Lia Vissi

Olympia (Lia) Vissi (born 20 December 1955) is a Greek Cypriot singer, songwriter, composer and politician, most notable for her two participations in the Eurovision Song Contest and being older sister of Greek Cypriot singer Anna Vissi.

Career

Vissi participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twice. In 1979, she was a supporting singer for Elpida, representing Greece and 1984 saw Vissi participate in the Cypriot national song contest with the song Chtes, which came second.

Finally, in 1985 she represented Cyprus in the contest as a solo singer, singing her own composition To Katalava Arga, to which she also penned the lyrics. The Cypriot entry came 16th out of 19 songs, receiving 15 points, including 8 (rather than the usual maximum 12) from Greece. Interestingly, Cyprus also gave Greece only 8 points this year and total score of the Greek entry also totalled 15, but due to different score composition, the Eurovision scoring rules determined the Greek entry was eventually place higher.

Vissi took part in the 1991 Greek final for Eurovision, singing the anthem Agapi ti Gi. She was placed second behind Sophia Vossou. In 1992, Greek television decided not to televise the national final. Vissi submitted a song for consideration, Kapios, and found herself voted into second place yet again.

In 2006, Vissi embarked on a political career, running for a seat in the House of Representatives of Cyprus in the June 21st elections. She represented the Democratic Rally in the Larnaca District but, despite the fact that her sister Anna had her widely-publicized third Eurovision Song Contest performance the night before, she was not elected.

References

• The Diggiloo Trush - Eurovision Song Contest Information
• An interview with Lia Vissi regarding her running-up for the office (Greek)
• Dutch Wikipedia article on Lia Vissi