Monika

Monika was born Lemonia Christodoulou in Athens in 1985; her family comes from Astros in Arcadia. Because of her father’s work as a doctor, she spent her childhood in several Greek towns, including Corinth, Lamia and Karpenisi. She plays several instruments, among them guitar, saxophone and accordion, and she studied mathematics. In a 2017 interview she remembered going to the mathematics school after big concerts. She also said that she had been writing Greek songs since the age of seventeen, although for years she sang mainly in English.

Her first album, Avatar, was released by the Athens label Archangel Music in May 2008 and went platinum in Greece; Martin Wenk of the American band Calexico played on it. Exit followed in 2010. In 2013 she wrote the music for a staging of Sophocles’ Antigone at the Benaki Museum. In 2014 she sang at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus during the Athens Festival. Secret in the Dark, recorded in New York with the producer Homer Steinweiss, came out in 2015. In 2017 she was living in Los Angeles. In July 2020 she returned to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus with the concert Κάτι ανθίζει στο Ηρώδειο (Something Is Blooming at the Herodeion).

Monika’s first albums are in English. Over the Hill (2008) became her best-known song. In a 2015 interview she explained that she first wrote it on the piano and then recorded it on guitar. She described another song, Bloody Sth, as a Greek-style χασάπικο (hasapiko, a traditional dance) with English lyrics. In 2020 she summed up this approach herself: she writes Greek melodies with English words, so that her songs can reach listeners abroad and still keep a Greek character.

Στάλα (Drop) changed direction. It came out in 2017 as her first Greek single, a song written years earlier and recorded in a seaside house in Arcadia. Some listeners criticised the simple home recording, and she later recorded it again. The new version appeared on Ο κήπος είναι ανθηρός (The Garden Is Blooming), her first Greek album, released in December 2019. On it she uses Greek song forms such as the ballad, the island song, the μπάλος (balos) and the ζεϊμπέκικο (zeibekiko). The album also includes Σε ποιον έρωτα ζω (What Love I Am Living), which she wrote at eighteen. In 2021 Royal Music released an album of her Greek-titled songs from Maggie Gyllenhaal’s film The Lost Daughter, with Στάλα among them.

Monika’s path shows that a Greek artist can build a career in English and then return to Greek without leaving either language behind. Her songs have reached the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, international audiences and an international film. For a learner, her catalogue is a ready-made listening exercise. Play a short part of Over the Hill and a short part of Στάλα (Drop). For each one, write στα αγγλικά (in English) or στα ελληνικά (in Greek). Then add one word for the mood, for example: Το τραγούδι είναι ήρεμο (The song is calm). This is our own practice sentence, not a lyric. Compare your word with a friend’s word and say which song you prefer.

• Her real first name is Lemonia; Monika is the name she performs under.
• She has said that she has been writing Greek songs since she was seventeen.
• Her debut album Avatar went platinum in Greece.
• Her Greek song Στάλα (Drop) is heard in the 2021 film The Lost Daughter.