Elena Tsagrinou

Elena Tsagrinou was born in Athens in 1994 and built her early recording career as the lead singer of OtherView. Working within a group connected her voice with electronic pop production and live performance. In 2018 she began releasing solo songs through Panik Records. The single Πάμε απ’ την αρχή (Let’s Start Again) paired music by Dimitris Kontopoulos with lyrics by Nikos Moraitis. The later 2018 single Παράδεισος (Paradise), written by Arcade, showed a more ballad-oriented side. These credits identify a collaborative process: the person singing a song is not necessarily the person who composed its melody or wrote its words.

In a 2020 interview, Tsagrinou explained that she studies the melody and lyrics before entering the studio with her collaborators. She described performance as giving voice to what the creators had put into the song. In 2021 she represented Cyprus at Eurovision in Rotterdam with El Diablo (The Devil), finishing sixteenth in the final. She is a Greek singer who represented Cyprus, and the entry is sung in English with Spanish expressions. Her Greek recordings remain a distinct part of her work. Later releases include Έλειπες (You Were Missing, 2023), for which she wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music.

The single Πάμε απ’ την αρχή (Let’s Start Again, 2018) makes a familiar Greek expression carry a pop refrain. The title suggests beginning again, which also gives a learner something useful to say during practice. The single Παράδεισος (Paradise, 2018) brings a more sustained ballad style, while the single Amore (Love, 2020) turns towards a different pop colour. In her 2020 interview Tsagrinou discussed these changing styles as choices within a solo career, rather than a fixed formula for every recording. The work depends on how a performer shapes words supplied by different writers.

The song El Diablo (The Devil, 2021) reached the Eurovision stage as an English-language song with Spanish expressions. Its international visibility is part of her career, while Greek listening practice here uses the earlier Greek recording. The single Έλειπες (You Were Missing, 2023) also documents her own lyric writing and shared composition. The single Καίγομαι (I’m Burning, May 2026), written by Arcade, continues the Greek pop repertoire. For a small listening task, compare the shortened απ’ in the 2018 title with its full form από. Both belong to the expression από την αρχή (from the beginning), which can move from a recorded refrain into a learner’s own rehearsal.

Greek pop recordings offer short phrases that can become useful speech when you bring them into your own situation. Open PanikRecordsTube’s official video Έλενα Τσαγκρινού – Πάμε Απ’ Την Αρχή and listen for the title phrase at its first appearance in the refrain. Compare απ’ with από, the full form of the same preposition. Pause the recording and ask a partner Μπορούμε να το πούμε ξανά; (Can we say it again?). Say the question at a comfortable pace, then repeat it more slowly. Let your partner restart a short exchange από την αρχή (from the beginning). You connect listening with an ordinary request for another attempt; the complete song contains language beyond this small A2 task.

• Her 2018 solo debut pairs Dimitris Kontopoulos’s music with Nikos Moraitis’s lyrics.
• Her Eurovision 2021 entry represented Cyprus and was sung in English with Spanish expressions.
• For Έλειπες (You Were Missing, 2023), she wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music.