Mihalis Exarchos () (born 4 July 1978 in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) 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 Gulf in the Ath ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

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

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

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 was represented at 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 201 ...

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 (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

. 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 The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

. 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 UK rap, also known as British hip hop or UK hip hop or British rap, is a music genre and culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. The development of UK rap was shaped by a distinct set of regional inf ...

artists, including Klashnekoff, Bury Crew,

Skinnyman Skinnyman (born Alexander Graham Holland, 9 November 1974) is a British rapping, rapper who was born in Chapeltown, West Yorkshire, Chapeltown Leeds, Yorkshire and moved to Finsbury Park (area), Finsbury Park, London at a young age. He is best ...

, Taskforce, Iceberg Slimm, 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 the station. Winners receive an authentic Mad designed award with the graphics of that ye ...

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 label, 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, b ...

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

leet Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, or simply hacker speech, 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 refle ...

for the Greek word Εξέλιξη, meaning "

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

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

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

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

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

's 2008 regional launch in Greece. He was also nominated for Greece in the category of Europe's Favourite Act for 2008.
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, along with frequent songwriting collaborator Thomas ...

Misirlou "Misirlou" ( < 'Egyptian' < ''Miṣr'' 'Egypt') is a folk song from the Eastern Mediterranean region. The song's original author is unknown, but Arabic, Greek, and Jewish musicians were playing it by the 1920s. The earliest known recordi ...

" (feat.

Eleni Tsaligopoulou Eleni Tsaligopoulou (; 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. Early years Born and raised in Naousa, a cit ...

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

Haris Alexiou Haris Alexiou (, ; born 27 December 1950 in Thebes, Greece as Hariklia Roupaka, , ) is a Greek singer whose career has spanned over 5 decades. She is one of the most popular singers in Greece. She has worked with important Greek songwriters and c ...

) *2007: "Des Kathara (

Face à la mer "Face à la mer" () is the name of a 2004 song recorded as a duet by singers Calogero (singer), Calogero and Passi. It was the second Single (music), single from Calogero's third studio album, ''3 (Calogero album), 3'', on which it features as thi ...

)" (feat. Andriana Babali) *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; ; ; born 10 January 1981), known mononymously as Tamta, is a Georgian-born Greek singer. She first achieved popularity in Greece in 2004 for her participation in '' Super Idol Greece' ...

) *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 male rappers 21st-century Greek male singers 1978 births Greek people of Croatian descent Musicians from Piraeus Alumni of the University of Westminster Alumni of Leeds Beckett University MTV Europe Music Award winners Eurovision Song Contest entrants