Jamala, born as Susana Jamaladinova on August 27 1983 in Kirgizistan, is an Ukrainian jazz, r&b and classical singer.
Jamala has been fond of music since her early childhood. She released her first single at the age of nine. Jamala entered the Simferopol Music College named after Tchaikovsky followed by the graduation from the National Music Academy named after Tchaikovsky as well, majoring in opera singing. Being at the top of her class, Jamala planned to devote herself to the classical music, envisioning her career as a soloist at the famous Milan La Scala Opera. Nevertheless her true passion for jazz and experiments with soul and oriental music has changed her plans defining the main streams of the future career.
Jamala made her first steps on the big stage at the age of fifteen. During the next few years she took part at dozens of vocal contests of Ukraine, Russia and Europe, where she received some prestigious awards. Since 2001 she was a soloist in the vocal quintet Beauty Band. The terrific performance at the junior 2006 Jazz festival of young artists brought Jamala a special award, while attracting the attention of the famous choreographer Elena Kolyadenko, who invited Jamala to perform the leading part in the Pas of Olena Kolyadenko multi genre musical and ballet Freedom. This part in the musical became an essential step in Jamala’s performing career.
The turning point in Jamala’s career came with her performance at the New Wave - 2009 International contest of young pop singers in summer 2009. The contest’s chief director statements regarding Jamala’s not fitting the format did not stop her from reaching the finals and more than that receiving a grand prize of the contest.
After that Jamala instantly became famous. Jamala performed many times in Ukrainian TV shows and won many awards in her country.
Early in 2011, Jamala took part in the Ukrainian national final for the ESC with the song Smile. The song was a crowd favorite and came 3rd in the final.
Burger Le Roux, born 1990 in Western Cape, is a South African singer and the winner of the reality television competition Supersterre, in 2010.
Burger started singing at the age of 9 and auditioned for Supersterre because he wants to be South Africa’s new Superstar.
The elimination from 250 participants to 10 was very challenging for him.
Steve Hofmeyer is his role model. In five years' time he would like to see himself participating in all the big festivals and with a lot of hits played on radio and also on CD racks.
For his album Burger covered two songs from Melodifestivalen 2010, Unstoppable and Manboy.
Azis, born as Vasill Troyanov Boyanov Katuras on March 7 1978, is Bulgarian Romani Chalga (pop-folk) singer known for his flamboyant persona.
Azis recorded and performed many songs with some of the most popular Bulgarian pop-folk singers like Sofi Marinova and Ustata. Azis also performed alongside Mariana Popova in the semi-final of the ESC 2006 with the song Let Me Cry.
His political career began in 2005 as a member of the Evronoma political party and ran in the general elections campaign in the summer of 2005, but Azis did not receive enough votes to become a member of the Parliament.
In 2006 Azis was elected as the 21st greatest Bulgarian of all time. In that same year he married his husband Niki Kitaetsa. Their marriage is not legally recognized given the laws of Bulgaria.
Since 2008 Azis is the host of the critically acclaimed talk-show Azis's Late Night Show.
For one of his albums Azis covered the ESC song Lane Moje.
Lisa Andreas (December 22 1987, Kent) is an English/Cypriot singer, model, actor and dancer.
Lisa was discovered as a singer at the Strand in Gillingham. After that she performed at various concerts and road-shows giving her talent to support charities such as Children with Leukemia. She also performed in a concert at the Red Cube in London to raise fund for the September 11th attacks. Lisa has also performed at many Pride concerts.
In 2004 Lisa won the right to represent Cyprus at the ESC with the emotional ballad Stronger Every Minute. Lisa was the youngest artist taking part at the ESC in 2004 and came 5th in the final.
Lisa finished her degree at Trinity College of Music in Musical Theatre and is currently writing and co-producing her own songs.
Thomas Gustafsson (born February 25 1968) is a Swedish composer and musician from Skövde, Västergötland, Sweden. He is much more known nationally and internationally as Thomas G:son, his artistic name. Since 1998, Thomas has worked full time as a songwriter for the company G:songs. In addition to writing and composing songs for a living, he plays the guitar in a hard rock band. Thomas G:son is mostly known for the more than 60 songs he has written for national finals of eight different countries for the Eurovision Song Contest. He wrote song for the ESC pre-selections of Sweden, Spain, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Latvia, Romania and Belgium. He has also reached the Eurovision Song Contest five times, twice for Sweden (2001 and 2005), once for Norway (2007), once for Spain (2007), and once for Denmark (2010).
Melodifestivalen entries (Sweden)
Natten är Min Vän - Cleo Nilsson (1999), 8th place
Lyssna Till Ditt Hjärta (Listen To Your Heartbeat) - Friends (2001), 1st place (5th at ESC 2001)
Vem é Dé Du Vill Ha? - Kikki, Lotta & Bettan (2002), 3rd place
Ingenting är Större än Vi - Arvingarna (2002), 6th place (semi-final)
Världen Utanför - Barbados (2002), 4th place
What Difference Does It Make? - Poets (2002), 3rd place (semi-final)
Hela Världen För Mig - Sanna Nielsen (2003), 5th place
C'est La Vie - Hanson, Carson & Malmkvist (2004), 10th place
Tango Tango - Petra Nielsen (2004), 4th place
Säg Att Du Har ångrat Dig - Anne-Lie Rydé (2004), 4th place (semi-final)
Långt Bortom Tid Och Rum - Mathias Holmgren (2005), 4th place (semi-final)
As If Tomorrow Will Never Come - Katrina & The Nameless (2005), 3rd place (semi-final)
Så Nära - Anne-Lie Rydé (2005), 5th place (semi-final)
Evighet (Invincible) - Carola (2006), 1st place (5th at ESC 2006)
Ge Mig En Kaka Till Kaffet - Östen med Resten (2006), 6th place (semi-final)
Idag & Imorgon - Kikki Danielsson (2006), 10th place
Innan Natten är över - Kayo (2006), 6th place (semi-final)
When Loves Coming Back Again - Jessica Folcker (2006), 7th place (semi-final)
Silverland - Roger Pontare (2006), 4th place (semi-final)
Amanda - Jimmy Jansson (2007), eliminated in Second-Chance Round
Samba Sambero - Anna Book (2007), 9th place
Här För Mig Själv - Maja Gullstrand (2009), 8th place (semi-final)
Du Vinner över Mig - Mikael Rickfors (2009), 5th place (semi-final)
Show Me Heaven - Lili & Susie (2009), eliminated in Second-Chance Round
Thursdays - Lovestoned (2010), 6th place (semi-final)
I'm In Love - Sanna Nielsen (2011), 4th place
E De Fel På Mig - Linda Bengtzing (2011), 7th place
Something In Your Eyes - Jenny Silver (2011), eliminated in Second-Chance Round
Run - Anders Fernette (2011), 8th place (semi-final)
Melodi Grand Prix entries (Norway)
Din Hånd I Min Hånd - Kikki, Lotta & Bettan (2003), 4th place
Anyway You Want It - Ingvild Pedersen (2003), eliminated in semi-final
Absolutely Fabulous - Queentastic (2006), 3rd place
Ven A Bailar Conmigo - Guri Schanke (2007), 1st place (18th in ESC 2007 semi-final)
Rocket Ride - Jannicke Abrahamsen (2007), 2nd place
Euroviisut entries (Finland)
Who Cares About A Broken Heart? - Johanna (2002), 5th place
Say You Will, Say You Won't - Ressu (2002), 4th place
I Can't Stop Loving You - Kirsi Ranto (2004), 10th place (semi-final)
Till The End Of Time - Arja Koriseva (2004), 10th place
Misión Eurovisión entries (Spain)
I Love You Mi Vida - D'NASH (2007), 1st place (20th in ESC 2007)
Piénsame - Anael (2008), eliminated in online-voting
Te Prefiero - Baltanás (2008), eliminated in online-voting
Nada Es Comparable A Ti - Mirela (2009), 4th place
Amor Radical - Rebeca (2009), eliminated in online-voting
Perfecta - Venus (2010), 4th place
Recuérdame - Samuel & Patricia (2010), 5th place
En Una Vida - Coral Segovia (2010), 2nd place
Beautiful Life - Jose Galisteo (2010), 7th place
Abrázame - Lucía Pérez (2011), 2nd place
Eirodziesma entry (Latvia)
Heaven In Your Eyes - Elina Furmane (2006), 8th place
Selecţia Naţională entry (Romania)
Lovestruck - Indiggo (2007) (disqualified)
The girl duo Indiggo ,which was going to perform the song Lovestruck, was disqualified because they didn't turn up in time for a rehearsal. Additionally, an instrumental version of the song was not sent in time to the TV company.
Piosenka dla Europy entries (Poland)
Viva La Musica - Man Meadow (2008), 3rd place
Love Is Gonna Get You - Man Meadow (2009), 6th place
Eurosong entry (Belgium)
Addicted To You - Tanja Dexters (2008), 5th place (semi-final)
Dansk Melodi Grand Prix entry (Denmark)
In a Moment Like This - Chanée & Tomas N'evergreen (2010), 1st place (4th in ESC 2010)
Let Your Heart Be Mine - Jenny Berggren (2011), 8th place
25 Hours A Day - Le Freak (2011), 4th place
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010
Allt Jag Vill Ha - Josefine Ridell (2010), 11th place
Patrick Fiori (born as Patrick Jean-François Chouchayan on September 23 1969 in Marseille, France) is a French singer.
Patrick was born to an Armenian father (Jacques Chouchayan) and a Corsican mother (Marie Antoinette Fiori) in Marseille, France. When he was only 12 years old, he was offered his first role in the musical La Légende Des Santonniers. At the age of 17, he recorded his first single, entitled Stéphanie.
In 1993 Patrick was chosen to represent France at the ESC with the song Mama Corsica which was written by François Valéry. The song was performed in French and Corsican and came 4th in Millstreet.
The following year, his first album was released, entitled Puisque C'est L'heure. His successful audition for the musical Notre Dame de Paris enabled him to originate the role of Phoebus both onstage and in the recording studio. With Daniel Lavoie and Garou, he recorded the successful song Belle. The following year, Patrick signed a contract with Sony and recorded his 3rd album Prends Moi. Patrick finally decided to end his role in Notre Dame de Paris in the year 2000 in order to dedicate more time to his fourth album, Chrysalide. Two years after, his fifth album was released and most recently, the album Les Choses De La Vie in 2008. His 2007 single 4 Mots Sur Un Piano was number one in the French charts for 2 weeks.
Elpida Karayiannopoulou, born October 1, 1950 in Spercheiada is a Greek singer who was one of the most successful singers in Greece in the 1970s and 1980s.
Elpida began her singing career in 1970 when she became the singer of an orchestra and recorded an album with them.
In 1972 Elpida participated in the Thessaloniki Music Festival with the song Den Ton Eida and was introduced to the public. In that same year she represented Greece at the World Popular Song Festival in Japan with the song Mh Teaae which made it into the Grand Final.
In 1973 Elpida recorded her first solo album and was chosen as the most popular singer in Greece.
In 1974 elpida represented Greece once again at the W.P.S.F with the song Min Ipohoris which came 4th and won a Special Award and an Outstanding Song Award.
In 1975 Elpida won the Viña del Mar Festival in Chile Pos Pes Mou Pos. She received various awards such as the Reward of Interpretation"in Poland, and a reward for television in Bulgaria. She also made a lot of television appearances in Latin America, Spain, Germany, UK, Holland, the Scandinavian Countries and made several television appearances in Israel.
In 1979 elpida won the Greek national final for the ESC with the song Socrates. At the ESC in Jerusalem she came 8th.
In 1986 Elpida represented Cyprus at the ESC in Bergen with the song Tora Zo which came last. It is rumoured that Elpida hated the song and she refused to sing it in Bergen. Just before the show she dicided to sing the song herself. It is said that one of the backing vocals was appointed to replace Elpida.
After the ESC Elpida released several successful albums. In 1997 she released her last album which was a compilation. Elpida released 17 albums in her 25-year recording history.
Jamala, born as Susana Jamaladinova on August 27 1983 in Kirgizistan, is an Ukrainian jazz, r&b and classical singer.
