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Birth name Sarbel Michael
Also known as Sarbel
Born 14 May 1982
London, England
Origin Greece
Genre(s) Pop, modern laika
Label(s) Sony BMG

Sarbel Michael (Greek: Σαρμπέλ Μιχαήλ; born 14 May 1982), known professionally as simply Sarbel (correctly pronounced 'Sharbel'), is a Cypriot pop and modern laika singer. He is well-known in Cyprus and Greece for his debut single, Se Pira Sovara, with guest appearance by Irini Merkouri which rose him to fame, and his following albums Paraxeno Synesthima and Sahara.

Sarbel is one of three popular Greece-based musicians (the others being Tamta and Christos Dantis) who are competing to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. Sarbel's song is called Ya Sou, Maria, and is performed in English, despite the Greek title.

Life and Career

Born and raised in London, England, to a Greek Cypriot mother and a Lebanese father, Sarbel's family often made frequent trips to Greece and Cyprus during the summer season. At the age of 21 years, whilst living on the Greek island of Crete, where he had been inhabiting since his gap year several years before, he was signed up by Sony in Greece on a six year recording contract. By the next year, Sarbel had hit the Greek, Cypriot, and Arabic music scene and gained a very popular status as a singer but also a sex symbol, particularly amongst young female fans.

Sarbel studied music (voice), drama, and performing arts at university. From the age of 5 to 16 he performed at the English National Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and has recorded Tosca in English for Chandos Recordings as the shepherd boy. At 18, looking for some change in his life for his gap year, he moved to Crete, where he sang at the Heraklion Palladium. [1]. He shot into the limelight in 2004, when he recorded the oriental hit Se Pira Sovara, featuring popular Greek songstress Irini Merkouri, which first introduced the young singer to fans in Greece, but also across the Middle East (especially Cyprus and Lebanon). [1] The song is based on an Arabic song called Sidi Mansour. On the same CD (a CD single) he released a second duet with Merkouri called Agapi Mou Esi. In 2005, he released his first solo album, entitled Paraxeno Synesthima. This Album went Gold and was re-released with the Wella-sponsored song Thelo na Petaxo and a bonus track of Boro Boro, which he made famous during his MAD Award Ceremony appearance. In July 2006, he released his second album, Sahara, and the track Taxe Mou became an instant massive hit.

Eurovision

Sarbel

Sarbel, Eurovision 2007 (Source)

Seeing his growing popularity, Greek television ERT asked Sarbel to compete for a ticket to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, Finland. Sarbel had to compete against established singer Christos Dantis and fellow new comer singer Tamta. Sarbel enlisted the help of popular Greek-Swedish composers Alex Papacostantinou, Marcus Englof, and Mack to write his song, who are responsible for many of popular Greek singer Elena Paparizou's hits. They wrote the song Yassou Maria, which is performed in English with only the word 'ya sou' (and the name 'Maria') being Greek. There is also a version released in a mix of Greek and English.

'Yassou Maria' was in fact a very strong contender for victory at this years Eurovision Song Contest. Its upbeat, latin, Greek distinction in both sound and movement made it a definite favourite leading up to the final. However, despite the great effort by Sarbel, Greece took the 7th place.

On February 28, 2007 Sarbel performed the song live against the 2 singers for the ticket. Although the performance had some sound problems, it won the majority vote by both the public and jury leading him to win. Sarbel got a total of 39.69% of the votes combined. Following the win, Sarbel will be touring Europe to promote his song. He will also film the video clip for the song shortly as well as work on a new stage performance.

On March 12, 2007, Sahara was re-released as Saraha: Euro Edition and feature the Yassou Maria CD Single as a bonus. The CD single for Yassou Maria was released on March 07, 2007. The CD single includes Yassou Maria, Yassou Maria (Greeklish version), Enas Apo Mas (Special Holiday Mix) and a duet with Persian-Swedish singer Cameron Cartio called Mi Chica. Mi Chica is recorded in a mixture of Greek, English, Spanish and Persian and is Latin in style with Greek pop elements.