Emerging from Mediterranean shores, multi-faceted vocalist and awarded songwriter Elina Laivera has come to deliver a brand new musical sensation. The phenomenal siren showcases vocal strength & versatility with an impressive 4 octave range and that unique soul that sets her apart, shinning through her signature autobiographical songwriting.

‘’In her own words…’’

My name is Elina Laivera, I am a singer, awarded songwriter and voice coach. I was born in Athens, Greece until 2014 when I relocated to Germany after spending some time in the UK, performing and making friends.

I started playing the piano around age 6 and through the years I went on to take lessons on classical orchestra flute and the saz, European and Byzantine Music Theory, Solfege, Kinesiology and Stage Performance.

I loved music but I was also into sports. For 11 years I was semi-professionally into rhythmic gymnastics until I gave it all up to focus entirely on music. 

I went on tour for the first time aged 14 and I’ve been on the road since then as a professional musician. 

Through the years I have toured with various professional voice ensembles usually as the youngest member, singing lead roles from all sorts of ranges in musicals such as Mary Magdalene (Jesus Christ Superstar), which is normally for an alto voice and Christine (The Phantom of the Opera), which is normally for soprano coloratura. My versatile voice range has allowed me to express my artistry in very many ways.

I have been blessed to perform on some of the biggest stages both in my homeland, Greece (such as The Athens Concert Hall – Μέγαρο Μουσικής Αθηνών and more) as well as abroad (such as Oktoberhallen in Belgium, the Capitol and Ebertbad Theaters in Germany and more). 

I got to record several albums for various bands & projects and eventually I built my own music studio in Germany, where I produce my own records and coach artists on voice technique, songwriting and stage performance.

My music education has been a most wonderful journey. I have had the opportunity to study both classical and modern singing (National Conservatory / State Conservatory / Orfeion Conservatory, Athens, Greece), World Music (James Cook University, Australia). 

I have been blessed to learn from some of the best mentors out there such as Jeff Ramsey (Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion), Adriana Balic (Pink), Nikos Spanatis, Cari Cole, Jan Shapiro and others.

Since 2017 I am a Certified Specialist on Vocal Styles (Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA).

Before choosing to go independent as an artist in 2018, I had come to achieve a highly praised career in the female-fronted-metal genre for nearly 10 years, counting 12 releases worldwide, 3 signed band projects & numerous tours across Europe. 

In 2018 I made the decision to switch genres and start releasing more pop/rnb oriented music to allow my songwriting and singing to shine differently. I love change and transformation and I am invested in following my passion wherever it leads me artistically and creatively and while it was scary to leave behind an audience I had been building for 10 years, this new journey has given me so much joy and fulfillment and has blessed me with new friendships.

My debut solo album ‘’Alchemy’’ was released in September 2019 and it marked my first release as an independent artist, producing and releasing my own music with a sole partner, multi-instrumentalist and music producer Jovan Ducret.

Since then, I have been releasing new music regularly.

The themes I love to touch upon through my music are mostly revolving around love – for others and for the Self, empowerment, personal spirituality, freedom, living a life that supports one’s Heart. Music is one of the many mediums I like to use to inspire healing.

As for my sound, I like to mix up everything but keeping it always classy. I like how my music was described in a review recently: 

‘’Avant garde and quietly sentimental, (Elina’s music) is brimming with class and stays above the fray, never descending into a cheap pop sound’‘ – stepkid.com

That feels quite representative. 

But…why don’t you judge for yourself…? Check out my music!

I make my music with love – enjoy!

xoxo, Elina

Elina's

MUSIC TIMELINE

  1. 2004
  2. 2007
  3. 2008
  4. 2009
  5. 2010
  6. 2011
  7. 2012
  8. 2013
  9. 2014
  10. 2015
  11. 2016
  12. 2017
  13. 2018
  14. 2019
  15. 2020
  16. 2021

  1. Music Gymnasium of Piraeus (Athens, GR)

    Where everything officially began... Aged 12 I auditioned and ranked 4th to enter the Music Gymnasium of Piraeus. Previously, I had been taking piano lessons here and there and I was an active member of various music ensembles (mostly choirs) but being allowed to study at the MGoP felt a lot like Harry Potter going to Hogwarts! For 3 whole years I got to study many forms of music from choir lessons and 3 different musical instruments to history of music and music theoretics, voice placement and symphonic orchestra classes. It was the coolest school to be in as a teenager and with the symphonic orchestra class we won several consecutive years all the awards wherever we went to compete within Greece. That time signaled the beginning for many things for me as a young musician. From founding my first rock band to writing and learning to arrange my own music. Most of all, the feeling of belonging in a place where being unique was celebrated and nobody was looked at as ''weird'' - that was the best memory I'll always carry from my time at that school.

  2. Athens Choir Ensemble

    Right before exiting the Music School of Piraeus I was discovered by maestro Dimitris Karavelis who invited me to his Athens Choir Ensemble. I was the youngest member for many years until my departure in 2013. With the ACE, we came to tour all around Greece (the ensemble had over 200 concerts under its belt at the time). Our first tour abroad was in Italy - I was so young I had to bring my mom with me!

  3. State Conservatory (Nikaia, Athens, GR)

    This is where I continued my studies on Classical Piano, Music Theory & Solfege after exiting the Music Gymnasium to pursue different school directions.

  4. Founding Seduce The Heaven

    It was then that with a fellow musician we founded a progressive metal band. Another friend found the name for us and here we had it, Seduce The Heaven. We started demoing our first songs at the house of the band's guitarist while i was still finishing school.

  5. National Conservatory (Athens, GR)

    In 2010 along with my activities with the Athens Choir Ensemble I started studying classical singing alongside internationally acclaimed countertenor Nikos Spanatis. I went on to study with Nikos Spanatis for the next 5-6 years.

  6. Seduce The Heaven EP Release

    In 2011, as Seduce The Heaven we released our first EP which included 5 songs. The goal was to introduce ourselves to the public. The press was overjoyed and we attracted a very loyal audience around Europe pretty quickly considering we didn't have a management and we were solely using social media at a time when that wasn't the norm.

  7. First Breakthroughs

    In 2012 momentum around Seduce The Heaven had been significant and we were on magazines, radio and tv shows giving interviews and presenting our work. We were still working on our debut album when festivals in Europe started booking us already. In October 2012, we played the at the time very prestigious MFVF Festival which was the pinnacle event in our music genre. We earned our most loyal fanbase from those early opportunities preparing the stage for our debut album. At the time, Michael Alexander, a guitarist from Mexico invited me to do a feature on one song for an international all-star project he was putting together. I came in to write for one song and I ended up being made a full time member of the project, singing alongside Mark Jansen of EPICA, Charlie Dominici (former DREAM THEATER) and other major names of the symphonic and progressive metal scene. That project was UNIVERSAL MIND PROJECT, for which I wrote and sang until my departure in early 2018. January 2012 I was featured in the album 'Happy Deathday' by gothic metal band SadDolls and I was featured as a guest choir member with the Athens Choir Ensemble on the charity album released by Greek soprano Anastasia Zannis, recorded live at the Pallas Theater for 'ELPIS' the biggest charity foundation for children in Greece. In Autumn 2012 I auditioned for and joined the EKLIPSIS Voice Orchestra in Athens, where I stayed, performing mostly baroque repertoire until my departure in 2014.

  8. 'Field Of Dreams' Album Release

    Our album with Seduce The Heaven was released in January 2013 independently, distributed from FYI Records in Europe and through SPINNIN' RECORDS in Japan. The momentum was huge. We released 5 singles and 3 music videos. We were in magazines all around Europe and Japan (Metal Hammer, BURRN!, Rock Hard and more). In July 2013 I left the band due to personal and artistic differencies. Was a crazy trip for sure but it was time for a break! I went on to tour in England and Belgium between August-November 2013 helping out at a friend's band from England, called Apparition. The chemistry we had was amazing and I was asked to become a permanent member but my other music obligations did not allow for it to happen.

  9. Relocating to Germany

    February 20th 2014 found me landing in Frankfurt, relocating permanently to Germany from Greece to further my music studies and work on my own music career. I took a year out in the German nature writing new music for my debut solo album ''Kaleidoscope'' which was however later scrapped due to change in musical direction.

  10. Voice Coaching Career

    In 2015 I started working as a voice coach in Germany and soon I started cooperating with the State on musical and cultural projects. In the next 5 years I went on to coach over 1000 artists and vocalists. My work as voice coach was noticed by several private and state-funded academies. In December 2015, a composition I contributed vocals and lyrics to for a young band I was coaching ended up on the Charts for nearly 13 weeks and earned the band the second Rock & Pop Preis 2015. That year I started doing ghost-writing for various studio productions that ended up being awarded or in the charts.

  11. 'The Jaguar Priest' & 'The Four Seasons' Album Releases

    In April 2016, Universal Mind Project released it's debut album ''The Jaguar Priest'' including names such as Mark Jansen [Epica, Mayan], Charlie Dominici [ex. Dream Theater], Mike Lepond [Symphony X] and more. My contribution was compositions and lyrics for all songs apart from 2 songs and I shared lead vocals with Scandinavian powerhouse vocalist Henrik Båth [Darkwater] and others. The artwork was made by Jan Yrlund (Apocalyptica). 3 singles and a music video were released to promote the album. The album scored various positions in the Amazon music charts in several countries. Later the same year, I worked with Italian keyboardist Mistheria (Bruce Dickinson and other projects) and recorded vocals for a track of the Vivaldi Metal Project's album ''The Four Seasons'' which was released also in 2016 including british keyboardist Rick Wakeman (YES), Anna Portalupi (Fergie, Tarja Turunen), the Academic Choir "Angel Manolov", the Sinfonietta Consonus Orchestra and more. My poetry collection ''The Secret Life of A Daydreamer'' was published independently in September 2016 receiving laudatory reviews. In December 2016, I released the musical experiment ''Wonderland'' with keyboardist and fellow Universal Mind Project musician Jonah Weingarten. That same year I obtained my certification on World Music from the James Cook University (Open University, Australia) which further helped me on my work leading music education workshops in cooperation with the German State for young people with immigrant and refugee background from countries such as Syria, Iran, Turkey a.o.

  12. Departure from Metal & First Solo Ventures

    In 2017 I started focusing more and more on performing solo shows and experimenting with lighter sounds than metal music. I started demoing my first pop compositions in my own bedroom and searching for producers to help me bring my vision to life. I presented some of my first compositions live at small caffees in Germany. In September 2017 I sat down for the first time with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jovan Ducret and we brainstormed on some of my compositions. Ducret sent me soon after a demo of some work he did on a song I wrote (''Alchemy''). I was so impressed by how our visions just matched that I was convinced Jovan was the producer in whose hands i could trust my new music. I communicated my departure from metal music to any projects I was involved with and started preparing my new adventure. That same year I obtained my Vocal Styles Specialist certification from the legendary Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA).

  13. HAUNTED & Own Studio Building

    January 2018 found me officially announcing my departure from metal music to the public. In May 2018, I released another musical experiment, ''One'', a light symphonic pop ballad produced with Jovan Ducret. In June 2018, ''HAUNTED'' my first official single as a solo artist was released independently and the journey began. At that time, me and my official now partner, Jovan Ducret, started looking for locations to house our own music studio. The goal was achieved and the rest of 2018 was spent with us renting a huge platteau in an old bunker from the second world war to renovate it and build threre our studio from the ground up. The project was crowned with success. Elina's Voice Studio was also housed in the music studio and my voice coaching academy had a home of its own, allowing me to now run my own voice coaching business.

  14. Debut Solo Album 'ALCHEMY'

    In September 2019 my album 'Alchemy' was released independently along with the first single 'Hater', receiving ecstatic reviews and laudatory press coverage from webzines & blogs on the classy pop/r&b sound of the album. In the digital era, where independent music artists are being discovered through playlists on streaming services, 'Alchemy' amassed an impressive amount of listings on Spotify. In November 2019, we took the album on stage, presenting it for the first time with a full band at the legendary Ebertbad in Oberhausen, Germany.

  15. The... almost cancelled 'Alchemy' era

    The year started with me performing shows as a member of various professional ensembles in Germany and getting ready for the ''2020 ALCHEMY TOUR''. Following the warm up show in November 2019, we were planning to be on the road to promote 'Alchemy' all throughout Spring and Summer when the Coronavirus hit on a global scale. Instead of touring the album, 2 singles and music videos where released, the atmospheric ''I Didn't Die'' and the melancholic ''Alchemy'' both shot in 2019 in Germany and in the south of France respectively. The album spent 15 weeks in the TOP 20 in Germany (Apple Music Top 100 R&B/Soul Album Charts) peaking on #18

  16. REVIVAL

    Early 2021 found me releasing a new song each month. January 2021, my atmospheric rendition of TOTO's ''I Will Remember'' was released produced by Jovan Ducret, receiving positive reviews internationally. In February, the original 'HELIANTHUS' was released sonically smashing all expectations and revealing a new musical era for me as an artist. March 2021, the ballad ''Picture'' went out into the world. My first Christmas record came together later that year and currently we are wrapping up the production. Stay tuned on my Spotify and other social media profiles for new releases!

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