Do you think you know everything there is to know about Anna Vissi?
1974
During the summer of 1974 she sings "Ki omos, ki omos" (LP "Aspro, Mavro", Giorgos Hadzinassios), together with Alexiou, Parios, Kontolazos and Smokovitis. The songs of the album are a special part of the musical show "Kathe tripa ke petreleo", with Zoe Laskari and Vassilis Tsivilikas (Metropolitan Theatre) – Anna sings "To palikari".
1979
Among the composers of "Kitrino Galazio" (Bougas, Vlassopoulos) we find Anna Vissi in two songs ("Agapi mou", "To etos tou pediou") - two of her rare attempts as a composer.
The song that remains a hit and is being played in clubs until today is "Aftos pou perimeno", a remix of which was also released in 1997!
1981
Nikos Karvelas is now in a relationship with Anna and writes songs for her new album, but due to disagreements with his label, he signs as "Nikos Leonardos"...
1982
Anna and Nikos create a new label, Carvi, after strong disagreements with their label, concerning the release of Anna’s new album. Eventually, they lose in court, the album is withdrawn and Anna continues her career with CBS (now Sony Music Greece).
1983
Anna’s new music style is also reflected in her photo shoots. She accepts a proposal by women's magazine "Gineka" (Woman) and turns into a model, "posing for fashion" as we read under the title "Anna-schimatismi" (reformation). The photo shoot and the cover make very good impressions!
1984
Anna writes lyrics again, successfully. The song "Ki echo tosa na thimame" is a hit and Anna reminds it to her fans in 2001, by singing it at Fever night club! The song is still played on Greek radios...
1985
1986
Anna tries to represent Cyprus in Eurovision again, but this time, the song "Thelo na gino star", composed by Stavros Sideras, doesn’t qualify.
1988
Fokas Evangelinos participated - at the time as a young dancer – in Anna’s shows (songs: "Tora", "De s’allazo").
Anna’s striptease in front of... Mickey Rourke (9 ½ weeks style), interrupted by Nikos Karvelas ("Show tou mina")!
The song "Kipseli", in which Anna remembers her early years in Athens, when she lived in Kerkiras street, in the district of Kipseli.
1989
Karvelas tries to introduce folk and ethnic elements in Anna’s albums for the first time and Anna objects, rejecting the song "Pseftika". Nikos replies "Shut up and sing!", and one of Anna’s biggest hits of the 90s becomes a reality!
Anna hosts a radio program for the first time. This happens on Antenna radio and the title of the program is "Ta koritsia ine atakta" (The girls are naughty).
The song "Kleo", composed by Nikos, comes third in the Greek qualifying contest for the ESC! The contest was not live and the participating songs were presented as music videos, shot in a disco! "Kleo" is still unreleased today...
1990
Nikos Soulis, Anna’s director, is dressed as Quasimodo for the needs of their new clip for the song "Fos". While filming he literally catches fire during a difficult to shoot scene! Anna is dressed as Esmeralda.
1991
There are two versions of the clip for the song "Ena sou leo". In the first (unreleased) one, Anna had the role of "Stella", played on Kakoyiannis's film by Melina Merkouri, but the final result did not satisfy anybody and was thus rejected!
1992
While filming the music video for "De thelo na kseris" (director: Fotini Kotrotsi), Anna is drinking whiskey in reality. By the end of the shooting she is completely drunk, something that facilitated her acting performance for this dramatic song!
For the cover of the album "Lampo", Anna's styling was done by Panayiotis Hatzistefanou, know famous due to his TV appearances
1993
Anna takes part in the only (so far) CD release by her then-9-year-old daughter Sofia Karvela, "Kolla to!". She sings the title-song duet, which was written by Nicos. Mother and daughter also shoot a music video for this unexpected cooperation!
The song "Paramithi Xehasmeno", one of Anna’s most melodic and beautiful first songs (composer: Stavros Kougioumtzis), is now part of two Korean compilations! In Korea, the whole album consists the soundtrack of a TV series!
Anna’s live cd ("Live!") re-enters the TOP50 of the official IFPI albums chart in 2002!
1996
Nikos Karvelas also appears with Anna during her appearances at Chaos, but in a remarkable way: he records himself and sings with Anna while being projected on a large screen!
1997
-The promotional campaign of the show at Gkazi is unprecedented: Anna is photographed as an alien and once again impresses everyone with her originality!
During the promo of "Trauma", OTE (Hellenic Telecommunications Organization) releases a collectible series of telecards that have the multi-platinum "Trauma" as a theme.
The song "Mavra Gyallia" from "Trauma" is included along with "Eleni" in the cd-single of "Forgive me this" that is released in Australia, with the title song and "Crush" supplementing the release. In September "Trauma" reaches #73 of the Australian sales chart while "Forgive me this" goes up to #66 of the singles chart.
1998
The album 'Antidoto' is released without warning on the first day of April and the agitation that's created advertises the new album.
At 'Asteria', Anna appears dressed as Aliki Vouyiouklaki in her film "Aliki in the navy" and sings 'Trava Mpros' and 'Ta pedia tou Pirea'.
The music video of 'Ena chrono to perissotero' is shot at Hampstead, London, at a park near Nikos's house where he and Anna used to walk or just pass by while going to their home/studio.
She cooperates again with Apostolos Diavolikis who writes lyrics for the song "Pali gia sena" (they first met on "Klima tropiko", for the song "Parte ta ola"). There are many still claiming that behind the name is none other than...
For the first time in Greece, a CD containing an interview is released and of course from Anna Vissi, through Pop Corn magazine! Anna talks with Themis Georgantas and Natalia Germanou, in an interview recorded at Berwick Studios, in London! The CD is released only with the June issue of the magazine!
2000
Fever nightclub was built especially for Anna Vissi, as the decisions about its capacity and the day of its finalization were depended on the negotiations of the director and the singer, wether he was going to support the project.
2001
When Dimitra Papadopoulou hands over an award Anna accepts it by taking off her shoes to be at the same height as Dimitra. Then she sings her older hit ‘S’agapo m’agapas’, which is also the name of the successful series of the famous scriptwriter.
An haute couture red dress and a cover for the Greek Vogue (the first by a Greek person) occupy the attention of the Greek media and are still discussed till today.
2002
As a promo of Mala, OTE releases a collectible series of 4 telephone cards.
2003
11/2/2003 The shoot for Anna’s new music video for the song ‘Pes to ksana’ is complete. Directed by Antonis Kalogrides, Anna is dressed as a man and surprises us once again!
13/9/2003 News reports talk about an attempt of murder against Anna and Nikos by the placement of an explosive mechanism under their car which was outside their house at Ekali in Athens!
2004
27/7/2004 The music video for "Min psachnis tin agapi", a tasteful and elegant music video in which Anna appears naked, is included in the CD single 'Remixes 2004'.
2005
4/2/2005 The song "Pia thisia" by Angela Demetriou is withdrawn from the album "Live", after the inexplainable reactions of its songwriter. The singer supported Anna, but that wasn't enough to keep the song on the disk, a joint decision by Anna and her label, Sony.
2006
This time, the music video for the Greek entry is discussed both in the Greek and the European Parliament! That, after all, is the difference between divas and mere mortals!
Concert at Pancretion: Anna's friend Manolos Kontaros dedicates a traditional cretan song to her. Anna sings "Itane mia fora" by Nicos Ksilouris, touching everybody in the audience.
2007
Anna at the Oscars! On 25/2/2007 Anna is invited by her close friend, Patricia Field, Oscar nominee for styling ("Devil wears Prada" with Meryl Streep), to attend the Oscar awards ceremony with her! Anna’s pictures on the red carpet make an impression everywhere!
2008
Patricia Field suggests it and Anna Vissi includes a new, R’n’B/rap cover of the famous greek rebetiko song "5 chronia dikasmenos" (composer: Vaggelis Papazoglou), remixed by DJ Matteo Sprague, in her new album!
2009
Anna brings Hummel clothing to Greece! Her business activities now expand to sportswear and some of the famous clothes are worn by her in her new music videos!
Anna is in L.A. during Easter holidays, invited by the President of the Fox Channel, Jim Giannopoulos! Every year, Jim Giannopoulos organises a private party for Easter, in order to celebrate with his Greek and Greek-american friends. This year, Anna had the chance to celebrate, eat lamb, drink ouzo and sing with Tom Hanks, his wife Rita Wilson, Billy Zane and Maria Menounos!
Nikos Karvelas is present in the show, through... a video! Nikos took part in recording some of his duets with Anna, for the needs of the show. Anna gets on stage every night and sings "along with" Nikos their hits of the past. His presence at Athens Arena together with his ex-wife makes rumours spread: are Anna and Nikos friends again?
Anna has a new duet with international star Dave Stewart! The video of the song is part of the show at Athens Arena every night, dedicated to Greg Ladanyi. The name of the song is "Leap of faith".
2010
"Inspired by muses both mythological and modern-day, my lipstick collection is called DeVine Goddess. I just launched a ravishing new red shade called Anna, and named for the spunky Greek pop singer Anna Vissi." by Napoleon Perdis, The Greek-Australian «Cosmetic Guru», as they call him.
You can now find in many cosmetic stores by Napoleon Perdis Cosmetics in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Latin America, Canada, Europe, Asia and in the Middle East a special lipstick called... ANNA, dedicated to our favorite singer.
You can now find in many cosmetic stores by Napoleon Perdis Cosmetics in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Latin America, Canada, Europe, Asia and in the Middle East a special lipstick called... ANNA, dedicated to our favorite singer.
Renowned artist Naoki Misuse has created an animated television advert titled "Topoli" for the Japanese beverage producer "Sake". The song featured in the advert is Anna's song "To Poli Poli" from the album "Kravgi", music by Nikos Karvelas and lyrics by Dimitris Patsiou! In one of the ad's scenes, the cover of a newspaper is displayed with a photo of Anna and the title "Superstar Anna Vissi"!
The creator of the advert, Naoki Misuse, spoke exclusively to fANNAtics.gr about this project!
"Tateyama Brewing Co. asked me to make the advert to be shown in selected areas of Japan." Tateyama Brewing is the producer of the "Sake" drink in Japan. It has a well established reputation and one of the purposes of the advert was to promote the new drink.
"The song was chosen by the company for the advertisement. I've never had the chance to meet Anna Vissi, I wish i had! However, I'm so proud to give life to the song "To Poli Poli".
"Tateyama Brewing Co. is located in Toyama, near the sea of Japan. It is certainly an unusual way to advertise Sake in Japan. As you would imagine, not many adverts in Japan feature an animation and song by Anna Vissi!"
"The scene with the newspaper is there to help Japanese viewers understand who's singing. Usually this is achieved by using subtitles at the bottom of the screen, but I felt this was a more creative way to do it."
The creator of the advert, Naoki Misuse, spoke exclusively to fANNAtics.gr about this project!
"Tateyama Brewing Co. asked me to make the advert to be shown in selected areas of Japan." Tateyama Brewing is the producer of the "Sake" drink in Japan. It has a well established reputation and one of the purposes of the advert was to promote the new drink.
"The song was chosen by the company for the advertisement. I've never had the chance to meet Anna Vissi, I wish i had! However, I'm so proud to give life to the song "To Poli Poli".
"Tateyama Brewing Co. is located in Toyama, near the sea of Japan. It is certainly an unusual way to advertise Sake in Japan. As you would imagine, not many adverts in Japan feature an animation and song by Anna Vissi!"
"The scene with the newspaper is there to help Japanese viewers understand who's singing. Usually this is achieved by using subtitles at the bottom of the screen, but I felt this was a more creative way to do it."
2011
What could Greece’s biggest singer have in common with a French football star? No, it is not yet another rumour surrounding Anna’s personal life but for another joint photoshoot in honour of a very good cause!
Anna Vissi and Djibril Cissé, one of Panathinaiko’s star players, joined forces to take part in a calendar photoshoot for the charity W.I.N. HELLAS.
The organisation, whose aim is to combat violence against women, invited the two stars along with other personalities to take part in Spiro Porou’s photoshoot for the official annual calendar which was distributed in HELLO! magazine in the middle of January!
The two obviously hit it off since Djibril had no issues with filming their meeting for the purposes of Anna’s reality show “Oso eho foni”. We saw the two in the sixth and final episode of the series, where amongst other things, Anna propositioned the international player (and amateur DJ) to rap on her new song “Den tha yparxi allo”, something that unfortunately never actually materialised!
Anna Vissi and Djibril Cissé, one of Panathinaiko’s star players, joined forces to take part in a calendar photoshoot for the charity W.I.N. HELLAS.
The organisation, whose aim is to combat violence against women, invited the two stars along with other personalities to take part in Spiro Porou’s photoshoot for the official annual calendar which was distributed in HELLO! magazine in the middle of January!
The two obviously hit it off since Djibril had no issues with filming their meeting for the purposes of Anna’s reality show “Oso eho foni”. We saw the two in the sixth and final episode of the series, where amongst other things, Anna propositioned the international player (and amateur DJ) to rap on her new song “Den tha yparxi allo”, something that unfortunately never actually materialised!
2012
This is Anna’s most watched youtube video and it is the only song, to this date, which was used for a commercial abroad. And yet, the story of “poli poli” has a continuation!
Two years after the first TV advert was shown on Japanese television, the song “to poli poli” was used for the same ad campaign of the same product, sake, which is manufactured by Tateyama Brewing Company. The artist Naoki Mitsuse was once again the creator of the TV ad and this time used Anna Vissi and her beloved dog Vanilla!
Read an exclusive extract from an interview with Naoki on Fannatics.gr:
“The reason we decided to do a second version of “To Poli Poli” by Anna was simply because of the big success that the first advert saw. I believe that Anna’s music sounds fresh and exotic but also somehow familiar to the Japanese ear”.
“I knew that Anna had a dog called Vanilla. My inspiration for the dog in the cartoon came from a stray dog that I had seen in Napoli which reminded me of Vanilla.”
Two years after the first TV advert was shown on Japanese television, the song “to poli poli” was used for the same ad campaign of the same product, sake, which is manufactured by Tateyama Brewing Company. The artist Naoki Mitsuse was once again the creator of the TV ad and this time used Anna Vissi and her beloved dog Vanilla!
Read an exclusive extract from an interview with Naoki on Fannatics.gr:
“The reason we decided to do a second version of “To Poli Poli” by Anna was simply because of the big success that the first advert saw. I believe that Anna’s music sounds fresh and exotic but also somehow familiar to the Japanese ear”.
“I knew that Anna had a dog called Vanilla. My inspiration for the dog in the cartoon came from a stray dog that I had seen in Napoli which reminded me of Vanilla.”
2013
While Anna was reliving some of her best moments on stage, a near fatal car accident nearly bought all this crashing down. As Anna Vissi was on the way to the airport in Athens at the same time as Konstantinos Christoforou, they are involved in a car accident. The two singers had been invited by the Cyprus Education Minister to sing in Brussels at a charity event to help raise money for Cypriot foundations helping deprived children.
Some bad driving on the motorway by an unobservant driver caused a head on collision of the two singers who were travelling in different cars.
“I can only see what happened with tragic irony. How likely is it for two people, one setting off from Ekali and the other from Ilisia, to crash into each other in these conditions on the same stretch of motorway? And yet it happened. Once we got out of the cars, saw each other and saw that no one was hurt in the accident, we immediately headed to the airport. It was a miracle that we escaped unhurt from such a bad collision. Do not ask about the unobservant driver, he drove off straight away. We were saved by our quick reactions and God” Interview given by Konstantinos Christoforou to HELLO! a few hours after landing in Brussels.
Some bad driving on the motorway by an unobservant driver caused a head on collision of the two singers who were travelling in different cars.
“I can only see what happened with tragic irony. How likely is it for two people, one setting off from Ekali and the other from Ilisia, to crash into each other in these conditions on the same stretch of motorway? And yet it happened. Once we got out of the cars, saw each other and saw that no one was hurt in the accident, we immediately headed to the airport. It was a miracle that we escaped unhurt from such a bad collision. Do not ask about the unobservant driver, he drove off straight away. We were saved by our quick reactions and God” Interview given by Konstantinos Christoforou to HELLO! a few hours after landing in Brussels.
2014
In May, Conchia Wurst bursts onto our screens. If you have forgotten her already (we doubt very much) she was Austria's unique in Eurovision 2014 who went on to win the competition. Anna had already predicted her win and openly declared her support for Conchita, known at the time as Thomas, with whom she has a long standing idol-fan friendship. Thomas sang Anna's “Everything” song from Eurovision 2006 when he appeared on an Austrian talent show! Her victory celebration continued in July in Mykonos when Anna invited Conchita as her guest star at an anniversary part at Jackie O'.
Anna Vissi at the official presentation of her favourite team Panathinaikos? No.
Anna Vissi at the official presentation of the eternal rival Olimpiakos? No.
“With Anna Vissi's appearance at the official presentation of the A.O Thiras” we were reading and researching hard to find out who A.O Thiras actually was.
In the end, we figured out (as it more obvious from the name in Greek) that it was a women's volleyball team from Santorini, an island that Anna is fully in love with and visits often.
The presentation of the team and their sponsors for 2014-2015 took place on the 13th September at the KOO club in Fira Santorinis and Anna was there as a special guest!
Anna Vissi at the official presentation of the eternal rival Olimpiakos? No.
“With Anna Vissi's appearance at the official presentation of the A.O Thiras” we were reading and researching hard to find out who A.O Thiras actually was.
In the end, we figured out (as it more obvious from the name in Greek) that it was a women's volleyball team from Santorini, an island that Anna is fully in love with and visits often.
The presentation of the team and their sponsors for 2014-2015 took place on the 13th September at the KOO club in Fira Santorinis and Anna was there as a special guest!
