Natalia (Greek singer)

1983-1999: Early Life

Natalia Doussopoulou was born on April 8, 1983 in Athens, Greece. Six months after she was born, her family moved to London, England. Until age 14, Natalia attended a Greek school in England called the Hellenic College of London. During this time, Natalia is a competitive swimmer in one of England's best swimming teams. Throughout her swimming experience, she participates in the World Cup games of Glasgow, London, and Greece. Later that year, Natalia travels to Florida for one year in order to attend the Pine Crest Secondary school, one of the best and most demanding schools in the United States. Afterwards, she continues her education in the American school of London. During this time, she quickly gains interest and passion for music. Her talent for music is quickly recognized. She starts recording her first demo song in London and records her later demos in Sweden to strengthen her repertoire. Anna Vissi and high school friend Nikos Karvelas proposed her the idea of being a part of Anna Vissi's summer show at Asteria Club in Glyfada during the summer of 1999.

2000-Present: Career

During the same summer, she met Turkish pop singer Mustafa Sandal who immediately proposed a duet with her for his upcoming album Akışına Bırak. The song was originally a Greek/Egyptian song called "ELEOS" which was originally performed by Angela Dimitriou and Amr Diab. A music video was filmed following the success of the song and a national tour followed. After her success with Mustafa Sandal, Natalia moved to New York for around one year to record more music and more demos that included a wider variety elements and influences. During this time, Natalia met P. Diddy and other various rappers. She collaborated with one of P. Diddy's ex-producers from Bad Boy Records and she recorded an original soul demo with rock elements. After writing and recording songs in Delaware, Natalia scanned the New York City market to find the best record label for herself. This search included Arista, Murder Inc., Def Jam Records, Sony, Universal, j Records and many others. Natalia had many opportunities but refused them because she felt that none were the next best step at that time. She then flew to Los Angeles and met with Jimmy Iovine, the chairman of Universal Records and other music mongoles to further her music. During this time, Natalia made some arrangements that would have a lasting impact on her future in the music business.

At the same time, her success in Turkey was soaring, so she returned and recorded a second duet with Mustafa Sandal for the song "Anaveis Foties" (called "Aşka Yürek Gerek" in Turkey), as well as duets for previous Sandal hits "Aya Benzer" (also translated into English as "Like the Moon") and "Yok Gerekçem" in Mustafa Sandal's new album Maxi Sandal 2003 / Moonlight. "Aşka Yürek Gerek" reached number one in Turkey, making Natalia one of the youngest singers ever to reach number one in Turkey. Due to soaring fame and popularity, Turkish record label NR1 ("Number One") signed her on their label and released her first Maxi Single (EP/hybrid album) titled Ola T'alla which reached number one in foreign album charts. This also made Natalia the first foreign artist to produce and release an album only in Turkey. Because of her popularity in Turkey, she was offered a role in the Turkish show "Yabancı Damat" ("Foreign Groom") as the girlfriend of the groom.^[1] Her success in the show won the cast the best TV series of the year in 2004. The show was translated into Greek and was aired by MEGA which raised awareness and interest in Natalia. During this time, she left NR1 and signed onto V2 Greece in 2005 as she started producing part of her second album in Turkey. This album is a crossover of Turkish and Greek music and was originally released in December, 2005 in Greece and the beginning of 2006 in Turkey. The album is a unique Alternative/Rock album and except for two songs is all written and composed by Natalia. The Turkish version of the album consists of five of the songs translated into Turkish.

There she produced a Greek album, but typically hired Turkish producers and Turkish musicians. The album was released to great acclaim and ‘Natalia’ was soon performing in front of 3000+ crowds 5 nights a week for 6 months in Athens alongside some of the Europe’s biggest stars, including Antonis Remos and Michalis Hatzigiannis.

“The sexiest import! Natalia has returned to Greece from England traversing our borders and our hearts at the same time. Having lived in London, she exhales a natural classiness, which no doubt women will appreciate equally.” In Style Magazine

On completion of this project and in typical Dusso style, she decided to set herself a new challenge in the country in which she grew up; she returned to London to expand her horizons, build a band and explore her everlasting love of rock and roll.

Swiftly immersing herself in the London rock scene, working with exciting young writers and with producer Tony Platt (AC/DC, Iron Maiden) by her side, her star continues to rise in these pastures new.

Having found an exceptional group of likeminded musicians from the likes of Little Man Tate and the Razor Light touring band, ‘Dusso and the Holy Smokes!’ were born drawing their influences from psychedelic sounds of the 60s and 70s, profound poetic lyrics echoing the spirit of classic Dylan, and infusing it all with homage to new wave English rock.