JANUARY 21 - 27, 2011
By Katerina Emmanouil FACE 115
IOANNA ATHANASIADOU
Rising star
Stardom seems to be beckoning the 22-year-
old multi-talented performer who has a TV
appearance to her credit and is currently
competing in MAD TV’s live2sing contest
where she has already made the finals.
I
t was about four months ago when I
first heard her name. A friend’s friend
of another friend, you know how it
goes. She was visiting from the UK as she
had been invited to cheer, sing and play
her guitar for the Apollon Ladies football
team. My friend was going to pick her up
from the Makarion Stadium, so I went
along for the ride, and I’m really glad I did.
Ioanna Athanasiadou, who also goes by
the stage name Nwaina, is surely a name
and a face the world needs to know.
If you live in Limassol, you’ve prob-
ably heard her sing in its cafés, such as
‘Chroma’, ‘Universe City’, ‘TeePee” or
‘Friends’ or enjoyed her performance on
Cyprus Has Talent nights at Seven Seas
Bar, but her face might also seem familiar
from the 2006-7 Ant-1 series ‘O Iskios Tis
Fotias’. Currently Ioanna is participating
in MAD TV’s live2sing contest, the first
Greek online singing contest, that hosts
both Greek and Cypriot members. With
more than 3,800 votes, Ioanna is off to
the finals, alongside eleven more mem-
bers. No matter what the future results,
Ioanna has so far managed to impress her
audience with all three of her auditioning
videos, two of which are covers and mash-
ups and the third being an original song
written, sung, arranged, directed and ed-
ited by herself. The competition’s editors
who come from the Greek music industry
such as the band Onirama, have picked
her out as a possible contestant for a live
performance.
Her musical talent was discovered al-
most accidentally when her father hap-
pened to simply pass her a piano teacher’s
business card, fifteen years ago.
“Even though I wanted to start violin
lessons, I thought to myself ‘why not’, pia-
no sounds just as exciting”, she explains.
It involved a lot of hard work, with choir,
singing, guitar lessons, theatre classes,
workshops, songwriting and singing com-
petitions and many live performances,
which seem to be merely the beginning
to what appears to be a very promising
career for this young woman, who has
achieved so much despite her 22 years.
It’s not so much what she sings or which
musical instrument she will use to write
or play a song - mind you, she has guitars,
a piano, an Egyptian oud, a Greek tzouras,
percussions and a snare drum simply ly-
ing around the house – rather it’s the way
she does it.
“I think music has become a natural coming a sponge of a sort, there comes tal music, genres and influences that you
function to me. Thinking musically af- the point when it feels like you are over- can trace in my most recent work “Kok-
fects my body and my mind, but it all hap- flowing, you simply can’t take anymore kino Diorofo Leoforeio”. Having studied
pens subconsciously, most times I don’t in without taking something out. That’s Performance and Visual Arts (theatre)
even realise it. It’s like constantly having when the ‘vomiting’ occurs, and for me for Ioanna a singing performance should
a melody or an idea in my head. Even the and the people who support my work carry a holistic approach.
smallest everyday gesture, like pouring a seems to be quite the pleasant experi- “It’s not simply about creating the mel-
cup of coffee gives birth to another artis- ence,” she says with a smile. ody or writing the lyrics. I feel the need to
tic concept,” Ioanna says. Ioanna sees herself as more of a per- create the space, the setting and the visu-
Currently continuing her studies in the former/artist than a singer and is con- als to tell the story, to create an entire
UK, Ioanna used a rather unusual meta- stantly in search of inspiration or expos- concept and form a whole new character.
phor to answer my question about cre- ing herself to different musical contexts, Music is just the cherry on top of the per-
ativity. as she likes to experiment with music. formance cake”, she says.
“Creative expression for me is similar “I don’t go by a certain style. I’d like to If you want to take a look at Ioanna’s
to vomiting”, she claims. “Don’t get me try out just a bit of everything before I work, you can visit her site at www.nwaina.
wrong, I don’t mean to be eccentric. What settle on doing anything,” Ioanna says. com or visit her page on youtube for cov-
I mean to say is that after undergoing “At the moment I’m mostly into jazz, elec- ers and original songs at www.youtube.
a process of absorbing information, be- tro swing, swing, classical and experimen- com/nwaina88