Yovanna

Yovanna ( Greek Γιοβάννα Giovanna , actually Ioanna Fassou Kalpaxi Ιωάννα Φάσσου Καλπαξή, born November 14, 1940 in Amaliada ) is a Greek singer and writer.

Live and act

Ioanna Fassou Kalpaxi is the daughter of the famous Greek painter Kostas Fassos . The musical girl sang in a children's choir and received piano and dance lessons at an early age. From the age of 14 she took singing lessons. She had her voice trained at the Athens Music Academy. After her singing diploma with distinction as an opera singer ( lyric soprano ), she made her debut in the lead role as Margit in Franz Lehár's operetta Where the Lark Sings and gave several concerts in her Greek homeland.

But the artist turned to popular music and adopted the stage name Yovanna. She sang at all the major festivals in Athens and Thessaloniki. The international breakthrough came after her victory at the Sopot Festival in Poland in 1962. She then celebrated great success in what was then the Soviet Union, where she gave over 150 concerts accompanied by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and over a million of her records were sold. She was particularly popular in the Soviet Republic of Georgia, where her long-term popularity, not least due to the song "Tbiliso" (a hymn of the city's beauty), led to her being invited to Tbilisi in 2010 to give her honorary citizenship . She was also a much-acclaimed star in Cyprus. But she also gave many concerts in France, Italy, Israel, Brazil, Germany, Turkey and Switzerland etc., and had radio and TV appearances there. In 1965 she represented Switzerland in Luxembourg at the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson ( Eurovision Song Contest ) with the song Non - à jamais sans toi , which landed in 8th place. In her home country she sang many songs by Mikis Theodorakis .

In Germany she signed a record deal with Ariola , then with Polydor . Her song Tiritombabalu was sold 500,000 times.

Today the artist, who is married to the lawyer and businessman Dimitris Kalpaxis, works mainly as a writer. So far four collections of songs as well as twelve novels and two plays have been published in her home country. The first novel "Ante Geia" (Greek "Άντε γεια", 1986) turned out to be a bestseller in their homeland and was published in 1991 under the same name (translated: "So bye", English title "Take care") by the Greek director Yorgos Tsemberopoulos successfully filmed (No. 1 of 11 films in 1991 in Greece).

Discography (selection)

single

I mirtia (Under the myrtle tree) / An thimithis t 'oniro mou (If you remember my dream); Label: Ariola No. 10 138
Tiritomba balu / You are a Don Juan ; Label: Polydor No. 52 208
You, you, oh, you my darling / It's so nice to be in love ; Label: Polydor
I'll give you everything you want / Darling say you're true to me ; Label: Polydor

LP

Songs of Athens
Songs of Athens - New Songs from Greece

Web links

Individual evidence

personal data
SURNAME	Yovanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ioanna Fassou Kalpaxi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek singer and writer
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH	Amaliada

[1] Yovanna's official website (biography in the "About" section)

[2] Billboard, Issue Aug. 11, 1962, p. 26

[3] Eugenides Foundation, information about Yovanna on the occasion of the presentation of her literary work (Greek)

[4] Yovanna sings "Tbiliso" in the Georgian film "Встреча в горах (Meeting in the Mountains)" from 1966

[5] Yovanna honorary citizen of Tbilisi , message on her official website (Greek)

[6] "Non - à jamais sans toi" on youtube.com

[7] "Tiritombabalu" on youtube.com

[8] Yovanna and her work are presented by Patakis Verlag. (Greek)