➡️ Watch “Total Disguise” with Helena Paparizou and Serhat

GREECE – Elena Paparizou was born on 31 January 1982 in Borås, Västergötland, Sweden; she was the youngest child of Greek parents Georgios Paparizos (1948-2008) and Efrosynë “Froso” Paparizou. Elena’s parents were from the Karditsa region; she has a sister Aretë, known as Rita, and a brother Konstantinos, known as “Dinos.” Paparizou’s parents met and married in her mother’s hometown and moved to Borås in 1970.

In 1985, the family moved back to Greece to live in Volos with relatives because Elena had contracted asthma and her lungs could not cope with the cold Scandinavian climate. After two years, she was well enough for the family to return to live in Gothenburg, Sweden. As a result of the trip to Greece, Paparizou spoke Greek as a first language and did not make friends with many Swedish children, because she attended a Greek-language school.Paparizou continues to suffer from breathing problems and often carries an inhaler on-stage.

Paparizou became interested in the arts at a young age, attending singing, dancing and acting classes alongside her academic studies. She began lessons in piano, ballet and Greek dance at seven years of age, and performed for the first time in front of a Greek audience when she was eleven, singing Christos Dantis’ “Moro Mou”. Two years later, Paparizou had decided she wanted to be a singer and began to study Greek music.

By the age of fourteen, Elena Paparizou had formed her first group, Soul Funkomatic with three Hispanic teenagers. They played hip hop music while saving money to record songs; they disbanded two years later. On 29 October 1998, thirteen of Paparizou’s close friends died in the Gothenburg nightclub fire during a hip hop party, when sixty-three people died and more than two hundred were injured. She had begged her mother to let her go to the party, but was not allowed to attend. After losing her friends, Paparizou decided to abandon singing. She started classes at the Art Performing School where she studied theater, acting, television and directing.

She participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 and afterwards became popular in Greece. She won the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “My Number One” on behalf of Greece.

Serhat was born on October 24, 1964 in İstanbul, Turkey. His father, İsmail Hakkı, was a naval officer who was born in Trabzon where his mother was born, too. He attended a primary school in İcadiye, Üsküdar, and then Deutsche Schule Istanbul (German High School) in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. He graduated from Faculty of Dentistry of Istanbul University in 1988. In 1990, he completed two months of compulsory military service in Burdur.

In 1994, Serhat established his own production company, End Productions. After an agreement with TRT, the company became the producer of the quiz show named Riziko!, Turkish version of the American quiz show Jeopardy!. Serhat was also the host of the show that started to air on October 3, 1994.

In 1995, he received two Golden Butterfly (Turkish: Altın Kelebek) awards, one for “Best Male Host of the Year” and one for “Best Quiz Show of the Year” for Riziko!. In 1996 he again received the award for “Best Quiz Show of the Year”. The show lasted over 430 episodes and ended at the end of 1996. A game show named Hedef 4 (Turkish version of Connect Four) that started to air on TRT 1 in 1996, was produced by End Productions. In 1997, he started to produce the game show Altına Hücum (Turkish version of Midas Touch) for Kanal 6 which ended after 72 episodes in the same year.

In 1998, Riziko! returned to television and was aired on Kanal 7 hosted by Serhat. In the same year, Hedef 4 started to air on Kanal 7, too and ended the following year. Riziko! ended in 1999 and in the same year, Serhat started to host a talk entertainment on Kanal 7 named Serhat’la Rizikosuz which ended after six episodes. After a few months, Riziko! returned to Kanal 7 in 2000 and was continued 65 episodes.

In September 2005, Serhat co-hosted Show TV’s Kalimerhaba with Katerina Moutsatsou, a TV show which was produced by End Productions. At the end of 2009, Serhat created a dance orchestra “Caprice the Show” with 18 musicians and made numerous performances in the following years.

With his company, he also organizes some annual events such as High Schools Music Contest (Liselerarası Müzik Yarışması, 1998–present), Megahit-International Mediterranean Song Contest (Megahit-Uluslararası Akdeniz Şarkı Yarışması, 2002-2004) and Dance Marathon (Dans Maratonu, dance competition between high schools and universities separately, 2009–present).

LYRICS

Under the blue sky
It’s just you and I
And I wonder why
I can’t be with
Anyone else but you

Is it something in your eyes
Or your innocent lies
That makes me feel like I’m lost here
I’m wandering around in total disguise

It was extraordinary
And for one too many
I loved you sevdim seni
Sen de sev beni , sev beni

Since you could make me smile
Then you could stop the world for a while
Sometimes you make me cry
Then you give me wings and make me fly

I hope it’s true
And I’m with you
We’ll go on trip
That will never be through
Whatever you do
Tell me you feel the same way too