Despoina Vandi



Despoina Vandi is one of the most successful Greek singers, counting numerous successes in Greek music and discography. Despina Vandi is one of the greatest representatives of pop music, with some laika characteristics.

Despoina Vandi

Short biography of Vandi

Despoina Malea (as Vandi’s real surname is) was born on July 22 1969 in Germany, from immigrant parents, but at the age of 6 years she moved with her family to Kavala, North Greece .

In the town of Kavala, Despoina spent her childhood and teenage years. She was a very good student and a particularly social person.

She finished school in the beautiful city of Kavala and then she continued her studies in the University of Thessaloniki.

For that time she says “The student years were very beautiful. The lifestyle is more human in Thessaloniki than Athens, and people are more relaxed. I was studying philosophy and I never thought that I could get into Greek music and arts … ”

At first, she had never thought about it, but a friend of hers introduced her to singing, allowing her to step on a stage for the first time during her student years. At the beginning of her career she changed her surname to ‘Vandi “to hide from her parents that she was singing.

Despoina Vandi – Her career

Vandi began singing as an amateur at first, but soon she decided that this was the profession she wanted to follow. Despina entered the world of music industry in 1994 when she released her first personal album, titled “Gela mou.”

In this album she was fortunate to work with big names in Greek music, such as Giannis Parios and Vassilis Karras, who gave her two great songs: “Gela mou” and “Adieksodo” (Dead end), in which the great Giannis Parios participated in a friendly duet.

The song “Den yparchei tipota ” (There is nothing) was a success at that time as well. Although the album contains good songs they were not played that much, but the album had not been appropriately advertised.

In 1996 he released her second album, while the songs from her first album started becoming more popular and some of the ballads are still played today, as they really deserve.

With her second album, the name Despoina Vandi became well known to the general public: “Den pethainei I agapi” showed her talent and the homonym “Esena perimeno” and “Efyges” were songs not so well received, as many “experts” characterized the kind of music Despoina stands for, as too “laiko-pop”. But this genre in Greek music seems to be what most young people want, since there is a blossoming for this genre.

1997 – 2002, important years in Vandi’s career

Year 1997 was a landmark year for Despina Vandi as she got to know and cooperated with leading composer Foivos, making all Greece sing the “Ten Commandments”, an album made double platinum and ejected at the top.

In the following years, Despina Vandi charmed the audience in Greece and abroad and starts the first concerts in America and Australia.

At the dawn of the millennium in December 1999, Foivos wrote and composed while Despoina performed,  creating great hits in the album “Prophecies”, which became triple platinum in just a few days.

In late 2001, Despoina Vandi label changed roof and became part of the dynamic, newly established company “HEAVEN”. The album “Geia” broke all records the Greek discography as it became 4 times platinum within 11 days of its release! This album made its own history and specified a unique path.

In the spring of 2002 in «World Music Awards», one of the greatest music of the world institutions, Despoina Vandi was one of the guests of honor. She went to Monaco, where she received her award as “Best Selling Artist” for her sales for 2001. This is an honor she received among top names of the world stage, and the award was given for the first time to a Greek artist.

Since then, Despoina has been the name to look for – every album got platinum and was always the news of the year. Her live appearances were very successful, since she always works professionally, taking care of all the details in her shows.

Despoina Vandi – Personal life

Despoina never occupied tabloids with her personal life. She has been married to Demis Nikolaidis, a famous football player, and they have a daughter (born 8 February 2004) and a son (born 21 August 2007).

In 2003 Vandi appeared with her husband Demis Nikolaidis in the broadcast of Discovery Channel «Europe’s Richest People», as her assets reached 11,000,000€. Today, the couple is considered the Greek respective of Victoria and David Beckham.

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