***** Krik! Music Corner ****: This week's artist is....HELENA PAPARIZOU!

This week's artist is....HELENA PAPARIZOU!

By Krikor K.

She's No1 in the hearts of many people worldwide. She's now preparing her new album, so let's talk about her as she is also....THIS WEEK'S ARTIST for the "Krik!Music Corner"....

Helena was born on 31 Janurary 1982, in Sweden to Greek parents. At age 7, she started learning piano, ballet, and traditional dances. By age 13, Elena realized she wanted to be a singer, and decided to prepare for it. Her first experiences were with Greek music. At the age of 14, Elena started her first band called "Soul Funkomatic" along with 3 Latin American kids. The group only played hip-hop music. Two years later by age 16, the band broke up. After this, Elena starts classes at the Art Performing School where she studied music, theater, television, and directing. The teacher asked her to sing the song "Opa Opa", and Elena asked to sing it with childhood friend Nikos Panagiotidis.
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 artists, such as Katy Garbi and Slavi Trifonov. 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. Following her success with Antique, Elena decided to pursue a solo career.

Helena's solo career started in 2004 with her colaboration with Christos Dantis who produced her song "Anapantites klisis" (=Missed calles). The song had a huge success in Greece and Cyprus. Songs like "Katse kala", "Antitheseis", "Protereotita" followed and made her one of the best rising stars in Greece! For that reason ERT asked her to represent the country in Eurovision. Helena sang 3 songs during the Greek Nationl Final for the Eurovision 2005 and people voted "My Number One"! Helena went to Kiyv as the absolute favourite of Europe. She finally managed to win the contest making Greece winner for the very first time in the history of Eurovision. Her fame blowed up from the very first moment after the Eurovision day! "My Number One" became a huge hit worldwide and also won the 4th place among the 14 very best songs of Eurovision, in the special show "Congratulations : 50 years of Eurovision"!

After her success of Eurovision Helena released the double album "Iparxei logos" with great success. She also released an English album with the title "The game of love". Her last discography is a maxi single with 5 songs, between them also the track "To fili tis zois" which was used as the soundtrack of the homonym Greek movie.

Discography

Albums with Antique