SARBEL ONLINE NETWORK

He was named after the Maronite Saint Charbel and his name is correctly pronounced ″Sharbel″, but since standard Greek lacks a ″sh″ sound, it is pronounced ″Sarbel″ according to the Greek transliteration (″Σαρμπu03adλ″).

Sarbel Michael was born on the 14^th May in Southgate London where he grew up and received a Jesuit education at St Ignatius College in Enfield. Sarbel started his professional career at the age of 5 and until the age of 16 he performed in many Operas at the English National Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden having also recorded Tosca in English for Chandos Recordings as the Shepherd Boy.

During his school years Sarbel was known to be ′highly motivated′ and ′extremely polite′. Despite many adversities in his private life he continued his Classical training and performances under the guidance of Opera Singer and Tutor Ms Jenny Lillestone. From a very young age Sarbel was renowned in the Classical world for his angelic 5–Octave Vocal Range.

At 18, looking for some change in his life for his gap year, Sarbel went to Crete, where he sang at the Heraklion Palladium for an English touring Company. Sarbel went on to study Music at University but in the final year of his degree returned to Athens, Greece on Erasmus. It was whilst he was attended Athens University studying Ancient Theatre that he was discovered by Yiannis Doulamis (Producer with SonyBMG Greece) who signed him on for a six-year recording contract.

Within the year he shot into the limelight in when he recorded the oriental hit Se Pira Sovara, featuring popular Greek songstress Irini Merkouri. This Debut single introduced the young singer not only to fans in Greece, but also across the Middle East (especially Cyprus and Lebanon). In early 2005, he released his first solo album, entitled Paraxeno Synesthima. This album was received to great reviews and acclaims and subsequently went Gold.

It was re-released with the Wella-sponsored song Thelo na Petaxo and a bonus track of Boro Boro, which he made famous during his MAD Award Ceremony appearance where he also won the BEST NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR AWARD beating many nominees from the famous reality shows on TV at that time.

In July 2006, he released his second album, Sahara. That same year he recorded a duet with Greek singer Natassa Theodoridou called Na′ Soun Thalassa which was also included as a bonus song on the album.  His professional and personal relationship with Natassa Theodoridou was instantly bonded by the success of their duet which also featured on her Album released the same year. They went on to work together all over Greece and Australia over the following two years. The tracks Taxe Mou and Sahara instantly became hits from the Album together with Enas Apo Mas which was a Greek cover of the Gareth Gates song “Stupid Mistake”.  That same year, he once again performed at the Mad Music awards taking his popularity to a new height. This time he performed the song Thriller showcasing his English language talent.

Seeing his growing popularity, Greek television ERT asked Sarbel to compete for a ticket to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, Finland. Sarbel had to compete against established singer Christos Dantis and reality Pop–Idol runner up Tampta. Sarbel enlisted the help of popular Greek-Swedish composers Alex Papacostantinou, Marcus Englof, and Mack to write his song and subsequently Yassou Maria was born!

On February 28, 2007 Sarbel performed the song live against the two singers for the ticket to Helsinki. Although the performance had some sound problems, he went on to gain the majority of combined televotes and jury votes, therey winning the contest. Following his win, Sarbel toured Europe to promote his song. He also filmed the video clip for the song and changed the scene performance around a bit. The song eventually won 7^th place for Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in what was later labelled “the year the original Eurovision Song Contest died” due to the bloc voting. Greece was the only Western European Country left in the top 16 of that year.

On 12 March 2007, Sahara was re–released as Sahara (Euro Edition) and feature the Yassou Maria CD Single as a bonus. The CD single for Yassou Maria was released on 7 March 2007. The CD single includes Yassou Maria, Yassou Maria (Greeklish version), Enas Apo Mas (Special Holiday Mix) and a duet with Persian singer Cameron Cartio called Mi Chica. Mi Chica is recorded in a mixture of Greek, English, Spanish and Persian and is Latin in style with Greek pop elements

After Eurovision Song Contest, Sarbel toured Cyprus with his dancing troupe and later Australia d with Natassa Theodoridou with whom he also performed in Thessaloniki for the summer season together with Nikos Kourkoulis. Following this he took some much needed time off from music to relax and go back to his studies. He did not join any singers in Athens in the 2007–2008 winter season, or release a new album. Following Elli Kokkinou′s departure from club Votanikos due to her pregnancy, Sarbel enticed back to work by Natassa and Nikos Kourkoulis and he took Elli′s spot starting 6 January 2008. Whilst singing at Votanikos he recorded his new single Exo Trelathi which he presented at the Greek National Final 2008 on ERT. This was followed by the release of the album Kati San Esena.

In the Summer of 2008 he was invited to perform at the two day Cyprus Wine Festival of London which he happily accepted. Sarbel felt that “My performance at the Cyprus Wine Festival (in London) is my chance to give something back to my community.” Both peformances were completely sold out with thousands queuing outside as the doors were closed at Alexander Palace due to over–crowding.