Eleftheria Arvanitaki

Eleftheria Arvanitaki returns to Cyprus this May for two performances at RED.

"Eleftheria Arvanitaki is a singer celebrated for the clarity and expressiveness of her voice, and — by those who speak Greek — the poetry of her music.

Her songs have become contemporary Greek classics. Every solo album she has released in the country since the mid '80s has gone platinum. She has sung at the invitation of the Pope in Rome.

She was the only Greek singer to perform a work by Philip Glass, commissioned for the 2004 Athens Olympics closing ceremony. (That production, Orion, also visited Melbourne.) Yet while she is signed to the famous American jazz label Verve, she is little known outside the Greek diaspora and dedicated world music circles.

With lustrous black hair, looking like an elegant Greek P.J. Harvey, Arvanitaki has had an enduring love affair with the Greek public. Judging by her sales, she's never released an album they didn't like. …

Arvanitaki's music since has embraced genres as diverse as Spanish rhythms and jazz; and combined innovation and tradition in collaborations with renowned world music acts including Dulce Pontes (Portugal), Amaral (Spain) and Ismael Lo (Senegal)…" The Age Newspaper