Anna Vissi

Anna Vissi was born on the beautiful, coastal town of Larnaca, on the island of Cyprus, in the Eastern Mediterranean. Father, Nestor Vissis owned a small supermarket and mother Sophia was a housewife with a soft spot for singing. She passed this strong love for music on to her three daughters Lia, Anna and Nicki. Anna showed promise in singing at an early age whereas her older sister Lia Vissi showed considerable talent as a pianist. Together,in their teens, they formed "The Vissi sisters" and toured Cyprus, singing at local festivals, singing mostly Greek folk songs. Anna'organized by the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. Father Nestor closed his shop and moved his family to Athens where his three daughters finished their high-school education and Anna signed her first recording contract at sixteen. Soon she was singing with two of the biggest stars of the Greek music scene George Dalaras s big break came in 1973 when she won a sing-a-song competition for young talents' and Haris Alexiou. In 1983 she married rock composer Nikos Karvelas and through his influence, her career took a completely different turn. Gone were the days of the very clean and somewhat square fresh-faced young girl from Cyprus. Anna suddenly began showing more leg and more cleavage and - most importantly - began singing pop-ish songs. The nineties were really her decade as she produced one hit-album after another, usually with husband Nikos as composer-lyricist. She also appeared in two original Broadway-style musicals "Demons" and "Mala" (written by her husband as star-vehicles for her) with great success. After the death of Greek mega-star Aliki Vougiouklaki (in 1996), Anna became the darling of the Greek press who now dubbed her "mega-star", constantly appearing on covers and in fashion spreads of the most important Greek magazines.