Dimitra Papadea (Greek: Δήμητρα Παπαδέα, Greek pronunciation:[ˈðimitrapapaˈðea], born 21 August 1991), known professionally as Demy, is a Greek singer. She is signed with the Greek independent label Panik Records. She has released two studio albums, "#1" in 2012, which became platinum and "Rodino Oniro" in 2014, which became gold. In 2017, she released "Demy", a collection of all of her English songs and later she released the album "Kontra" including two new songs and older songs and collaborations that had not been included in an album up to that time. Demy has achieved 8 No.1 songs and 2 No.1 EPs (Extended Plays) at the Greek charts so far. She also combined music and acting by having taken part in 5 musicals from 2012 to 2017.
Since the beginning of her career, Demy has been nominated 30 times for MAD Video Music Awards. Up to now, she has won 11 VMAs, including "Best New Artist" and "Best Female Artist" and she holds the record of the 4th most awarded artist in the history of the Greek VMAs. She has been awarded by the "MAD VMA Cyprus" (Annual Cyprus Awards) and by the "SuperFM Radio Cyprus". Also, she won at the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) at the category "Best Greek Act", among other Greek artists and has been chosen as the favourite Greek artist at the international Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2018.
At the age of five, she started taking piano lessons, something she continues to do to this day. Also, she currently takes vocal lessons as well. Jazz, Soul, Rock and Roll, and RandB are cited as musical influences. Her first favorite song growing up was "I'm Like a Bird" by Nelly Furtado.[1] Apart from singing professionally, she is also a law school student in Athens. She has stated that she still aspires to finish law school, and not devote herself to music exclusively, even though her popularity as a musician is increasing.[2] Her father (Epaminondas Papadeas) and sister (Romy Papadea) are also attorneys in Papadeas Law firm.[3]
Her mother Elena Boubouli is a Greek-American School owner of Masterlingua and Director of Studies for Epimorphosi Higher Education and Europe – Studies (medical studies abroad).
Career
2011–2012: Professional debut
Demy first appeared in Midenistis' song, Mia Zografia which became a big hit in Greece and Cyprus. It received two awards from the MAD Video Music Awards 2012, the one for the best video clip Hip Hop/Urban and the other for the duet of the year.[4][5] A new single, "Poses Hiliades Kalokeria" (How Many Thousand Summers) was released in June 2012
[6] and quickly reached No.1 on the iTunes Greece song chart. The song also reached No.1 on 7 July 2012 Billboard Greece Digital Songs chart, and remained in the top spot for 9 consecutive weeks, and 10 weeks in total.[7] It also became a success on Greek radio, reaching No. 1 on the official Greek airplay chart.[8][9] She also sings the lead vocals on Playmens' "Fallin".[10] Some of her others songs are: "Pes Pos Me Thes," "Mia Zografia," "Mono Mprosta," and "Kratise Me." On 25 June 2012 she performed on the Greece, You Have Talent finale, singing a medley of her recent releases (Mia Zografia, Mono Mbrosta, and Poses Xiliades Kalokairia). On 6 July 2012, two new songs were released on YouTube: A "Poses Hiliades Kalokairia" dance remix,[11] and "Love Light," an English language version of the "Poses Hiliades Kalokairia" dance remix.[12] Both songs have also been released as digital singles. On 30 July 2012, the video for "Love Light" was released by Panik[13] In the summer of 2012 she embarked on a tour that included performances in Greece, Cyprus and Russia. On 28 July 2012, Demy, along with Playmen, performed "Fallin" at the Europa Plus Live music festival in Moscow, Russia. The song has become popular in Russia, and has reached No. 1 on the Europa Plus Chart, the radio station of the organizers of the festival.[14][15] On 21 September 2012, she made an appearance at the Amita Motion "Day of Positive Energy" music festival. She performed with other members of her record label. On 22 October 2012, her new single, "I Zoi" (The Life), was released. A 24-second teaser was released on YouTube on 17 October 2012[16] In December 2012, it has been announced that she will be starring in the musical "Fame" at the "Ellinikou Kosmou" theater in Piraeus.[17] It is also her desire to one day record songs that she herself has written.[18] In winter 2012–2013 Demy appeared along Cypriot superstar Anna Vissi in Vissi's show LAV at Kentro Athinon, which was one of the most successful shows of the year.[19][20]
Demy's first full-length studio album, No.1 was released in late 2012 according to her record label. She had confirmed via Twitter in September 2012 that she was in the studio working on the new album. The album included ten tracks including two songs in English. The album also included her big hit in Greece with the Greek rap singer Midenistis "Mia Zografia".[21]
2013–2014
Demy performed "Believe" with Dima Bilan in the Greek final for Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Greece.[22] In May 2013 Demy released a summer song in English called "The Sun", along with producer Alex Leon and Greek rapper Epsilon, and became a big hit in Greece[23]
In March 2014 an official video was launched by Playmen which features Demy for the song 'Nothing Better'. The song was directed by Yiannis Papadakos and was published by Panik Records.[24] After that in May 2014 she released one more summer hit called "Oso O Kosmos Tha Exei Esena", along with the Greek rap singer Mike, and reached No.1 in Greece and Cyprus.[25] It received one award from the MAD Video Music Awards 2015, for the duet of the year. On 22 December she released her second album, "Rodino Oneiro", which included 15 songs.[26]
2015–2016
During the period of December 2014 to February 2015 Demy was performing in a night club, called "Fever", along with Despina Vandi and Nikos Oikonomopoulos.[27] Also, that year was part of the Jury in a Talent Show, called "The Music School", which was displayed in the Greek channel,"Mega".[28] During the summer of 2015 she had a lead role in one more Musical, "The Sound of Music", and the tickets during the tour were sold out!.[29] In December 2015, it was announced that she will be performing in Casablanca Music Hall along with Nina Lotsari. Her performances there will be quite different from those she used to give since she will sing in funky and jazz rhythm instead of pop.[30]
On 27 January 2016, the musical Aadam's Family was premiered at the Vempo Theatre and Demy embodied the role of Wednesday Addams along with well known actors such as Antonis Kafentzopoulos and Maria Solomou.[31] Demy also appeared in Madwalk 2016 where she sang her new single "Tha meineis feugontas" and she walked on the catwalk for Tsakiris Mallas along with Doretta Papadimitriou.[32] On 10 May 2016, Demy along with DiGi and the rock band RadioAct released the soundtrack of the first Greek action film "Short Fuse"[33]
2017-2018 (International Competitions)
Eurovision Song Contest 2017
On 13 January 2017, Demy was announced as the Greek representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 held in Kyiv, Ukraine.[34] Demy is going to collaborate with the "Dream Team" Dimitris Kontopoulos and Fokas Evangelinos. On 6 March 2017, it was selected that "This Is Love" was the Greek song at Kyiv. In the Semi-final 1 on 9 May 2017, Greece and Demy qualified for the final, to be held on 13 May 2017. She finished in 19th place with 77 points, 48 from the juries and 29 from the televoting.
New Wave Festival 2018
From 4 to 9 September 2018, Demy participated to the New Wave Festival held in Sochi, Russia, representing Greek popular music.[35][36] On the competition days, she performed ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All",[37] winning 98 from 100 possible points, and "The Children of Piraeus"[38] by Manos Hatzidakis, switching English and Greek lyrics to win 97 more points. Demy ended the competition by introducing her new English song "Too Late", which got her a perfect score. She finished in 3rd place with 295 points from the jury.[a][39]
2018-2019
Perimenontas ti Nona (movie)
In 2018, Demy was cast as one of the main characters, Faidra, in the greek comedy movie Waiting for the Godmother (Greek: Περιμένοντας τη Νονά) from Odeon Entertainment. The first trailer dropped on 14 November 2018[40] and on 13 December 2018, Panik Records released the video clip for her soundtrack "Έλα" featuring scenes from the film.[41] The movie itself was released on 17 January 2019, but did not become very successful, getting a disappointing average score of 6,1/10 on IMDb.[42] Demy's performance and the overall experience, however, did get praised by her fans.
On 15 February 2019, Demy released a song with one of her movie's co-star, Katerina Papoutsaki, titled 'Dipla Mou', which video clip also featured scenes from the film.[43]
Retrospective (album)
On 24 May 2019, Demy released her first and so far[b] only album in which she left the Pop genre for a more traditional one. Her album 'Retrospective' is full of older Greek songs' covers. One of them, for example, is the cover of Mikis Theodorakis's 'Mirtia'.[44][45] The album was published by Panik Oxygen[c], a sublabel of Panik Records.
2020-2021
To this day[d], the year 2020 is the only year of Demy's career, in which she didn't produce a videoclip[e] as the lead artist. Nevertheless, she was featured on two singles. Firstly on 18 March 2020, she performed the spoken part of Tasos Xiarcho's single 'An'[46] and then on 30 April 2020, she contributed on the Apon's and Oge's single 'Adieksodo' by singing the first third of the song.[47]
On 7 March 2021, Demy organized an online concert from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the popularity of the concept as travel was restricted. "LIVE-ing at Home" was streamed on Youtube and its recording can still be found on Demy's official chanel.[48] Demy was backed by her four member band and performed some of her own songs as well as some of her favorite Greek and English songs.
"Ydra (Kapos Allios vol.9)" (Negros Tou Moria feat. Demy and ODYDOZE)
2023
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Promotional singles
Year
Title
Album
2013
"Stay Here"
–
2015
"One Love"
Demy
"Εmeis"
Kontra
2016
"You Fooled Me"
Rodino Oneiro
2017
"Oso Zo (This is Love)"
Kontra
2018
"Kyklos"
Kontra
"Kontra ston chrono"
Kontra
"Too late"
–
List of awards and nominations received by Demy
MAD Video Music Awards Greece
The MAD Video Music Awards are presented annually by MAD TV (Greece), to recognize achievements in the Greek music industry, voted by the viewers of MAD TV. Demy has received 11 awards from 30 nominations.
Year
Nominee / work
Award
Result
2012
Demy
Best New Artist
Won
Best Female Artist
Nominated
Mia Zografia (with Midenistis)
Video Clip Duet
Won
Video Clip Hip Hop/Urban
Won
Video Clip of the Year
Nominated
Fallin (with Playmen)
MAD Radio 106.2 Track of the Year
Nominated
2013
Demy
Best Female Artist
Nominated
Artist of the Year
Nominated
Poses Xiliades Kalokairia
Best Pop Video
Won
Video Clip of the Year
Nominated
2014
The Sun (with Alex Leon & Epsilon)
Video Clip Dance
Nominated
Song of the Year
Won
Video Clip of the Year
Won
Oloi Mazi (Me Mia Foni) (with Positive Sounderz)
Video Clip Duet / Collaboration
Nominated
Demy
Best Female Artist
Nominated
Artist of the Year
Nominated
2015
Oso O kosmos Tha Exei Esena (with Mike)
Best Duet
Won
Best Video Clip Pop
Nominated
Best Video Clip
Nominated
Demy
Best Female Artist
Won
2016
"I Alitheia Moiazei Psema"
Best Video of the Year
Nominated
Best Urban Video
Won
"Where Is The Love" (Demy feat. Angel Stoxx)
Best Dance Video
Nominated
Demy
Best Female Modern
Nominated
Mad Cyprus Award
Won
2017
"This Is Love"
Video of the Year
Won
Best Dance Video
Nominated
"Tha Meineis Feugontas"
Best Ballad Video
Nominated
Demy
Best Female Modern
Nominated
Superfans of the Year
Nominated
2019
Demy
Best Female Modern
Nominated
2021
Sta kokkina (feat. FY)
MAD Radio 106.2 Track of the Year
Nominated
2022
Apothimena (feat. JiMbo)
Best Pop Song
Mad Video Music Awards Cyprus
Year
Recipient/Nominated work
Award
Result
2015
Demy
Love FM Award
Won
Super Fm Radio Cyprus
Year
Nominee / work
Award
Result
2016
Demy
Style Icon of The Year
Won
Best Female Singer
Nominated
2017
Demy
Best Pop/Rock Singer
Nominated
"This Is Love"
Best English Single
Won
"Me Oplo Tin Foni Sou" ft Demy
Best Duet/Collaboration
Nominated
2018
"To Mono Pou Thimamai" Evridiki ft Demy
Best Duet/Collaboration
Won
MTV Europe Music Awards
The MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) were established in 1994 by MTV Networks Europe to celebrate the most popular music videos in Europe.
^Her official page on Panik Records and a Greek article on Paron (news website) read that she finished 2nd. However, based on the Greek Eurovision Fanclub she ended 3rd.
There has been a tie between participants possibly being responsible for this conflicting information. Nevertheless, based on footage from the competition, her official and final ranking is without debate 3rd place. (View next reference)