Happy 60th Birthday Anna Vissi

Greek Cypriot artist Anna Vissi / Άννα Βίσση was born 20 December 1957 and turns the big 60 today. The popular recording artist was born in Cyprus, before moving to the professional scene in Athens in 1973. With a career that has spanned nearly four decades, Vissi has influenced several of the nation's younger generation of musicians. She has won six Arion Music Awards, 15 Pop Corn Music Awards, and nine MAD Video Music Awards. Vissi has received 32 Platinum and 11 Gold certifications from IFPI Greece and has become one of the country's best-selling artists of all time, having sold over 9.5 million records worldwide and is also one of the country's top earning artists.

Anna Vissi was born on the beautiful, coastal town of Larnaca, on the island of Cyprus, her father, Nestor Vissis owned a small supermarket and mother Sophia was a housewife with a soft spot for singing. She passed her passion for music on to her three daughters Lia, Anna and Nicki. Anna showed promise in singing at an early age whereas her older sister Lia Vissi showed talent as a pianist. Together, in their teens, they formed "The Vissi sisters" and toured Cyprus, singing at local festivals, singing mostly Greek folk songs.

Her father closed his shop and moved his family to Athens where his three daughters finished their high-school education and Anna signed her first recording contract at sixteen. Soon she was singing with two of the biggest stars of the Greek music scene George Dalaras s big break came in 1973 when she won a sing-a-song competition for young talents' and Haris Alexiou.

In 1983 she married rock composer Nikos Karvelas and through his influence, her career took a completely different turn. Gone were the days of the very clean and somewhat square fresh-faced young girl from Cyprus and she began singing pop-ish songs. The nineties were really her decade as she produced one hit-album after another, usually with husband Nikos as composer-lyricist. They have a daughter Sofia and Anna has also became a grandmother.

Xronia Polla Anna!