Mariada Pieridi
Mariada Pieridi (, ; born 13 July 1973) is a Greek Cypriot pop singer. Early life. Mariada Pieridi was born in Nicosia, Cyprus. Her father was an officer in the Greek Navy and her mother was a lawyer in Cyprus. She has a younger brother, Dimitri. Pieridi and her family moved to Athens when she was a child. She soon began to experiment with music and sports. She was on the Pan-Hellenic Gymnastics Association (PGS) for nine years and started playing the piano. Music became an integral part of her life and when she reached high school, she decided  that she wanted a career in the music industry. She then took speech classes at the Attica Conservatory and continued with piano lessons. Career. 1995: Eurovision. Pieridi got her first real break into the music industry during the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland. She was the backing vocalist of the Greek entry to the contest performed by Elina Konstantopoulou. They sang the song "Pia Prosefhi" ("What Kind Of A Prayer"). After Eurovision, Pieridi performed with many popular singers including Despina Vandi, Antonis Remos, and Yiannis Parios, getting her name and voice known. 2002–present. In June 2002, Pieridi  released her first album, "I Gineka Tis Zois Sou" ("The Woman of Your Life"), which was a success and moved her into the mainstream. Also in 2002, at the Arion Music Awards she received the award for "Best New Artist". July 2003 marked the release of Pieridi's first single, "Oute Ki Esi" ("Neither You"), and the album "Vale Fantasia" ("Use Your Imagination") was released three months later in October. Over the following years, she went on to release two more albums, "Abra Katabra" and "Sfera Stin Kardia" ("Bullet In The Heart"). In September 2006, she returned with the single  DJ. It is a remake of Swedish singer Carola Häggkvist's "Stanna Eller Ga". The lyrics of all of the songs on the CD are signed off for the first time by Pieridi herself. A few days after the release of the single, Pieridi released her first "best of" album, "DJ - The Hits Collection". In mid-December 2008, she released her fifth studio album, "Se Prokalo", nine songs, including the single "Milia Makria".