Marianna Polychronidi

Marianna Polychronidi (also spelled Polychronidou or Polihronidi) works in Greece as both an actor and a singer. In a 2022 television interview she described herself as a child of the conservatory, and reports of that interview note that she studied both acting and singing. Her musical work has included singing with the Cretan musician Loudovikos ton Anogeion, whose Athens Concert Hall programme lists her as a vocalist. Many Greek viewers first knew her from television: she played Daisy (Νταίζη) in the series Τα μυστικά της Εδέμ (The Secrets of Eden), and she says people still talk to her about that role and about the series Της αγάπης μαχαιριά (Love’s Knife Wound).

A theatre production changed the direction of her career. She met the composer Thanos Mikroutsikos in Themis Moumoulidis’s music-theatre show Ταξίδι στον Σταυρό του Νότου (Journey to the Southern Cross), about the life and work of the poet Nikos Kavvadias. When the production toured Greece in 2017, she was one of its three singers. She has said that Mikroutsikos saw something in her, encouraged her towards a more demanding path as a singer and became her mentor. Her first personal album was made with him and the lyricist Lina Nikolakopoulou. After his death she continued to sing his songs, including at a tribute concert in Athens in January 2020. On screen she later starred in the series Έρωτας φυγάς (Fugitive Love), and in 2026 she was in the cast of the ERT1 period drama Από ήλιο σε ήλιο (From Sun to Sun), set on the island of Serifos.

Her recordings and stage work centre on Greek-language song. In 2011 she sang Έχω ρίζα στον αέρα (I Have a Root in the Air), with lyrics by Odysseas Ioannou, as the lead song of the composer Michalis Nikoloudis’s Polymusic album of the same name, on which Despina Chatzinikolaou is also credited as a singer. A news report on the release described her voice as deep and sensual.

Her main recording is Στην ομίχλη των καιρών (In the Mist of Time), released by Spider Music in 2017. All the music is by Mikroutsikos, who also played piano and keyboards and shared the arrangements with Thymios Papadopoulos. Most of the lyrics are by Lina Nikolakopoulou, with others by Alkis Alkaios, Giannis Doukas and Manos Eleftheriou. Track titles include Κάτι θάλασσες (Some Seas) and Ρώτα να σου πουν τα χιόνια (Ask the Snows to Tell You). In Journey to the Southern Cross the singers also appeared as characters on stage, so singing and acting met in one performance. At the Athens Concert Hall tribute to Mikroutsikos on 20 January 2020, a sold-out evening, she shared the stage with Giorgos Dalaras, Manolis Mitsias, Rita Antonopoulou and other singers of his songs. Her work shows how a Greek song can travel between a record, a theatre production and a concert.

Polychronidi belongs to a generation of performers who keep the songs of Mikroutsikos and the poetry of Kavvadias alive on Greek stages, while also working in popular television drama. For a learner, her two professions suggest a clear language task. Listen to the title song of Στην ομίχλη των καιρών and notice the voice. Then write an original rehearsal timetable in Greek for one day, using two phrases from this page: πρόβα τραγουδιού (song rehearsal) and πρόβα παράστασης (show rehearsal). For example: Στις δέκα έχω πρόβα τραγουδιού (At ten I have a song rehearsal). Add a time for each rehearsal and read your timetable aloud. These practice sentences are our own and are not taken from her songs.

• She met Thanos Mikroutsikos through a stage show about the poet Nikos Kavvadias.
• Her album Στην ομίχλη των καιρών (In the Mist of Time) has lyrics by four different lyricists.
• She played Daisy in the television series Τα μυστικά της Εδέμ (The Secrets of Eden).
• She has called her work with Mikroutsikos “a gift of life”.