to write a song for Armenia called Lonely Planet for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Tony Iommi has shared some memories of writing Armenia’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2013.
The Black Sabbath guitarist was in conversation with Frank Skinner earlier today (July 29) at a press conference in his hometown of Birmingham, where he announced From The Dark, his first solo album in 21 years.
The topic came up when Tony was discussing the charity work he had done in Armenia, helping to build a music school there and raising money for earthquake relief through the WhoCares project with Ian Gillan from Deep Purple. Frank then mentioned that Tony had written a song for Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest.
“They contacted me and said ‘We’re in trouble, we don’t have a song to represent Armenia. Would you do one?’ and I said, ‘I don’t do Eurovision Song Contests,” he said.
Nonetheless, he put something together anyway, even if it might not have seemed like an obvious career move.
“We sent it over and that was it really. Their local band, or the top band, recorded it and that was it. They did better than England!”
“I did watch it,” he added, though they had invited him to go and watch in person.
The song Tony wrote alongside Vardan Zadoyan was called Lonely Planet, which was performed by a band called Dorians. They came 18th, marginally better than England, who placed 19th that year.
