Eleana Papaioannou ( gr, Ελεάνα Παπαϊωάννου) is a Greek pop-folk singer known from her appearance in the first season of the Greek reality music talent competition ''

Fame Story Fame Story was a Greece, Greek reality TV show that was a licensed version of Endemol's Star Academy on the ANT1 network. It has been one of the most successful Greek TV shows of recent years. The contestants gave a weekly performance in a 2½&nd ...

'', in which she finished fourth. Following the competition, Papaioannou was signed to

Heaven Music Heaven Music is an independent record label in Athens, Greece, founded in 2001 by ANT1 Group. It is known for signing new and young artists. Overview During its first five years of operation under the control of George Levendis, Heaven Music was ...

, through which she launched her solo music career in the mid to late 2000s.

Biography

Papaioannou was born in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, the daughter of former international

football player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

Lakis Papaioannou Apostolos "Lakis" Papaioannou (Greek: Απόστολος "Λάκης" Παπαϊωάννου; born 5 October 1956) is a retired Greece, Greek professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. Career Club career Born in K ...

and singer Dina Papaioannou. She studied philosophy at

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

, and gained notoriety through her 2002 fourth place finish in the first season of Greek reality television show ''

'', a music talent competition based on

Endemol Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...

's ''

Star Academy ''Star Academy'', called ''Operación Triunfo'' ("Operation Triumph") in Spanish-speaking countries, is a highly successful television pop music talent contest with viewer voting and reality show elements. Format There are many versions of t ...

''. After the show, Papaioannou continued in the music profession, releasing her first album ''Koitakse Me'' in 2004, with record label

. The album produced two singles, including "Na m' Agapas", composed by

Giannis Spanos Ioannes "Giannis" Spanos ( el, Ιωάννης "Γιάννης" Σπανός, ; 26 July 1934 – 30 October 2019), also transliterated as Yannis Spanos, was a Greek music composer and lyricist. In his early days as a musician he was also a piano ac ...

, and "Tesseris kai Misi". Two years later in 2006, her second album ''Fila Me'' was released by

Virus Music Virus Music, founded in 2004, was a record label imprint of the independent Greek record company Legend Recordings S.A. Upon launch, the label was headed by former Minos EMI managing director Miltos Karadsas and based in Athens, Greece. He allowe ...

and included the single "Apotheoste Ton". A third album, ''Erotas'', was released in 2007 by Virus Music. Later in 2007, two standalone

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

s were released featuring the songs "Koita" and "Argises".

Personal life

On 1 July 2017, Eleana Papaioannou married Greek professional basketball player Dimitrios Verginis in

. On 28 March 2018 she gave birth to their daughter.thetoc.Γεννησε η τραγουδίστρια Ελεάνα Παπαιωάννου
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papaioannou, Eleana 21st-century Greek women singers 1983 births Greek laïko singers Singers from Thessaloniki Living people