Do you think you know everything there is to know about Anna Vissi?

Once again, another big music hall was revamped, reconfigured and renamed for Anna Vissi. The old Athinon Arena which had, in the past, been home to many of her successful shows became...the Pantheon Theatre, a brand new and luxurious theatre in Athens.

Anna Vissi and Antonis Remos inaugurated the theatre with a music collaboration that we have been anticipating for many years and well....let’s just say that it didn’t disappoint! On the 12th December, the “Ena i kanena” show, directed by Yiannis Kakleas, premiered at the Pantheon.

The show saw Anna and Antonis come together and showcase their best songs from their joint repertoire and presenting them more theatrically.

Apart from being directed by Yiannis Kakleas, Manolis Pantelidakis took charge of the set design and Apollonas Papatheocharis did the costumes (the costumes remain unforgettable to us). The show was choreographed by Chali Jennings and lighting was headed up by Giorgos Tellou.

During the three hour show, the two stars were able to entertain the crowds, to excite them and to get them on their feet, dancing to old and new hits. We will particularly remember their amazing duet written by Nikos Karvelas which accompanied the start and the closing of the show each evening.

The show “Ena i kanena”, that was on 4 nights a week, ended its run on the 20th March 2014.

In February, the fan club reached 10,000 members with the increase more notable as Demons the musical drew close which was mainly down to the great success of Anna Vissi and Nikos Karvelas show, 22 years since the first show!

One month prior to this big success on the 4th January, the Fannatics celebrated its 5th birthday in style, at yet another party at LAV, with Anna Vissi present as always.

How about a Valentine’s Day card for our favourite singer? Only we could do that! 217 members personally signed their name to a card for Anna to celebrate Valentine’s Day. After all, if you do not fall in love with Anna, who else are you going to fall in love with?

It was a year full of competitions since, in collaboration with Anna herself and the production Elliniki Theamaton, the Fannatics had a special entry price for the Demons the musical but also the chance to win a Gift box full of merchandise, a backstage pass to meet Anna and free tickets to the show.

At the same time, a special edition of the original show of 1991-1992 was made available to the fan club’s members to celebrate Demons being staged once again.

The fan club had a very special message for Anna in March made by her fanatic fans about their views on Demons the musical.

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.

15/03 Tet-a-tet (RIK1 – Tasos Trifonos)
16/03 Sold out (ANT1 – Giorgos Papadakis)

Anna supported three campaigns in Greece and Cyprus to support people that are struggling.

A concert for CyprusAid (1st April) at Tafro Konstantza in Cyprus with Anna and other colleagues was put on to help Cypriots that were struggling financially.

Anna sang “A kanoume appose mia arxi”, “Sta xronia tis ipomonis”, “Xrisoprasino filo”, “To yiasemi” and “Dodeka” in front of an emotionally charged Cypriot audience who clapped throughout.

The Easter campaign headed by Mega Channel to raise money for people struggling financially.

Anna also sang at a concert by Larnaca City Council and other charities entitled “Together for Larnaca and our neighbour” on the 27th May 2013.

“I regret some of my collaborations because I realised during the course of them that we didn't suit one another. Everything from the songs, the varying audiences to difference of opinions, sometimes, things do not work. It is really hard to go out there each night when you are not feeling the collaboration. I never intentionally did a job thinking only of the pay packet. I give my all to all that I do as if it were my last night on the stage up until the last note of a song, whatever the time might be. When, however, you make a wrong choice and realise that your motives were not purely artistic then you have to sit back and say “well, it serves me right”. Everyone has, at some point, done it for the money and on the few occasions I acted irresponsibly, I paid the price for my decisions. And I promised myself that I would never do it again!”

28/04 – TV Ethnos

“Unfortunately, well respected and successful singers, such as Anna Vissi, represented Greece in Eurovision 7 years ago....It was a mistake. Anna should have welcomed Eurovision and not taken part in it. She lost much of her status and credibility. I would not have done it if I were her. She is Anna Vissi! She should not have taken part!

Stamatis Gonidis, May 2013, EGO

“I have nothing bad to say. I enjoy talking about Anna because with me she was exemplary. Anna is more than just a clever artist. Anna respected me. This is something very important for someone like me who sings the Rebetiko style of music in front of such a big pop star. She never once imposed boundaries.”

28/03 – Mario on FTHis TV

“Anna is a fantastic woman. I only have good memories of her similarly to when I worked with Alexiou. Both give you so much space and time whereas other singers used to get slightly jealous. Even to this day actually, some still do.”

26/09 – Mary Linta, Kathimerini newspaper.

“Both Anna and I are very lucky because each one of us chose her own way to express herself and was able to be loved by her audience. We are what we want to be. Our commitment to what we do pays off in the long run. Each of us is unique and carves out their own path and destiny.

12/09 – Haris Alexiou, yupiii.gr

As with each time Anna is artistically active, the rumour mill builds up pace!

They started with her personal life when various TV outlets started questioning whether she was seeing her co-star, Nicholas Karagiaouris.

They continued with the – premature – rumours surrounding her return to the Pallas Theatre for the new season starring in new musical by Reppas-Papathanasiou.

They concluded with her rumoured role as a judge on Ant1's new talent show, The Voice!!!

As always, none of these rumours came into fruition although, this time, we have to admit that two of the rumours had some truth behind them. The writing duo confirmed that they had discussed the possibility of a new musical with Anna while, at the same time, she was in negotiations to appear on The Voice, something she later turned down as it was not something that interested her.