Gioúri Melikov (

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 ...

: Γιούρι Μελίκοβ,

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Юрий Меликов; born 1997) is a Cypriot singer and songwriter. He launched his musical career in 2014 as a contestant of ''The Voice of Greece'', season 1. In 2015, Melikov entered the Eurovision Song Project (the Cypriot national selections for

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

) with his song "Victorious".

Early life

Yuri Melikov was born in 1997 in

Paralimni Paralimni ( el, Παραλίμνι) is a town within the Famagusta District of Cyprus, situated on the island's east coast. Since the Turkish invasion in 1974, it has increased in size and status, primarily due to the migration of refugees fleei ...

, the son of an Armenian father and a Russian-Cypriot mother. He was raised in Paralimni and his mother enrolled him in a conservatory, where he took classical and modern music lessons for six years. This was after his mother suggested him that he take music lessons because he listens to music all day yet she doesn't hear him sing. His father taught him to play the violin along with his cousins and served as his manager as well.

Career

2014: ''The Voice of Greece'' and first singles

Melikov started off his music career when he auditioned for the first season of

The Voice of Greece ''The Voice of Greece'' is a Greek television talent show created by John de Mol and based on the concept ''The Voice of Holland''. It is part of an international series. It began airing on ANT1 on January 10, 2014, and the final of second seaso ...

at the age of sixteen. " He appeared on the third of the eight blind auditions and auditioned with "

Delilah Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ar, دليلة, Dalīlah; grc, label= Greek, Δαλιδά, Dalidá) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved ...

" by Tom Jones. He was made part of

Michalis Kouinelis Michalis Kouinelis ( el, Μιχάλης Κουϊνέλης; born 22 March 1979), also known as Stavento or Mike, is a Greek rapper and the lead singer of the hip hop group Stavento. Career His first discography work was with the group Babylon ...

' team in the contest. During the battles, he performed " It's Now or Never" alongside Panos Patagiannis with Michalis crowning him as the winner. He went on to perform in the first live show with the song "Let the Music Play" which resulted to him being saved from elimination via public votes. In the third live show, he performed "

She's a Lady "She's a Lady" is a song written by Paul Anka and released on his album ''Paul Anka '70s'' (RCA 4309, 1970). The most successful recording was performed by Tom Jones and released at the beginning of 1971. It is Jones's highest-charting single in t ...

" and was once again saved by the public along with Areti Kosmidou. In the fourth live show, he performed "

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

" and was, for third time, saved by the public. In the semi-final, he performed "

Valerie Valerie may refer to: People *Saint Valerie (disambiguation), a number of saints went by the name Valerie *Valerie (given name), a feminine given name Songs *"Valerie", a 1981 song by Quarterflash, from ''Quarterflash'' *"Valerie", a 1982 son ...

" and for his duet, he performed "Kenouria Agapi" along with Helena Paparizou. Melikov failed to proceed to the final after getting 47 points from his coach and 43 points from the public. On 3 December 2014, Melikov released his first singles - "Merry Christmas" and its Greek version, "Hristougenniatikes Agapes" through iTunes

2015: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 and second single

In 2015, Melikov attempted to represent Cyprus at the

through the Eurovision Song Project, the national selections of Cyprus. He auditioned to the contest with the song " Hold Me Now" by Johnny Logan as well as his original song "Victorious" and secured a "Yes" from all the four judges resulting to his qualification into the contest. On 16 January 2015, he performed "Victorious" for the Eurochallenge 1 of the contest and ended in the 11-20 placing, resulting to his elimination from the contest. . On 23 February 2015, Melikov released his second single "You Got Me (Aha Aha)". He also released the accompanying music video of the song on the same day. He has mentioned that he plans to continue his singing career outside of Greece because his style of music does not allow him to do much in the country, and that he would be willing to take his singing career to the United States or United Kingdom.

Personal life

On 23 April 2014, Melikov said that he is in a relationship with a girl named Valentina, and that he dedicated a song to her during the semi-finals of ''The Voice of Greece''.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Melikov, Yuri 1997 births Living people Cypriot people of Armenian descent Cypriot people of Russian descent Cypriot male singer-songwriters The Voice (franchise) contestants 21st-century Cypriot male singers Minos EMI artists Greek laïko singers People from Paralimni