Despina Vandi

Biography

Born on July 22, 1969, in Tipigen, Germany, a small town near Stuttgart, Despina Vandi, Greece's most successful pop star, was originally named Despina Malea. Her parents had moved there from Kavala, Greece, and returned to Greece when Despina was 6 years old. As a result, young Despina never learned German, though the rest of her family did. She spent the remainder of her childhood in Kavala, before going on to the University of Thessaloniki, where she studied psychology, philosophy and education.

While at university, Despina started singing with a pianist friend at a local piano bar; with her interest piqued, she soon followed up with singing and phonetics courses. Soon she was attracting attention from heavy hitters in the Greek music world, and her skill and presence soon led to recording deals.

despina vandi meets yiannis parios

Despina recorded her first album, Gela mou (Smile at Me), for the Minos-EMI label, in 1994. It was distinguished by a duet with Greek superstar Yiannis Parios on Despina's first hit single, called "No Way Out." A second album, featuring more hit singles, followed in 1996, entitled Esena perimeno (I Am Waiting for You). The next year saw Despina touring across Europe and America.

In December 1997, Despina teamed up with the acclaimed Greek songwriter/producer Phoebus, in what was to prove a very successful partnership. Their first collaboration, Deka entoles (Ten Orders), spawned more hit singles. In 2000, Despina and Phoebus topped it with Profities (Prophecies), which went gold the day it was released and platinum within a month. Despina's new single, "Ypofero" ("I Suffer"), went six-times platinum (over 300,000 copies sold), and remains the biggest-selling single in Greece, as well as an international hit.

despina releases gia with phoebus

In the fall of 2001, Despina and Phoebus decided to sign with Heaven Music, a dynamic new record company, which is part of Greece's largest media group. On December 19th, 2001, Despina released Gia (Hi), a double CD with 21 new songs, which, incredibly, went quadruple-platinum in only 11 days. Eight of the songs from the album, including the title track, have gone on to be smash hits, both in Greece and in neighboring countries like Turkey and Lebanon.

In early March 2002, Despina was honored at the World Music Awards in Monaco, as the World's Best-Selling Greek Artist, marking the first time such an award has been given to an artist actually living and working in Greece. By January 2003, a remix single, "Ante Gia," climbed the Greek charts as remarkably as its predecessors, as did its follow-up single, "Opa-Opa."