Mihalis Exarchos ( el, Μιχάλης Έξαρχος) (born 1978 in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...

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 ...

), known professionally by his stage name Stereo Mike, is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

hip hop artist. He is the first MTV EMA Award winner in the "Best Greek Act" category. Stereo Mike represented

Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song " Watch My Dance", written by Giannis Christodoulopoulos and Eleana Vrahali. The song was performed by Loukas Yorkas featuring Stereo Mike. To select their entry for the 2011 ...

alongside singer Loucas Yiorkas with the song " Watch My Dance", placing seventh with 120 points.

Life and career

Exarchos was born in 1978 in

to a

father and Croatian mother from

Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

. At the age of 18, his musical interest brought him to the UK for education in the field at the universities Leeds Metropolitan and

University of Westminster , mottoeng = The Lord is our Strength , type = Public , established = 1838: Royal Polytechnic Institution 1891: Polytechnic-Regent Street 1970: Polytechnic of Central London 1992: University of Westminster , endowment = £5.1 million ...

. In the next four years, he obtained two degrees, Bachelor of Music Technology and Master on Sound Production. During his studies, Exarchos worked as a sound producer at Vault Recording Studios in Hackney, London, where he worked with several

British hip hop British hip hop, also known as UK hip hop or UK rap, is a genre of music, and a culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of R&B/Hip-Hop. Britis ...

artists, including

Klashnekoff Darren Kandler, better known by his Stage name Klashnekoff ''(pronounced K-Lash-Nek-Off)'' or Ricochet Klashnekoff, is a Jamaican-English Rapper from Stoke Newington, London. Klashnekoff was born in Hornsey, but then moved to Hackney in Lond ...

, Bury Crew,

Skinnyman Skinnyman (born Alexander Graham Holland, 9 November 1974) is a British rapper who was born in Chapeltown Leeds, Yorkshire and moved to Finsbury Park, London at a young age. He grew up on the Six Acres Estate next to Andover Estate. Among his ...

, Taskforce,

Iceberg Slimm Duane Dyer, better known by his stage name, Iceberg Slimm (born 1978) is a Black British rapper and founder of Frojak Entertainment who is best known for his singles "Nursery Rhymes", "Bad Boy" and "Starship" taken from his debut album, ''Da W ...

, Mike GLC and JMC. Exarchos also worked as a producer at AMG Records, which led him to his first recording contract as 'Stereo Mike' with AMG's hip-hop sub-label, Mo' Money Recording$. Within two years, he composed and produced his debut album, while accepting a post-graduate lecturing position at London's

in music production. He released his debut album in Greece titled ''Satirical Nomads'' by Mo' Money Recording$ under license to Universal Music Greece. The album's singles included the anti-racism anthem "O Allos Babis" and the remix "I Polis". Stereo Mike was nominated at the

Mad Video Music Awards The MAD Video Music Awards is a Greek award show presented by the MAD TV. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, voted by the viewers of Mad television. Winners receive an authentic Mad designed award with the graphics of that ...

in 2005 for "Best Hip-Hop Video Clip" and in 2008 for "Best Hip-Hop Video Clip" and for "Video Clip of the Year". Stereo Mike subsequently signed to

Minos EMI Minos EMI is a record company based in Athens, Greece. The company serves as the Greek record label and offices of the multinational Universal Music Group. EMI is credited for founding the record business in Greece in the 1930s, by producing th ...

for his second album titled '' XLI3H'', which is

leet Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the Internet. It often uses character replacements in ways that play on the similarity of their glyphs via reflection or other resemblance. ...

for the Greek word Εξέλιξη, meaning "

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

". He is concurrently doing research work toward a PhD in

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

. Stereo Mike is the first MTV EMA Award winner in the "Best Greek Act" category, which came into effect with

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's 2008 regional launch in Greece. He was also nominated for Greece in the category of Europe's Favourite Act for 2008.MTV Greece
/ref> Stereo Mike with Loucas Yiorkas represented

in Germany with the song " Watch My Dance".

Albums

*2004: ''Satirical Nomads'' *2007: '' XLI3H'' *2011: ''Aneli3h''

Singles

''Satirical Nomads:'' *2004: "O Allos Babis" *2004: "I Polis" 2005 Mad Video Music Awards: *2005: "

Pump It "Pump It" is a song recorded by American group the Black Eyed Peas for their fourth studio album '' Monkey Business'' (2005). It was written by group members will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Fergie, and produced by will.i.am. The song heavily incorpora ...

Misirlou "Misirlou" ( el, Μισιρλού < tr, Mısırlı 'Egyptian' < ar, مصر ''Miṣr'' 'Egypt') is a folk song from the Eastern Mediterranean region. The original author of the song is not known, but Arabic, Greek, and Jewish musicians wer ...

" (feat.

Eleni Tsaligopoulou Eleni Tsaligopoulou ( el, Ελένη Τσαλιγοπούλου; born 11 April 1963) is a Greek singer of popular music who, in the course of a 30-year career, has maintained a position as one of her country's best-selling recording artists. Ear ...

, Shaya & Lagnis NTP) '' XLI3H:'' *2007: "Fevgo" (feat.

Haris Alexiou Haris Alexiou ( el, Χάρις Αλεξίου, ; born 27 December 1950 in Thebes, Greece as Hariklia Roupaka, el, Χαρίκλεια Ρουπάκα, ) is a Greek singer. She is considered one of the most popular singers in Greece and has been co ...

) *2007: "Des Kathara ( Face à la mer)" (feat.

Andriana Babali Andriana Babali (Greek: Ανδριάνα Μπάμπαλη) is a Greek singer and songwriter. Biography Born and raised in Athens Greece, Andriana studied economics and music. She began singing as a vocalist/percussionist with rock singer-songwr ...

) *2008: "Anagnorisi" *2008: "Alli Mia Nihta" (feat. Shaya) *2009: "Peraia Mou" 2008 Mad Video Music Awards: *2008: "S'opoion Aresei (Dansonra)" (feat.

Tamta Tamta Goduadze ( ka, თამთა გოდუაძე; el, Τάμτα Γκοντουάτζε, Támta Gkontouátze; born 10 January 1981), known mononymously as Tamta, is a Georgian-Greek singer. She first achieved popularity in Greece in ...

) *2008: "Piase Me" (feat. Eleni Tsaligopoulou) *2009: "Peraia Mou" Eurovision Song Contest 2011 *2011: " Watch My Dance" (credited to Loucas Yiorkas feat. Stereo Mike)

References

External links

Official Facebook page
{{Authority control Living people Greek rappers 21st-century Greek male singers 1978 births Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2011 Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Greece Greek people of Croatian descent Musicians from Piraeus Alumni of the University of Westminster Alumni of Leeds Beckett University MTV Europe Music Award winners