Elena Paparizou(Greek: ??e?a ?apa?????,Added an H to her name, changing it from Elena to Helena, so that it would be easier to pronounce in Europe.,) was born on 31st January in Boras, Sweden to Greek immigrant parents Georgios and Efrosini Paparizou and was raised in Gothenburg. Her Father is from Volos and her Mother is from Karditsa. She has a sister Rita and brother Dinos,who are much older than her. 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. 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 an horrible fire at a club the band was performing. One day someone asked her to sing the song Opa Opa (org. Sung by Sfakianakis) , and Elena told them she cant sing it, cause its a song for a man , than she asked childhood friend Nikos Panagiotidis to sing it with her.The Group Antique was born.
Paparizou and childhood friend Nikos Panagiotidis formed Antique (elena was 17 years old). 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. 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 ( who wanted to represent greece in esc 2007, but the Greeks choosed Sarbel for represent Greece). 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 (contrasts), Anamnisis(Memories) , Katse Kala (Behave yourself), and Stin Kardia Mou Mono Thlipsi(In my Heart theres only sorrow) became hit singles.
The album achieved double platinum in Greece after the huge success in Eurovision Song Contest 2005.Her success brought her to the Fever nightclub for the winter season 2004-2005 alongside Sakis Rouvas.
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 with over 60 %. There was also a song called The Light in Our Soul (To Fws stin psichi), 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 (Athens) 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(anamnisies) 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 ( I was always waiting for you), and Asteria (Stars). 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.
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 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 released Mambo! in Sweden on a two track CD single peaking at number 5 on the charts.
On 22 August, My Number One was released in the United States by Moda Records.
Elena's solo debut international album The Game of Love, was released in some parts of Europe and in South Africa in late 2006. 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. 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.
In Winter 2006-2007 elena was performing with Pasxalis Terzis and Nino at Ieros Oros in Athens and Odeon in Thessaloniki.
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, as the first Greek ever. 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.
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 a top 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. 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. 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".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". They include "Best Female Singer","Album of the year", "Greek Album Sales" and "International Album Sales" Elena has sung 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. 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. 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"(everything is Music) 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.
