Eleftheria Eleftheriou

Eleftheria Eleftheriou (Greek: Ελευθερία Ελευθερίου; born 12 May 1989 in Paralimni, Famagusta, Cyprus) is a Greek-Cypriot singer who is famous for her participation in the second season of talent show The X Factor Greece. Eleftheria Eleftheriou was born and raised in Cyprus. Growing up she used to draw, dance and was an athlete, while she always had a passion for singing. At the age of nine she started courses at a conservatory. From a young age, Eleftheriou started learning piano, theory, harmony and history of music. At the age of 15 she started voice lessons and at age 16 she started participating as a soloist in RIK's national folk orchestra. That same year, she was a candidate to represent Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song " Play That Melody to Me" featuring Maria Zorli. Although she passed the first semi-final, she finished seventh in the national final. Despite not winning the national final, Eleftheriou decided to continue studying music and performance, enrolling at the University of Surrey. She started singing solo in the Cypriot music scenes at the age of 18. In 2008, Eleftheriou auditioned for the first season of new talent show The X Factor Greece. Although she received three out of four yeses from the judges and was granted a spot in boot-camp, she decided not to participate in the show. A year later in 2009, Eleftheriou once again tried out for the show, and received four out of four yeses. Despite being a favorite to win, Eleftheriou was voted off the show during the fifth live episode. While the judges and host were shocked with elimination, host and singer Sakis Rouvas offered her a spot to sing with him at the Club he was appearing for the winter season live on the show, which she accepted. Shortly after her elimination, Sony Music Greece signed Eleftheria and submitted her as a candidate to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. A week before the formal presentation of the songs by Greek broadcast ERT, Eleftheriou's song "Tables are Turning" was leaked onto the web by an unknown party. As a result, the song was disqualified from the national final, while the leak also forced the broadcaster to release the rest of the national final songs prematurely the next day, in fear of further leaks. Despite the disqualification, Eleftheriou released the song in Greek as "Kentro Tou Kosmou" (Center of the world) as the first single off her debut album to be released. A music video was shot and released shortly after. Both Greek and English version's of the song were released as digital downloads on March 5, 2010. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.