Antique (artist)
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Antique is a Swedish duo which combines Greek popular music and lyrics with a Nordic dance/pop beat. Antique's duo is Elena Paparizou and Nikos Panagiotidis. Both were born and raised in Sweden by Greek parents. They were the first group ever to be nominated for a Swedish Grammy in the category Modern Dance (with a Greek song). Elena and Nikos are not related, nor are they romantically involved. They have called their relationship "as very good friends." Both grew up in Gothenburg.
Antique's first single, Opa-Opa, made it to the Top 5 of the Swedish Sales list and the Top 10 of all of Scandinavia and it sold over 60,000 copies which gave them gold and platinum certification.
Elena has called herself fluent in Swedish, Greek and English, and she has studied French and Spanish.
Nikos' relatives are from northern Greece while Elena's are from central Greece.
In 2001 Antique were selected to represent Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen with the song "Die For You", sung in a blend of English and Greek. Perhaps enjoying a slight in-built advantage thanks to the Swedish televoters able to back them, their eventual third place – behind only Estonia and hosts Denmark - was nevertheless fully deserved.
Having moved on from Antique, Elena Paparizou was again selected to represent Greece, this time as a solo artist, in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, and won the competition.
External links
- Official site (http://www.antique.se/)sv:Antique