Kalomira

Biography

Maria Kalomira Sarantis Boosalis (Greek: Μαρία Καλομοίρα Σαράντη Μπουσάλη; née Sarantis; born January 31, 1985), known professionally as Kalomira, is a Greek-American singer. Born and raised on Long Island, New York, she first came to prominence in Greece in 2004, after winning the Greek talent show Fame Story. She has subsequently released four studio albums, represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, gaining the third place and hosted various television shows.

== Early life == Kalomira was born Maria Kalomira Sarantis on January 31, 1985, in West Hempstead, Long Island. Known to her immediate family as Carol (her childhood nickname), her parents, Nikos and Eleni Sarantis, own a Greek restaurant. Her ancestry is from Laconia, Peloponnese (Kremasti and Niata). Since childhood, Kalomoira had the ambition to become a pop star. She played the viola, which she studied for nine years and played in the school orchestra. She was also Miss West Hempstead (Homecoming Queen) at her high school in 2003. In 2003, she entered a music contest organized by WBLI Radio and won second place. Following her appearance, she opened up several live shows with famous American artists, such as Jessica Simpson, LL Cool J, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Michelle Branch and Nick Lachey.

== Career ==

=== 2003–2004: Fame Story, Kalomira, and Lampsi === Kalomira entered the New York City auditions for Antenna's reality singing competition Fame Story 2, which was a licensed variant of the Star Academy franchise. She was one of two selected from over 200 auditions in New York. Despite speaking primarily English, and not speaking Greek fluently, Kalomira went to Greece after having completed one semester of college at Adelphi University where she was a music major with a scholarship. Kalomira gained the first place and her professional singing career began. Kalomira won the contest with a prize of 200,000 Euros and a recording contract with Heaven Music. The audience of the show loved her from the beginning and they created the slogan, "Irthes kai mas allakses ti moira, Kalomoira-Kalomoira" (“You came and changed our destiny, Kalomira-Kalomira”). This was because her name means good fortune in Greek. Kalomira performed in Thessaloniki’s FOCUS from July 8 to August 14. While entertaining audiences by night, she was recording her first album by day. Outside of Greece, Kalomira has appeared on NBC’s "Today Show" and "Access Hollywood" during the events of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, UPN's Greek Parade where she sang live and was interviewed, Fox News, was in the "Washington Post", "Newsday" and "New York Times" and most currently featured on Oprah for her Eurovision Performance, along with a number of other shows and websites. On September 1, 2004, Kalomira released her 15-track debut album Kalomira, which became gold in Greece and Cyprus. Her lead single, "Nomizeis", became an instant hit, topping the charts in Greece. The next singles from the album were the songs, "Ego eimai i Kalomira", "Pethaino Gia Sena", "Proti Mou Fora" and the Christmas song, "Kai Tou Hronou". She then toured Greece accompanied by the rest of the "Fame Story" participants with appearances in Athens's "Thalassa". In the same year, she closed her season at the REX studio with Despina Vandi and Thanos Petrelis. Kalomira received good reviews from the critics and was awarded the, "Woman of the Year – Best Newcomer Award”, by Life and Style magazine. Also in 2004, she had a minor credited role in the longest-running Greek TV drama series Lampsi, playing the part of Jennifer Drakou for 30 episodes, where veteran director Nikos Foskolos compared her to Greece’s most famous actress, Aliki Vougiouklaki. Kalomira performed twice in the Herodium theatre, emerging out of a cake as a surprise for the musician’s Dionysis Savvopoulos's birthday singing Marilyn Monroe's song, "Happy Birthday Mr. President".

=== 2005–2006: Paizeis?, I Kalomira Paei Cinema, and Pio Poly Tin Kiriaki === In 2005, Kalomira released her second album titled Paizeis? (You Playing?) with 12 songs, of which two were written and composed by her. "Paizeis" and "Ki Olo Perimeno" were the two singles from the album that stood out with great success. She also agreed to appear with Elli Kokkinou, Andreas Stamos and Constantinos Christoforou at the Piraeus 130 music club. In her program, she included covers of songs such as "Scandalous," "Don't Cha" and "Don't Phunk with My Heart," in addition to songs from her first and second albums. On April 11 2005, she was a special guest on the first live concert of the first season of Star Academy Bulgaria. For three months she had the role of co-hostess next to Eleonora Meleti on the show Proinos Cafes (Morning Coffee). In the fall of 2006, Kalomira became the female co-hostess on the hit Sunday night show Pio Poli Tin Kiriaki (Even More on Sunday) alongside Grigoris Arnaoutoglou on Mega Channel. In December, she released her third studio album I Kalomira Paei Cinema (Kalomira Goes to the Cinema). It's a concept album with the most popular classic songs from the old Greek Cinema. At that time they appeared with Nikos Makropoulos, Aggeliki Iliadi and Sarbel at the Fever nightclub.

=== 2007–2009: Eurovision Song Contest, Secret Combination: The Album, and Big in Japan ===

At the end of 2007, Heaven Music chose Kalomira to be their contestant in the 2008 National Final to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. Kalomira picked an R&B style upbeat song with a Greek feel composed by Konstantinos Pantzis with lyrics by Poseidonas Giannopoulos titled "Secret Combination". The song has an "American production" feel to it. On February 27, 2008, Kalomira won the National Final with "Secret Combination" and represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. To promote the song, Kalomira had a pre-Eurovision tour and visited several Eurovision countries throughout March and April. In the first semi- final, held on May 20, 2008, Kalomira, was the first to pass through to the finals. At the Eurovision final, on May 24, she reached the impressive third place, behind Russia and Ukraine, with 218 points. In an interview with Eleni Menegaki, she said that above all she wanted the Greek people to be proud of the performance. Kalomira announced on her online diary that she recorded her new album during September and October 2007 in Greece. The album, named Secret Combination: The Album, was released on May 29, 2008, and contained songs in both Greek and English, including her Eurovision entry "Secret Combination". There is also a bonus rap remix of "Secret Combination" by Master Tempo. The writers are Konstantinos Pantzis, Tasos Vougiatzis and Sunny X. Kalomira did not participate in the promotion of the album, due to a dispute with Heaven Music. She focused on presenting TV shows, including the Greek version of the game show Big in Japan which took place in Japan and featured 12 contestants. For this tv show, Kalomira won two awards at the European Festival, the Best Show 2009 and the Best Reality Show 2009.

=== 2010–2014: International collaborations, a brief pause and concert tours === In January 2010, it was announced that Kalomira would be featured in a series of advertisements as the main spokesperson promoting Domino's Pizza in Greece. In March 2010, Kalomira renewed her contract with Heaven Music. For her next single she collaborated with big producers in the world music industry. The single was called "Please Don't Break My Heart", which featured American rapper, Fatman Scoop and was produced by Toni Cottura. The video was filmed in Turkey and the song premiered on Rythmos 94.9. In June 2011, Kalomira released her next single, which was called, "This Is The Time'". A music video premiered in July. In the summer of 2011 she toured Greece and Cyprus and then returned to America performing live concerts for Greeks abroad. On December 31, Kalomira did a concert for the charity cause, "Bring in 2012 with Kalomira!", for the Greek Orthodox community in Washington DC. On February 22, 2012, her new single, “Other Side Tonight” was released by "Hot Kiss Records LLC", which is the company she and her husband own. The song was written by GMoney and Jeremy Beaber. On 2 March, Kalomira presented together with Australia's comedian actor Angelo Tsarouchas, the Greek Beauty Pageant - Kalistia 2012 in Canada. After that she stopped working for two years, due to the pregnancy of her twins. In March 2014, Kalomira came back to Greece after two and a half years from her last appearance. She gave many interviews on television and in magazines. She sang as a guest star the new version of "Secret Combination", with Claydee Lupa at Greece's National Final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. She toured performing concerts in the USA. The first stop was on June 3 2014, in a football game for Greece and Nigeria in Philadelphia, where she sang the Greek national anthem and many songs. On June 6, she performed for the first time in Baltimore in the concert, "St. Nicholas Greek Folk Festival 2014 featuring: Kalomira!". On July 23, she performed in New York City in the concert, "The Loukoumi make a difference foundation". She performed with Anna Vissi, Gloria Gaynor, Constantine Maroulis and Olympia Dukakis. In a 2014 interview, Kalomira said that she started her music career when she was eighteen and half years old. She has expressed herself through her music over a span of more than 10 years. Her music describes what she has gone through in her life.