YEREVAN, OCTOBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Hundreds of mourners gathered today at the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall in central Yerevan to pay their respects to Hayk “Hayko” Hakobyan, the prominent Armenian singer who died at the age of 48 from COVID-19.

Family and friends, showbiz stars and fans started tearfully applauding when one of Hayko’s most famous songs – Verev (Up) – started playing as his coffin was being carried out to the hearse, which took off to the Yerevan City Pantheon, the artist’s final resting place.

“A color of love left the city,” said entertainer and singer Aramo, who knew Hayko since the 1990s.

Politician Raffi Hovhannisyan was also at the funeral. He said that the nation “lost the Armenian rainbow.” ”If we follow his entire career path and see how he approached life, we will realize that we lost a great knight who was giving love and faith,” Hovhannisyan said.

TV host, singer and producer Grisha Aghakhanyan, who was a personal friend to Hayko, described him as a “unique individual loved by everyone because he wasn’t only talented, but he was also a modest and decent man.”

The tragic news of Hayko’s death on September 29 caused an outpouring of condolences. The President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan offered condolences to his family. By instructions of Mayor Hayk Marutyan, Hayko’s songs were played on two evenings at the Yerevan Republic Square.

Hayko represented Armenia at Eurovision 2007.

He held the title of Honored Artist of Armenia.

He won the Singer of the Year award at the Armenian Music Awards in 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2006.

He also won the Album of the Year (2003), Project of the Year (2002), CD of the Year (2003) of the AMAs.

Hayko won the Composer of the Year awards in 2007, 2010 and 2011 for the scores to Don’t be Afraid, Spanvac Aghavni  and Khachagoghi Hishatakaran.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan