(Redirected from Helena Paparizou)
'Elena Paparizou' (; born
January 31,
1982) is a
Greek singer, born and raised in
Sweden. She is best known for winning the
Eurovision Song Contest 2005 for
Greece with the song ''
My Number One''.
Biography
Early life
Elena Paparizou was born on
January 31,
1982 in
Borås,
Västergötland,
Sweden, to
Greek immigrant parents Georgios and Efrosini Paparizou and was raised in
Örgryte,
Gothenburg.
Her father is from
Volos and mother is from
Karditsa. She has a sister Rita and brother Dinos. Paparizou's artistic talents and eagerness to excel became apparent very early, and she was soon involved in singing, dancing and acting-training in combination with her academic studies at school.
Antique
Main articles: Antique (duo)
1999-2003
Paparizou, determined to succeed and fulfill her dreams of being an entertainer, joined childhood friend and fellow
Greek-
Swede Nikos Panagiotidis, at the age of seventeen, to form
Antique. The duo quickly signed their first record deal, with Swedish record label Bonnier. Their debut single, ''Opa Opa'', became a huge hit, reaching number one on the single charts and achieving gold status following its release in
August 1999. The band's subsequent fame and success, strongly associated with the international promotion of
Greek culture, led to them being selected as
Greece's representatives for the
Eurovision Song Contest 2001 in
Copenhagen. The band reached third place with the song, ''(I Would) Die for You''. Although equalled by
Sakis Rouvas' entry ''Shake It'' in
2004, it was Greece's highest place in the contest until Elena won the contest as a solo artist in
2005.
Antique's success in the
Eurovision Song Contest led to them recording several multi-platinum albums, playing a
European tour, and collaborating with many other Greek artists. Paparizou has admitted that
Greek music had been something of an acquired taste for her, saying that the name 'Antique' was probably a reflection of her childhood impression of it being something rather distant and old-fashioned; something that she only really associated with her summer holidays in Greece.
Solo career
2003-2004: ''Protereotita''
Elena Paparizou on the cover of her first album ''
Protereotita''.
Despite the group's success, Antique broke up in
2003 on good terms, as the band had 'run its natural course', and Paparizou set about going solo. She signed a solo recording contract with
Sony BMG (Greece) and, in December 2003, released her first solo single, ''Anapantites Klisis'' (later re-recorded in English as ''I Don't Want You Here Anymore''), a song written especially for her by singer/songwriter
Christos Dantis. The single sales were strong, and it received gold certification in Greece.
During the winter of
2003-
2004, Paparizou appeared alongside one of Greece's biggest male singers,
Antonis Remos, at the Studio Pireos nightclub. In spring 2004, she released her first solo record, ''
Protereotita'' from which ''Antithesis'', ''Anamnisis'', ''Katse Kala'', and ''Stin Kardia Mou Mono Thlipsi'' became hit singles. The album achieved Double Platinum in Greece.
Her success brought her to the Fever nightclub for the winter season
2004-
2005 alongside
Sakis Rouvas.
2005: Eurovision
Because of her popularity in Greece, where she ended up spending more and more time, Paparizou was approached to represent the country for a second time in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2005. She performed ''My Number One'', ''Let's Get Wild'', and ''OK'' on the Greek national final, with ''My Number One'' winning the televote. There was also a song called ''The Light in Our Soul'', but it was later disqualified due to it being released prior to the contest, thus breaking the rules. The song went onto win the final contest (with backing vocals provided by
Cypriot former Eurovision-participant
Alex Panayi), and brought the contest to Greece for 2006 for the first time in the contest's history.
Paparizou re-released her first album ''Protereotita'' in Greece, with a second CD containing her Eurovision entrants, and English versions to previous songs, such as ''I Don't Want You Here Anymore'', ''Antithesis'', ''OK'', and ''If You Believe Me'' as well as a ballad version of (''Ehis Kero na Mou Feris'') ''Louloudia''. The 10 track CD was also available separately for those who already owned her debut album. A 16-track compilation of the Eurovision entrants and songs from her debut album was released in many parts of Europe such as
Scandinavia,
Switzerland,
Poland,
Russia,
Hungary,
Slovenia, the
Netherlands and
Turkey under the title, ''
My Number One''.
In the summer and fall of 2005, Paparizou toured in
Australia and
North America with Greek artist Nikos Kourkoulis, selling out many venues. She was also named the official
ambassador of the Greek Ministry of Tourism, and ''My Number One'' was used as backing music to their international television advert.
In the fall of 2005, Elena went to studios and recorded a new CD single called ''Mambo!''. The single included ''Mambo'' as a Greek and English version, ''Panta Se Perimena'', and ''Asteria''. The CD single stayed on the Greek charts at number 1 for 10 weeks, including Christmas week, and reached platinum status. The track was also released in Sweden in April 2006 and became gold selling more than 25,000 copies, following a succession of hit singles there taken from the album, ''My Number One''. Paparizou's debut album was re-issued for a third time in Greece to contain a third CD (in addition to the actual album and the Eurovision disc), containing both English and Greek versions of "Mambo!" and three other new Greek songs.
2006: ''Yparhi Logos'' and ''The Game of Love''
At the end of 2005, Paparizou went back to studio to work on her second Greek language album and her first official English language album. The album has been released in
Greece,
Cyprus,
Germany,
Japan,
Taiwan and
Turkey.
Paparizou's second album in Greek, ''
Yparhi Logos'', was released in Greece on
April 12,
2006. The album consists of two discs, the first featuring 14 brand new tracks, including ''
Mambo!'' and the second featuring nine live tracks from her ''Mad Secret Concert'' (including covers of ''Don't Speak'' by
No Doubt, ''Outside'' by
George Michael, ''Smooth Operator'' by
Sade, ''Like a Prayer'' by
Madonna, and ''Just Walk Away'' by
Céline Dion), as well as five new non-album tracks, and a remix of the title track, which is the second single. The video for that single, ''Yparhi Logos'', aired on the day the album was released. The first time people got to hear the song was when it premiered live form at the Arion Music Awards. ''
Gigolo'' is another song on the album, which is the third single, as it has been sent to Greek radio. The album ''Yparhi Logos'' was #1 and is platinum in Greece.
On
May 20,
2006, Elena graced the stage of Eurovision once more, to sing her song ''My Number One'' as the opening act. She later on sang ''Mambo!'', and then presented the award to the winners
Lordi. During a press interview there, she said that people should expect to hear a lot of ''Mambo!'' and ''
Gigolo'' in English over the summer, as she tries to pursue her international career. Paparizou has already released ''Mambo!'' in
Sweden on a two track CD single peaking at number 5 on the charts. Sweden is the first of many countries in which Paparizou will be releasing ''Mambo!''. The other countries in which Elena Paparizou plans to release ''Mambo!'' are:
Austria,
Switzerland,
Poland,
Turkey, and
Spain. Other records companies in
France, the
United Kingdom,
Italy, the
Netherlands,
Belgium,
Japan,
China,
United States,
Canada,
South Africa, and
Australia will also promote the song. The
Scandinavian promotion of the song will be from Bonnier Music. To gear up for the worldwide release of ''Mambo!'', Elena has filmed a new video targeted for a more international audience.
[1]
'']]
On January 21, 2007 Elena was awarded a European Border Breaker Award in Cannes, France. She was one of the ten new artists who received the Award which were created by the European Union four years ago and are given every year to ten artists who manage to have success with their first album abroad. Elena won the award for her success with her first solo album ''Proteraiotita: Euro-Edition''.The awards took place in Cannes on 21st January 2007 during the Midem Festival and were televised by MTV Europe.
Elena recently recorded three tracks for the soundtrack CD to the Greek television series Mazi sou, including the theme tune to the series. A video has been made for the track ''Mazi Sou'' which has fared well in Greece, and the track has spent several weeks atop the Greek radio airplay chart.
Elena re-released her album Yparhi Logos in May, 2007, as . It contained a bonus CD Single with six new songs and the hit "Mazi Sou". The second new single from the album (after Mazi Sou) was called "Min Fevgeis" and was released to radios on April 23. It also was released as a solo CD-single as "Fos". The CD-Single "Fos", went straight to number one in Greece following its release, making it Elena's fourth number one hit there.[5]. The Cd-Single was certified gold in its 12th week charting at number 2.
Her international album The Game of Love will also be repackaged for the French market this winter as she will start promoting her album in Europe. The repackaged version will feature ''Le Temps Des Fleurs'' by Dalida. It will be her first release in France. There are also plans to release it in Belgium and Canada.[5] More promotion will follow around the world after that.
Elena was nominated for 5 awards for the 2007 ''Mad Video Music Awards''. [7] They include "Best Pop Video" (Gigolo), "Best Female Video" (Gigolo), "Video of the Year" (Gigolo), "Artist of the Year", and "Best outfit in a Video" (An Eixes Erthi Pio Noris). She won two awards for the "Best Female Video" and for the "Best outfit in a Video".[7] Elena started the show with the song "Let the Sunshine In" and later sung her song Min Fevgeis.
She is also nominated for 4 awards for "Cyprus Music Awards".[9] They include "Best Female Singer","Album of the year", "Greek Album Sales" and "International Album Sales"
Elena recently performed at "Bingolotto" , at Sweden, where she sang her hits Gigolo and The Game of Love. She also performed at Wind's Party, in Greece [05.06.07], where she performed a lot of her songs like Gigolo and Teardrops but also ABBA's Gimme Gimme Gimme
Elena has released a new song “3 is a magic number” in Sweden. Originally a hit from Blind Melon back in 1996. Elena appeared on a swedish television advertisement for a mobile phone and for this purpose she released the song as a digital single. The song immediately entered the charts in Sweden and stayed in the there for 5 weeks peaking at number 18 getting more than 180,000 downloads.
Current projects
★ Elena will release a repackaged version of her English CD The Game of Love in France with 3 French songs on it, included a cover of Dalida's Le Temps Des Fleurs and the french version of The game of love and Teardrops.
★ Elena will release a maxi CD single with remixes of Mambo! in U.S. by Moda Records.
★ Elena due to promotion of the "Game of love" will perform on 26 October in festival in Dubai where some big names will participate such as Mika and Kanye West.
Personal life
Elena has been involved in a long term relationship with fellow Swedish-born Greek Toni Mavridis. They met at a Greek restaurant in Sweden when she was 19. Toni is a song writer, and has written songs on all of Elena's solo albums.
Elena and Toni recently bought a house together in the Athens suburb of Glyfada. Greek media has suggested that Elena is pregnant and that the two are ready to get married many times, but it has all turned out false.
Greek Media has recently suggested that Elena will take a break from her career to get married and start a family. This was further sparked by an interview in a recent issue of the Greek magazine ''Celebrity''. When asked about family, Elena was quoted as saying "''I believe that family is the most natural thing, the thing I want in my life. And what is my preference? To not have kids so I can continue my career? One day it will end. I can not be on stage everyday, like I am now at 25.''"[10].
Trivia
Languages
Elena speaks fluent Greek, Swedish, and English, and has also studied French and Spanish. She has mentioned that her dream would be to make a song with lyrics comprised of words in every language in the world.
'Elena' versus 'Helena'
The correct spelling of her first name is a subject of confusion. In Greek, there used to be an accent called a spiritus asper accent to indicate the 'h' sound (just as the 'h' in 'Helena'). This was abolished 30 years ago, and the Greek name 'Έλενα' was already pronounced 'Elena' at the time of Elena Paparizou's birth. The spelling with the spiritus asper however was maintained in a system known as polytonic orthography which, having no vocal significance, finally ceased to be used some decades ago.
Elena Paparizou on the other hand, was born in Sweden where the name's version 'Helena' exists, and one could presume with little uncertainty that many Swedes transliterated her name as 'Helena'. That is to say, Paparizou's name is Elena, but has been misspelled 'Helena'. Even though many Swedes misspell it, her official name has been registered by Swedish authorities as 'Elena', which has also been used by her and previously by media in Sweden.
Her name has always been spelt 'Elena' during her career in Greece, but in Sweden, and in all countries except Greece as her second appearance in Eurovision (in 2005) approached, the spelling 'Helena' grew more common, and the songstress herself admitted in a Swedish interview that she chose to spell her name with an 'H' for Eurovision and on her 2005 album for people in other countries not to confuse her name with other common names such as 'Jelena' or 'Chelena'.[11] Her official website is helenapaparizou.com, and the 'h' appears on all official releases outside of Greece. The singer, however, has made it known that her name is correctly written as 'Elena' (the name with which, according to another article, she was baptised), and this is how she prefers to be known. The 'H' is only used on international releases.
Discography
Main articles: Elena Paparizou discography
See also
★
★ Eurovision Song Contest
External links
★ Helena Paparizou's official website
★ UK Helena Fansite
★ UK Helena News Fansite
★ French Helena Fansite (Also offered in English)
★ German Helena Fansite (in English)
★ Greek Fanclub
★ Helena's #1 MSN FAN GROUP
★ Helena forum site
★ Helena's Paparizou Unofficial Website
★ Helena Paparizou Turkish Fan Club
References
1. MadTV.gr
2. MadTV.gr
3. MadTV.gr
4. MadTV.gr
5. Paparizou-news.blogspot.com
6. Paparizou-news.blogspot.com
7. VideoMusicAwards.gr
8. VideoMusicAwards.gr
9. Cyprus-musicawards.com
10. Magazine: Celebrity
11. Aftonbladet.se
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