The young face of Greek Laika - Marianta Pieridi

Marianta Pieridi is one of the few young singers in Greece who still cultivates the more traditional aspects of Laika music, even if only to a very partial extent. Even though the vast majority of her material can be considered as being well within the realm of pop, she occasionally delves into Middle Eastern, Greek and Balkan folk with rather brilliant results. A native of Cyprus (just like Anna Vissi! :-) ), Marianta has lived, however, the majority of her life in Athens, from where her father, a Navy officer, originates. An interesting fact about Pieridi is that, during her adolescence, she only saw music as something tedious in which her mother, a lawyer fascinated by classical music and also an amateur pianist, forced her to participate. Conversely, Marianta concentrated all her energy in gymnastics at the Pan-Hellenic Athletic Club, where she specialised in apparatus work. Sadly (or maybe, fortunately), she was far from outstanding, and the realization that she would never become a successful gymnast eventually led her to give music a more prominent role in her life. However, she has kept her love for strenuous physical activity by frequently engaging in extreme sports.

After nine years of intense training, Marianta decided to try her hand at singing. Thus, she enrolled in the Athens Conservatoire and started studying music in earnest. Soon enough, she got her first break by being sent to Dublin for the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest, as part of the Greek delegation. After that, she became fascinated by the idea of singing before an audience as a soloist, and began earning her chops by working as a background vocalist every other popular Greek singer, including Despina Vandi . After six years, she was well-known enough as to get Nitro Music, a relatively successful record company, to sign her. A year later, in 2002, she released her début album I Gynaika Tis Zois Sou/The Woman Of Your Life, which became very successful on the strength of the massive dance hit S'Agapó. However, things didn't go well and Nitro folded shortly after... Luckily enough, Marianta was simply transferred to Universal, and kept releasing records. She soon released the awesome EP single Oute Ki Esy/Neither You, which spawned three hits and, after being included in her sophomore album, turned her into a superstar.



However, as of late, things in Marianta's career don't seem to have gone too well. In 2004 she released her album Abra Kadabra, and as it happened to the majority of Greek music stars, sales were less than impressive, and far below expectations. In fact, the album only produced one sizeable hit (the impossibly catchy Chairetismata/Greetings), and then slowly, but steadily, began to disappear from the charts. Personally, I understand why this happened - the music was far too removed from her usual style, with one too many unmemorable attempts at neo-folk and some of the worst dance songs I've heard in my entire life. Not a good purchase, if you ask me.

However, Marianta redeemed herself with her next record Sfaira Stin Kardia/A Sphere In The Heart (2005), which presented some very interesting dance material along some of the most beautiful traditional songs and ballads I've heard from her! Still, this wasn't exactly successful (surprisingly, it performed even worse than her disastrous previous record) and things for Marianta have only started improving this past year, with the release of her Greatest Hits compilation DJ, which includes her superb version of Carola's annoying screamfest (how unusual! ;-)) Stanna Eller Gå, which has been an enormous hit and made the album a multi-platinum seller! Now go running to buy her albums here.

Ούτε Κι Εσύ - Oute Ki Esy/Neither You

This song is extremely upbeat and cheerful, and truly showcases Marianta's ability to command a melody and keep the listener's attention with the sheer power and enthusiasm in her performance. It was a huge hit in 2003, even if it is one of the more moderate successes from her second album Vale Fantasia/Deliver Fantasy. it has a sunny, bright melody and an urgent beat that lifts your spirits and makes you want to move! It is also one of the less original songs in the album, which boasts some rather interesting material, such as the folk-rock meets pop and house title track!

Μείνε Δύπλα Μου - Meine Dypla Mou/Stay Next To Me

This is my favourite song by Marianta! It starts off as some sort of Middle Eastern electro-folk experiment, only to suddenly explode into an upbeat dance song that combines everything from accordion touches, oud arpeggios and an aggressive electric guitar solo with an irresisitible instrumental hook and a thumping, fast beat that urges you to move... However, the melody is considerably beautiful, with a chorus that gracefully rises above all the instruments and flows into the diverse breaks of the song, which include grieving chants and brief spoken segments. Extremely beautiful! Video.

DJ (Stanna Eller Gå)

This is Marianta's gorgeous version of the song first made famous by Carola. Even though the lyrics are rather bland (OK, they're downright stupid), the melody and production in this song are strong enough as to compensate for this slight defect. I have to say that even though it's not my favourite of Marianta's songs, I find that her performance manages to make it very enjoyable as it creates a very warm, inviting atmosphere that both manages to suggest intimacy and openness. Video.

Μόνο Αν Ήσουν Τρελός (Anlayamatin) - Mono An Isoun Trelos/Only If You Were Crazy

At first I wasn't sure about posting this, since it isn't one of Marianta's typical ballads, mainly because it is more of a mid-tempo song, but I just found it irresistible with its violin progressions in chromatic scales, acoustic guitars and simply adorable little touches, such as the apparently random addition of flute, bouzouki and oud instrumental ornamentation. Beautiful.