Anna Vissi, one of Greece’s most beloved, timeless and successful singers, released her long-awaited live album Wednesday, December 4, celebrating a spectacular career that spans five decades.
The special edition album, titled “Anna Vissi 50 Years,” features the singer’s two historic concerts at the emblematic Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, underneath the Acropolis. Held in October 2023, the year that marked the 50th anniversary of her career, the concerts have been featured on social media with the tag #Annaversary.
Known as “the ultimate Greek star,” Vissi performed some of her most popular songs from the last five decades, mesmerizing an audience of thousands. Many of her hots were composed by musician Nikos Karvelas, with whom she has collaborated in numerous albums. She was accompanied by the Athens Philharmonia Orchestra, the 40-member Academia Athens Youth Choir under the supervision of Nikos Malliara, the award-winning pianist Victoria Fioralba as well by members of her personal band.
The two concerts at the ancient theater of Herodes Atticus set a sales record, with both selling out in four hours. The new album, available from Vissi’s record label via streaming services, is extra special because it fully encapsulates the magical atmosphere during the concerts as well as the intense emotions felt by everyone present at the theater.
Vissi thrills thousands of fans in every concert
The sold-out concerts at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus were not the only ones where the Greek superstar appeared before thousands of fans. In September 2024, Anna Vissi held another, even bigger sell out concert at the Panathenaic Stadium, where 65,000 fans of all ages cheered and sang along with the pop icon for over three hours.
“I have experienced very emotional feelings. In my life I have received success and recognition, but also doubt. But being 66 years old, as I am today, and entering an overflowing Panathenaic Stadium is something else,” Vissi said after the concert.
Throughout the decades, the Greek superstar has appeared in concert halls across the globe, including London’s Royal Albert Hall, has more than 70 nominations and has received 50 awards.
Forbes has listed her as the fifteenth most influential and powerful celebrity in Greece and the fourth highest ranking singer.
Anna Vissi’s journey into the Greek music scene
Vissi, a Greek Cypriot singer and songwriter, studied music at conservatoires and performed locally before moving to the professional scene in Athens in 1973. There she signed with Minos and simultaneously collaborated with other musical artists and released promotional singles of her own while studying at the University of Athens.
Vissi established herself in the recording industry by winning the Thessaloniki Song Festival in 1977 with the song “As Kanoume Apopse Mian Arhi” and releasing the eponymous debut album.
In the 1980s Vissi began a nearly exclusive collaboration with songwriter Nikos Karvelas, to whom she was married from 1983 to 1992, resulting in one of the most successful music partnerships in the nation’s history. The musical power couple had one child together.
In an oustanding career she has released over two dozen albums, most of which have been certified at least gold in both Greece and Cyprus.
