Jan. 31: Greek-American singer Kalomira is 26 today.

Kalomira's full name is Maria Kalomira Sarantis. Known simply as Carol by her family, she was born in West Hempstead, New York, and her parents are Greek restaurant owners.

Since childhood, Kalomira's dream was to become a pop star. She took part drama productions and musicals while in school. Her favorite instrument was the viola, which she studied for nine years and played in the school orchestra. She was also Miss West Hempstead at her high school in 2003 and class president for two consecutive years.

On a tip from her cousin Eleni, she entered and won second place at a music contest organized by WBLI Radio. Following her appearance, she opened up several live shows for Jessica Simpson, LL Cool J, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Michelle Branch and Nick Lachey.

Kalomira entered the New York City auditions for Antenna's reality singing competition Fame Story 2, which was a subsidiary of Star Academy. She was one of two selected from over 200 auditions in New York.

Despite speaking primarily English, Kalomira went to Greece after having completed one semester of college at Adelphi University where she was a music major with a scholarship. Her difficulties with Greek songs were not significant enough to hold her back. Kalomira placed first and her professional singing career began.

Following the success of her first performance, she performed the popular song "Stand by Me." The following weeks, the challenges became more difficult.  Kalomira was one of the final six participants left with only two performances left.

Her rendition of "Εϊ Καζανόβα" ("Hey Cazanova") equalled her success with Madonna’s "Express Yourself" in the final show. Kalomira won the contest, earned 200,000 Euros and a recording contract with Heaven Music.

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 appeared on NBC’s "Today Show" and "Access Hollywood" during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and sang live and was interviewed on numerous media outlets including appearing on Oprah.

Kalomira's 15 track first album Kalomira which went gold. She then toured Greece. She was awarded "Woman of the Year - Best Newcomer" by Life and Style magazine. Also in 2004, she had a minor credited role in the Greek TV drama series I Lampsi.






In 2005, Kalomira released her second album titled Paizeis? (You Playing?). She wrote two of the 12 songs.

In the fall of 2006, Kalomira became the female co-hostess on the hit Sunday night show Pio Poli Tin Kiriaki alongside Grigoris Arnaoutoglou on Mega Channel. In December, she released her third CD I Kalomira Paei Cinema (Kalomira Goes to the Cinema). It features songs from classic Greek movies.


In 2007, Heaven Music chose Kalomira to be their contestant in the 2008 National Final to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. On February 27, 2008, Kalomira won the National Final with "Secret Combination" and represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. In the Eurovision final, he came in third behind Russia and Ukraine.

Kalomira announced online that she recorded her new album during September and October 2007 in Greece. The album, named Secret Combination the Album, was released in May 2008 and contained songs in both Greek and English, including her Eurovision entry "Secret Combination."

In January 2010 Kalomira announced that she was in the studio recording new music. Her single, "Please Don't Break My Heart," features American rapper, Fatman Scoop. The video was filmed in Turkey. In mid 2010, Kalomira was planning to release her fifth full-length studio album.




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