The Armenian Voice sings Whitney Houston

Arts & Entertainment Music Sound

Rita Bratovich
September 3, 2022

Image: Masha Mnjoyan will perform songs of Whitney Houston in Whitney Orchestrated. Image: supplied

One of the headline acts for Chatswood’s Culture Bites Festival this year, is Whitney Orchestrated, a tribute concert featuring the most loved songs of Whitney Houston backed by the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra. Taking on the inconceivable challenge of “being Whitney” is Armenian singer, Masha Mnjoyan.

While she’s not quite as well known in Australia, Mnjoyan is something of a celebrity in her home country: she performed in Junior Eurovision in 2008, then big Eurovision in 2016; she won The Voice Armenia in 2013 and was a finalist in The Voice Australia in 2020.

Mnjoyan is an accomplished musician, singer and composer in a range of genres including pop, jazz, blues, RnB, and songs in her native Armenian language.

From the age of four, Mnjoyan had already set her heart on a career in music.

“It was sort of meant to be, me in music all the time,” says Mnjoyan. “Though I was very young and without even realising that I had ability, I wanted to be in music.”

Her parents, and in particular, an aunty, were very supportive. Mnjoyan recalls her aunty presenting her to the director of a music school and saying: “She’s very talented. She needs to be here.”

But Armenia is small and after being in Eurovision, Idol, The Voice, and touring and performing around the country, Mnjoyan felt she had exhausted her career potential there. And she was only 23 years old.

Mnjoyan decided to move to Sydney. She’d visited Australia on several occasions prior.

“I fell in love with nature, the people, the culture – everything!” says Mnjoyan. “The only country where I would try to grow my career would be Australia. Otherwise I would just stay in my country.”

It didn’t take long for that growth to start happening. Mnjoyan put together two bands and began performing in Sydney’s best jazz and live music venues; she sang on the Opera House forecourt during Vivid and has done television appearances.

It was with a Whitney Houston song, “I Have Nothing”, that Mnjoyan knocked the socks off the judges in The Voice, Aus. She has been a huge fan of Houston from a very early age.

“Since I was a child, I admired listening to Whitney Houston; watching her live videos and everything about her. She was a real model for me, an idol … something unreachable with the vocal and with the performance and presentation.”

Masha Mnjoyan and George Ellis. Image: supplied

In Sydney, Mnjoyan became aware that a lot of tribute concerts were being performed, noting that no one had yet tackled Whitney. She approached conductor and musical director, George Ellis, who had put together the series of “Orchestrated” concerts including tributes to The Beatles, ABBA, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, and many more.

He liked the idea of doing a Whitney Houston tribute and he connected Mnjoyan with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and things took off from there.

Mnjoyan insists that the concert is a tribute and not an impersonation.

“It’s not gonna be better than her, it’s not gonna be the same as her, it’s not going to be even something like her – because Whitney is the one and only, and no one can be like her.”

Instead, Mnjoyan sees this a an homage from the heart.

“It’s going to be like Masha singing Whitney Houston: the way that I feel her, the way that I feel the music, the lyrics and the way I accept music.” Singing an all-Whitney Houston show is something Mnjoyan has always aspired to do. “So yeah, it’s a dream come true!”

What Mnjoyan wants is for the audience to share in her joy of Whitney’s music.

“It’s going to be sort of a party concert. Our goal is to make people feel positive. Obviously we’re gonna include big songs – without “All By Myself” and “I Have Nothing” and stuff like that, a Whitney concert is not gonna be the same. But we’re going to make it more active and more positive with beats and stuff.”

Whitney Orchestrated