Helena Paparizou: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Antique12.jpg|thumb|left|Elena Paparizou with Nikos Panagiotidis as ''[[Antique (duo)|Antique]]''.]] |
[[Image:Antique12.jpg|thumb|left|Elena Paparizou with Nikos Panagiotidis as ''[[Antique (duo)|Antique]]''.]] |
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Paparizou, determined to succeed with and fulfill her dreams of being an entertainer, joined childhood friend and fellow [[Swedish people|Swede]]-[[Greeks|Greek]] |
Paparizou, determined to succeed with and fulfill her dreams of being an entertainer, joined childhood friend and fellow [[Swedish people|Swede]]-[[Greeks|Greek]] Nikos Panagiotidis, at the age of seventeen, to form [[Antique (duo)|Antique]]. The duo quickly signed their first record label contract, with the Swedish record label Bonnier. Their debut single, ''Opa Opa'', became a huge hit, reaching number one on the single charts and gaining gold status following its release in [[August 1999]]. The band's subsequent fame and success, strongly associated with the international promotion of [[Culture of Greece|Greek culture]], led to them being selected as [[Greece|Greece's]] representatives for the [[Eurovision Song Contest 2001]] in [[Copenhagen]]. The band reached a third place with the song, ''(I Would) Die for You''. Although equaled by [[Sakis Rouvas|Sakis Rouvas's]] effort ''Shake it'' in [[2004]], it was Greece's highest place in the competition until Elena won the contest as a solo artist in [[2005]]. |
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Antique's success in the [[Eurovision Song Contest]] led to them recording multiple platinum albums, playing a [[Europe|European]] tour, and collaborating with many other Greek artists. Paparizou has admitted that [[Music of Greece|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. |
Antique's success in the [[Eurovision Song Contest]] led to them recording multiple platinum albums, playing a [[Europe|European]] tour, and collaborating with many other Greek artists. Paparizou has admitted that [[Music of Greece|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. |
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Revision as of 19:13, 10 February 2007
Helena Paparizou |
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Elena Paparizou ([Έλενα Παπαρίζου] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help); 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
1999-2003
Paparizou, determined to succeed with and fulfill her dreams of being an entertainer, joined childhood friend and fellow Swede-Greek Nikos Panagiotidis, at the age of seventeen, to form Antique. The duo quickly signed their first record label contract, with the Swedish record label Bonnier. Their debut single, Opa Opa, became a huge hit, reaching number one on the single charts and gaining 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 a third place with the song, (I Would) Die for You. Although equaled by Sakis Rouvas's effort Shake it in 2004, it was Greece's highest place in the competition until Elena won the contest as a solo artist in 2005.
Antique's success in the Eurovision Song Contest led to them recording multiple 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 Music and, in December 2003, released her first solo single, Anapantites Klisis (later released in English as I Don't Want You Here Anymore), a song written especially for her by singer and songwriter Christos Dantis. The single sales were strong, and it received a 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 major hit singles. The album became 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 also released in Scandinavia, Switzerland, Poland, Russia 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 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 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 double 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]
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.
On July 29, 2006, Star Channel reported that Elena gave a concert in Helsinki where 2006 Eurovision winner Lordi attended. At the concert, Elena sang Lordi's song Hard Rock Hallelujah. Lordi supposedly met with Elena backstage and proposed to do a big concert together in the winter season. Elena was reportedly thrilled at the idea.
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 all over Europe, Australia, Japan, South Africa and Canada on 25 October 2006. [2] [3] It will gradually be released world-wide shortly after. The album is planned to be released in 45 countries to begin with. The album will contain six songs from her Greek album Yparhi Logos with English lyrics, named It's Gone Tomorrow. There will be a further 6 new songs, and the song Heroes. Heroes was the official song for the 2006 European Championships in Athletics held in Gothenburg, Sweden in August, and was released in Sweden shortly after. There will album be a bonus song in Greek on the CD called O,ti Axizi Ine i Stigmes. 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 will be the second single from the album after Mambo!". The video for the song has already premiered in Greece in mixed Greek and English and there may be a full English version to the video to be released internationally. All together, there will be fourteen songs on the album.
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 in Greece and is number one in Greek Airplay Chart.
2007: New Greek Album & World Wide Promotion
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. These awards have been created by European Union four years ago and they are given every year to ten artists who managed to make success with their first album abroad. Elena wins this award for the success of her first solo album Proteriotita: Euro-Edition.The awards took place in Cannes on 21st January 2007 during the Midem Festival and was televised by MTV Europe.
Elena is also currently in the studios preparing new songs for a new Greek album release later on in the year. In the spring, Elena is expected to start promoting her album The Game of Love around the world.
Elena will be helping out the Greek Eurovision in some way in 2007. She has confirmed that she will be present at the National Final where she will most likely sing. She is also in talks with ERT to either be the commentator during Eurovision, or be the Greek presenter for the Eurovision points.
According to Star News, Elena will be a guest in the popular show "Maria H Ashimi" (Greek version of "Ugly Betty"). She will play the role of a singer, that buys her cloths from the fashion company.
Current projects
- On 18th December Paparizou was awarded with Double Platinum and Platinum for her albums Yparhi Logos and The Game of Love at Irea Odos.
- The theme song that Elena recorded for a new Greek TV show will be premiering shortly. It is called Mazi Sou.
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 several centuries 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 was forced by her record company to spell her name with a 'h'.[4] Her official website is helenapaparizou.com, and the 'h' appears on all official releases outside of Greece (whereas some countries have previously transcripted her name 'Jelena' and 'Chelena', comparing their own alphabets and writing systems). 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.
Discography
Elena Paparizou has in total released 4 studio albums with in Greece, Cyprus and Sweden.
References
- ^ "Information on some of the places Mambo will be released by MadTV". MadTV.gr Template:Gr icon
- ^ "Information on the new album "The Game of Love" by MadTV". MadTV.gr Template:Gr icon
- ^ "Details of the new album "The Game of Love" by MadTV". MadTV.gr Template:Gr icon
- ^ "Swedish article about the issue of her name". Aftonbladet.se Template:Swe icon
External links
- Elena Paparizou's official website
- UK Helena Fansite
- German Helena Fansite
- French Helena Fansite
- Paparizou Greeklish Fansite [ http://www.paparizouelena.piczo.com]
