KONSER◢ Despina Vandi

JULY 13 – Despina Vandi

Despina Vandi (Δέσποινα Βανδή), is a Greek singer. Born in Tübingen near Stuttgart, Germany, Vandi’s family returned to Kavala, Greece when she was six years old.

After moving to Athens in the early 1990s, Vandi signed with Minos EMI and released two albums Gela Mou (1994) and Esena Perimeno (1996). She then began an exclusive collaboration with songwriter/producer Phoebus and achieved commercial success with her third album, Deka Endoles (1997), followed by the multi-platinum Profities (1999), as she became one of the most prominent artists of the laïko/pop genre.

Her single “Ipofero” (2000) became the best-selling single of all-time in Greece. Following Phoebus’ departure from Minos EMI, Vandi followed him to label Heaven Music and released Gia (2001), which became and remains her biggest commercial success, as well as one of the best-selling albums of all time in Greece and Cyprus. Vandi also released the single “Gia”, topping the US Billboard Hot Dance Airplay and making her the first Greek artist to top a Billboard chart. She returned with Stin Avli Tou Paradeisou (2004), which was certified multi-platinum and became her fourth album to achieve six-figure sales. In 2012 she released the album Allaxa, which was certified 2× platinum sales and has been her first double platinum record since 2005.

Vandi has won three Arion Music Awards, ten MAD Video Music Awards, seven Pop Corn Music Awards, and a World Music Award, becoming the first Greek artist recording in Greece to ever win the award. On 14 March 2010, Alpha TV ranked Vandi the fourth top-certified Greek female artist in the nation’s phonographic era (since 1960). According to Heaven Music, as of 2007, Vandi has sold one million records in Greece. In the aftermath of her success, Vandi gained the title of the “queen” of Greek music.

@desp1navandi

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