Marlen Angelidou

Marlain
Background information
Birth name	Marlen Angelidi
Origin	Greece
Genres	Rock, pop, dance
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, actress
Years active	2003–present
Associated acts	Hi-5
Website	[1]

Marlain Angelidou sometimes spelt Marlen Angelidou (Greek: Μαρλέν Αγγελίδου, born Marlen Angelidi Μαρλέν Αγγελίδη, in Athens, Greece), is a Greek singer and actress. She is best known for being former member of Greece's first ever manufactered girl band, Hi-5, as well as representing Cyprus in 1999's Eurovision Song Contest^[1] with Tha 'Ne Erotas. Life experience, rejection and passion fuel Marlain's new rebranded material, starting with the CD single ‘Being Blonde Today’ which was released in January 2011. It brings a ballsy approach to contemporary rock, driven by an extreme hunger to perform. 'Bedroom Rock' (live) is the new engine for a well seasoned performer to re-introduce herself to existing and win over new fans.

Angelidou, her mother, and siblings all have triple nationality (Greek, Cypriot, and British).

Early and Later Life

Marlain Angelidou was born in Athens, Greece, to a Cypriot-born father of mainland Greek origin and a mother of half Scottish and half Greek Cypriot descent. Due to her father's job position in a multinational company, Marlain Angelidou spent most of her childhood around the world: she emigrated to Venezuela aged 5, learning fluent Spanish (which she has since forgotten), then to Belgium, and back to Cyprus, where she lived during her teenage years, on her father's request to return home. Angelidou is currently based in Athens, although her mother and brothers remain in Cyprus.

Marlain Angelidou completed a BSc in Biochemistry with Management at the prestigious Imperial College in London before choosing to study at Boston Conservatory in the USA. She also obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Musical Theatre from London's prestigious Royal Academy of Music.

Career

While she was studying she made her professional debut as the lead in the Stavros ’Sideras’ musical Pygmalion, The True Story (Aphrodite/Galatea) opposite Peter Polycarpou. She was chosen amongst 5000 teenagers for the National Youth Music Theatre production of Annie (Miss Hannigan) at the Edinburgh Drama Festival.

Her professional career started in 1999-2000 with the production of Aznavour’s Lautrec in London’s West End. During 2000-2002 she starred in lead roles in musicals such as Hair (Dionne), Elegies (Judith), toured the UK with Living La Vida Loca (Fantasia), Legends of Swing (singing Ella Fitzgerald songs) and toured Europe with Flower Power Musical Story (Lainer) and Broadway Musical Gala (Principal Soloist) where she had the opportunity to sing solo in front of 11,000 at La Scala in Milan. At the same time she appeared in performances at the Berklee Performance Centre, Boston, USA, Festival Rose D’Or in Juin Les Pins, France, some charity events in Basel, Switzerland, and Dublin, Ireland and in concerts with the Cyprus State Orchestra as a soloist.

At the end of 2002 at the BBC Radio 2 Voice of Musical Theatre International Competition in Cardiff, Wales she was the semi-final winner and one of only six finalists.

In 1998 she came third duetting Fterougisma with Alex Panayi during the Cypriot pre-Eurovision selections show in which the winner would go on to represent Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest. She did, however, manage to get into the Eurovision event the following year with her song Tha 'Ne Erotas.

In 2003 she took part in the Greek television contest Pop Stars, winning one of the five spots in a teen girls group that was to be formed on the basis of the show's outcome. The group was named Hi-5 and released a self-titled album in 2003 that went gold in Greece. The band has had hit songs such as Xero Ti Zitao, To Tyhero Asteri, and Yennithika Xana. The group decided to part quietly off-screen in 2005 on good terms after two years together to pursue solo careers.

From 2005-2008 Marlain then continued with her true love singing rock with various bands in clubs and festivals around Greece, namely Volume (Christophoros Chrokides, Stephanos Demetriou, Dimitris Frosinis) and Dickens’ Zoo. With N.U.R.V she played the popular European Music Day at Syntagma Square in Athens and the River Party in Kastoria.

She also played the leading role in the West End Athens version of the musical Saturday Night Fever (Stephanie Mangano).

She has collaborated with major artists in Greece, namely legendary greek rock star Vassilis Papakonstantinou in his concert tours of Greece and is currently touring Greece, Cyprus, USA, Europe and Africa with sell-out pop artist Michalis Hadzigiannis, now at the height of his career.

Being a fan of cartoons, Marlain also lends her voice regularly to cartoon voice-over translations for Disney and Dreamworks playing a variety of characters from Mulan in Mulan 2, to Lady Bug in James and the Giant Peach, the Soul Singer in Emperor’s New Groove 2, Rita the Dog in Oliver and Company, the country-western singer Dixie dubbing the voice of Reba McIntyre, in Fox and the Hound 2 plus many more.

Her song Rejection (Set Me Free), placed 1st with the jury in the Cyprus Selection for the Eurovision Song Contest ’08 but failed to qualify. The song then moved on to win prizes for BEST PERFORMANCE and BEST SONG at the Pan Music Festival, Serbia, later on in the year. Her hard rock ’09 entry Mr. (Do Right) One Night Stand also made a great impression, in various ways! Her various antics gave her a nomination for Woman of the Year, Madame Figaro Awards 2009.

Rejection (Set Me Free) again made waves as the most talked about song entry in Eurovoice 2010, coming in at 2nd place. This generated so much interest she created BEDROOM ROCK, a collection of songs which give her the total outlet for self expression. Her first highly driven passionate personal performance as a solo act live in various clubs at the moment in Athens.

Her own material is currently being released over the internet. ‘Being Blonde Today’ is now available on itunes.

References

1. ^ Barclay, Simon. Eurovision Song Contest - The Complete & Independent Guide 2010. Simon Barclay. pp. 106–. ISBN 9781445784151. http://books.google.com/books?id=BfuBF7fOnyoC&pg=PA106. Retrieved 13 July 2011. 

External links

• Official YouTube channel
• Official Facebook Fanclub site
• Official Reverbnation site
• Official MySpace site
• Unofficial fan club
• French site and fan club
• Marlain's Photo Gallery by Spicey Team

Preceded by Michalis Hadjiyiannis with Genesis

Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Succeeded by Voice with Nomiza

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