| Elena Paparizou | |
|---|---|
 Elena Paparizou in Montréal 2005
|
|
| Background information | |
| Born | January 31 1982 |
| Origin |  Greece |
| Genre(s) | Modern laika, pop, dance |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Label(s) | Sony BMG (2003-Present), Bonnier Music (2005-Present), Moda Records (2006-Present), AATW (2006-Present), Gallo Record Company (2006-Present) |
| Associated acts |
Antique |
| Website | helenapaparizou.com |
Elena Paparizou (Greek: Έλενα Παπαρίζου; 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.
Contents |
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
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
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 after the huge success in Eurovision Song Contest. 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. Prior to the release, Paparizou sang the title track at the Arion Music Awards. The album consists of two discs, the first featuring 12 brand new tracks, including Mambo! and Panta Se Perimena and the second featuring four new tracks, nine live tracks from her Mad Secret Concert, and a remix of the title track. The video for that single, Yparhi Logos, aired on the day the album was released. Gigolo was later released as the third single from the album, and faired well on Greek radios. The album Yparhi Logos went to #1 and reached double platinum status in Greece. On May 20, 2006, Elena graced the stage of Eurovision once more, to open the contest with My Number One as the opening act. She later 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]
Across Europe, Mambo! is starting to be heard and seen; the video has premiered in France and is now showing in Poland and Romania. The song has peaked at number 1 on the RmF radio show for a successful two weeks and also peaked at number 1 on Polish Radio Kolor for many weeks. In Belgium, Mambo! has peaked at number 18. In Sweden, Mambo! has peaked at 5. The single is due to be released in more countries in Europe shortly but no official release date for the single has been confirmed. Mambo! is slowly making its way up the European airplay charts as the song is played in more countries. The promo of Mambo! was released in the UK and was released on 13th November by UK record company AATW (All Around The World). A remix of Mambo! was included on the new dancemania CD which was released in the United Kingdom on 4th September. However, the single failed to make any impact on the UK Charts, entering for one week at number 185. This was largely due to helena doing no promotion in the uk, through this lack of promotion the song wasn't played on the tv and radio much, to the extent where she could even release it as a brand new song now and nobody would know any different due to the lack of promotion.
On 22 August, My Number One was released in the United States by Moda Records. The CD single contains 10 mixes and the radio edit. Mambo! will be released there later on in the year along with remixes. Elena's solo debut international album The Game of Love, was released in some parts of Europe and in South Africa in late 2006. [2] [3] Releases in France and other markets are also expected in the coming months. The album contains six songs from her Greek album Iparhi Logos translated into English. There are a further 6 new songs, and the song Heroes. Heroes, which was the official song for the 2006 European Championships in Athletics held in Gothenburg, Sweden in August, and was released in Sweden and Finland shortly after. There will album be a bonus song in Greek on the CD called O, Ti Axizi Ine i Stigmes (Le Bonheur). The bonus song is originally by Manou Hadjidaki, and was a big hit in France in 1962. The song The Game of Love has gained critical success, striking great interest from Greek pop music critic, Benita Ong. Gigolo was the second single to be released from the album after Mambo!. The video for the song premiered in Greece in mixed Greek and English, and there may be a fully English version of the video followed for other markets. It was also recently revealed that Paparizou has recorded a song called Fos for the soundtrack of the Greek Barbie movie. There is now a video for this song. The song Teardrops was released to Greek radio stations reached number one in Greek Airplay Chart.
2007-Present: Yparhi Logos: Platinum Edition & new Greek album
Starting in early 2007, Elena singed a contract to be the new face of Nokia Greece for 2007.
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. In spring 2007, Elena recorded three tracks for the soundtrack CD to the Greek television series Mazi sou, including the theme tune to the series. A video was made for the track Mazi Sou which became a hit in Greece, with the track has spent several weeks atop the Greek radio airplay chart. In May, 2007, Elena re-released her album Yparhi Logos as Yparhi Logos: Platinum Edition. It contained the CD Single Fos as a bonus with six new songs and the hit "Mazi Sou". The second radio single from the album was called "Min Fevgeis" and was released to radios on April 23. Elena also released the "Fos" as a separate CD Single. The CD-Single "Fos", went straight to number one in Greece following its release, making it Elena's fourth number one hit there.[4]. The Cd-Single was certified gold in its 12th week charting at number 2. Elena was nominated for 5 awards for the 2007 Mad Video Music Awards. [5] 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".[6] 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".[7] They include "Best Female Singer","Album of the year", "Greek Album Sales" and "International Album Sales" Elena has released a new song “3 is a magic number” in Sweden as part as a Swedish television advertisement for a mobile phone company. The song was originally a hit from Blind Melon back in 1996. The song immediately entered the charts in Sweden and stayed there for 5 weeks peaking at number 18. In Fall 2007, Elena released a new song called "To fili Tis Zois" in Greece as the soundtrack to the movie of the same name. The song stayed at number one position on iTunes Greece for many weeks. It also reached number 1 on the official Nielsen Greece Top 20 Chart" for Radio Airplay.[1]. The song was a big hit on Greek radios, and became one of the most listened songs of 2007. Elena has also recorded a duet with popular TV presenter Nikos Aliagas for his album released in Greece which was certified gold. The song is called "I Zillia Monaksia" a cover of the Pascal Obispo's hit " L' envie D' Aimer". For the promotion for Nokia Greece, Elena has released a new song called "Ola Ine Mousiki" part of their new advertising campaign for 2008. In January 2008, along with Sony BMG Greece, she teamed up with retailer Plaisio and released a special edition MP4 player called "MP4 Total Helena" (2GB) by Turbo-X. The MP4 player comes with a special "Best of" complication with 12 songs and 5 video clips only available with the purchase of the MP4 player. [8] Elena has started work on her new Greek album to be released sometime in Spring 2008. Sources say it will be released in March. She has also started work on her new English language album due to be released Spring 2009. Sony BMG has plans to release The Game of Love in a repackaged version for the French market in Spring 2008. The repackaged version will feature Le Temps Des Fleurs by Dalida as well as Teardrops and The Game of Love in French. It will be her first release in France. There are also plans to release it in Belgium and Canada.[9]
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 be releasing a new Greek album in Spring 2008.
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 centuries 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 30 years 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
See also
- Elena Paparizou WikiProject
- Eurovision Song Contest
External links
References
- ^ Information on some of the places Mambo will be released by MadTV. MadTV.gr (Greek)
- ^ Information on the new album "The Game of Love" by MadTV. MadTV.gr (Greek)
- ^ Details of the new album 'The Game of Love' from MadTV. MadTV.gr (Greek)
- ^ Fos (Φως) hits number 1. Paparizou-news.blogspot.com (English)
- ^ Information on what awards Elena was nominated for at the 2007 Mad Video Music Awards. VideoMusicAwards.gr (Greek)
- ^ Information on what awards Elena won at the 2007 Mad Video Music Awards. VideoMusicAwards.gr (Greek)
- ^ Information on what awards Elena is nominated for at the 2007 Cyprus Music Awards. Cyprus-musicawards.com (Greek)
- ^ MP4 Total Helena. Plasio.gr (Greek)
- ^ Information on The Game of Love being released in France. Paparizou-news.blogspot.com (English)
- ^ "Magazine: Celebrity", Celebrity Magazine, May 2007, p. 120. (Greek)
- ^ Swedish article about the issue of her name for people not to confuse her name in different countries with other common names such as 'Jelena' and 'Chelena'.. Aftonbladet.se (Swedish)
|
|
|
|---|---|
| 1950s | Lys Assia • Corry Brokken • André Claveau • Teddy Scholten |
| 1960s | Jacqueline Boyer • Jean-Claude Pascal • Isabelle Aubret • Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann • Gigliola Cinquetti • France Gall • Udo Jürgens • Sandie Shaw • Massiel • Frida Boccara • Lenny Kuhr • Lulu • Salomé |
| 1970s | Dana • Séverine • Vicky Leandros • Anne-Marie David • ABBA • Teach-In • Brotherhood of Man • Marie Myriam • Izhar Cohen & Alphabeta • Gali Atari & Milk and Honey |
| 1980s | Johnny Logan • Bucks Fizz • Nicole • Corinne Hermès • Herreys • Bobbysocks • Sandra Kim • Johnny Logan • Celine Dion • Riva |
| 1990s | Toto Cutugno • Carola • Linda Martin • Niamh Kavanagh • Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan • Secret Garden • Eimear Quinn • Katrina and the Waves • Dana International • Charlotte Nilsson |
| 2000s | Olsen Brothers • Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL • Marie N • Sertab Erener • Ruslana • Elena Paparizou • Lordi • Marija Šerifović |
|
|
|
|---|---|
| Eurovision winners/participants that participated | ABBA · Brotherhood of Man · Celine Dion · Sertab Erener · France Gall · Dana International · Johnny Logan (twice) · Domenico Modugno · Mocedades · Nicole · Olsen Brothers · Elena Paparizou · Cliff Richard |
| Preceded by Thalassa |
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest (As Antique) 2001 |
Succeeded by Michalis Rakintzis |
| Preceded by Sakis Rouvas |
Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 |
Succeeded by Anna Vissi |
| Preceded by Ruslana |
Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 |
Succeeded by Lordi |
|
|
|
|---|---|
| Female artists: | Anna Vissi • Angela Dimitriou • Annette Artani • Christiana Tzinioli • Despina Vandi • Eleftheria Arvanitaki • Elli Kokkinou • Elena Paparizou • Evridiki • Gianna Terzi • Haris Alexiou • Hryspa • Irini Merkouri • Irini Sevastou • Julia Alexandratou • Kalomoira • Katy Garbi • Mando • Marianta Pieridi • Marina Handri • Nansy Alexiadi • Natalia • Natassa Theodoridou • Peggy Zina • Sabrina • Tamta • Vicky Leandros |
| Groups: | Antique • C:Real • Hi-5 • One |
| Male artists: | Antonis Remos • Christos Dantis• Giorgos Alkaios • Giorgos Mazonakis • Giorgos Perris • Konstantinos Christoforou • Mihalis Hatzigiannis • Michalis Rakintzis • Nikos Karvelas • Sakis Rouvas • Sarbel • Thanos Kalliris • Thanos Petrelis |
| Related articles: | Music of Greece • Eurovision • Greece • Modern Laika• Skiladiko• Laïkó |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paparizou, Elena |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Παπαρίζου, Έλενα (Greek alphabet); Paparizou, Helena (Anglicization) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Greek pop singer; Eurovision winner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 31, 1982 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Örgryte, Gothenburg, Sweden |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
