On the dramatic cliffs of the Greek island of Folegandros, far from big city studios and bouzouki club spotlights, Greek-American pop artist Evangelia took a bold step back to musical basics and quietly redefined what a modern Greek-rooted artistic expression can be.
Introducing her latest work: Panáthēmasē (Acoustic), a deeply emotional reinvention of her original work that places voice, story, and place at the center of the experience in a striking, evocative music video.
Evangelia, born Evangelia Psarakis in New Jersey in 1992, has spent the last decade bridging worlds. She grew up commuting between her grandmother’s small farm on the island of Crete and her family home in the United States, absorbing both the rhythms of Mediterranean folk music and the pulse of urban pop.
After studying history and political science at Rutgers University and briefly teaching before committing full-time to music, she has since signed with major labels, toured in the UK, Australia, and the United States, performed alongside some of Greece’s top entertainers and released numerous hits.
But Panáthēmasē (Acoustic) isn’t about chart metrics or club energy. It’s a quiet excavation of identity— musical, cultural, and emotional. To bring that delicate balance to life visually, Evangelia teamed up with director and producer Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos, an internationally recognized filmmaker whose work focuses on cultural roots, belonging, and the feminine voice.
Gianopoulos’s films have been presented at renowned international festivals such as DOXA, Slamdance, Doc Leipzig, and the Vancouver International Film Festival. Her work has also been featured by institutions including the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the Natural History Museum of America in New York.
Rather than dressing the project in high-gloss visuals, the collaboration between Evangelia and Gianopoulos leans into restraint and observation. Shot entirely on location in Folegandros, the Panáthēmasē (Acoustic) video is an interplay between presence and absence— moments where the singer’s voice becomes inseparable from the wind, the stone, and the sea.
The camera lingers on natural light, empty spaces, and minimal movement, intentionally keeping the focus on emotional resonance rather than narrative spectacle.
Their shared artistic language — rooted in questions of heritage, identity, and honest expression— is what makes the project feel like more than a music video. It’s a conversation between two creators probing what it means to return to source material: for Evangelia, that’s her vocals and her Greek cultural inheritance; for Gianopoulos, it’s the visual poetry of authenticity over artifice.
In an era where Greek music is often defined by streaming algorithms and nightclub charts, Panáthēmasē (Acoustic) is a reminder that some of the most compelling art still happens off the beaten path— in spaces that allow silence as much as sound, and place as much as performance.
For Evangelia, this is not a detour in her artistic journey but a grounding: a chance to let her voice breathe, to let her heritage speak through her art, and to connect with audiences in a way that feels human before it feels commercial.
