Giorgos (George) Theofanous (, ) (born in

Larnaca Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 144 ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

on 9 January 1968) is a

Greek Cypriot Greek Cypriots or Cypriot Greeks ( el, Ελληνοκύπριοι, Ellinokýprioi, tr, Kıbrıs Rumları) are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2011 census, 659,115 r ...

composer and producer. He has sold more than two million records and written more than 500 songs in the 1990s and 2000s. Recording artists for whom he has written and produced for include

Nana Mouskouri Ioanna "Nana" Mouskouri ( el, Ιωάννα "Νάνα" Μούσχουρη ) (born 13 October 1934) is a Greek singer. Over the span of her career, she has released over 200 albums in at least twelve languages, including Greek, French, English, Ger ...

George Dalaras George Dalaras ( Γιώργος Νταλάρας, 29 September 1949) is a Greek musician and singer. He is one of the most prominent figures of Greek musical culture. In October 2006, he was selected as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Ag ...

. His work has received a total of nine Arion Awards, which was an award show by

IFPI Greece International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Greece, or simply IFPI Greece, is the Greek branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification b ...

. He served as a judge on five seasons of the Greek edition of

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

. He studied guitar, piano, and music theory at the national conservatory of Greece. He continued his studies at

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, USA, majoring in

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

. He has received several awards as a songwriter/producer both in

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 ...

and

. In 1990 he settled in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

where he began his career in the Greek music industry. In April 1993, he married Cypriot singer

Evridiki Evridiki Theokleous ( el, Ευρυδίκη Θεοκλέους, ; born 25 February 1968), known professionally as simply Evridiki, is a Greek-Cypriot rock, pop, and electropop singer. She is best known in Europe for representing her home countr ...

with whom he has collaborated extensively. Together they have one son, Aggelos, who was born in 1996. The couple divorced in 2000. In 1999, Theofanous put together

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...

ONE who became very popular in

and

, reaching platinum sales.

Involvement in the Eurovision Song Contest

George Theofanous has composed three Cyprus entries, debuting in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

with singer

and the song "

Teriazoume Cyprus entered the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 with "Teriazoume" by Evridiki, after she won the Cypriot national final. National final The Cypriot broadcaster, CyBC, held a national final to select the Cypriot entry for the Eurovision Song Cont ...

" which placed eleventh. He and

were reselected in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

with the song "

Eimai Anthropos Ki Ego Cyprus was present at the Eurovision Song Contest 1994. It was represented with the song "Eimai anthropos ki ego", performed by Evridiki. It finished 11th with 51 points. Before Eurovision Originally, Cyprus was relegated from the contest beca ...

" and finished once again at eleventh place. Finally,

CyBC Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation ( gr, Ραδιοφωνικό Ίδρυμα Κύπρου , tr, Kıbrıs Radyo Yayın Kurumu), or CyBC (ΡΙΚ, KRYK), is Cyprus' public broadcasting service. It transmits island-wide on four radio and two domestic ...

selected Theofanous and his boy band ONE for the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

with the song " Gimme" which finished at sixth place. He conducted the Eurovision orchestra for four consecutive Cypriot entries, from

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Selected Discography

* ''Tragoudo To Nisi Mou'' (2014) * '' Choës'', poetry: Claire Angelides 2015

References

1968 births Living people Greek songwriters Cypriot songwriters Cypriot expatriates in Greece People from Larnaca Eurovision Song Contest conductors 21st-century conductors (music) Berklee College of Music alumni {{Cyprus-composer-stub