What a pleasure it was to hear the Lady of laika live in London! Angela Dimitriou has a sensational voice and her hit tracks kept pumping one after the other.

There was a lively party atmosphere at the Regency Banqueting Suite on Saturday 17th December, with people of all different ethnicities uniting under one umbrella to celebrate with Parikiaki its festive dinner & dance.

The entertainment kicked off with music from three amazing supporting artists. Vasilis Fotopoulos and

Anneta Arseni performed familiar hits from well known Greek performers. The set ended with the community’s very own Tony Panayi who has attracted a great deal of attention with his newly released single To Kalitero Pedi, written in tribute to the late Pantelis Pantelides. The much anticipated song caused an emotional spur amongst the guests before changing up the rhythm completely, encouraging everyone to get into the party atmosphere, the perfect prelude to Angela Dimitriou’s performance.

Vasilis Fotopoulos

As the Lady made her way to the stage, everyone was upstanding, fully aware of her musical prowess, waiting in eagerness to hear their favourite tracks live in London, something they haven’t been able to experience since her last performance in the capital back in 2005.

Flowers were thrown in ‘ploumisma’ fashion, drinks were clinking as all cheered in a sing-a-long, getting merrier song after song; the only thing that wasn’t thrown about was the crockery!

A dominant figure in Greek music, the Lady commanded that dance floor and she had people dancing when she wanted them to dance, lifting them up with those classic tracks from her vareda Fotia Sta Savvatovrada and Kane Stin Akri to upbeat contemporary sounding tsiftetello-sirto tracks like Ela Ela and Fillo Ke Ftero.

Anneta Arseni

The dance floor was packed throughout the Lady’s performance; there was no room for the archetypical vareda showdowns with people jarring to find a little spot of the limelight. Everyone waited patiently to clinch a snapshot or selfie with the singer to capture the moment as who knows when they’ll have a chance to get so close to a singer of this status again.

The venue provided that intimacy between the singer and fans – Angela provided this opportunity countless times by going around to as many tables as she could! Fans crowded round to seal the opportunity to sing if even just a few lyrics whilst in her embrace.

Tony Panayi

Things really erupted once the Lady began a set of traditional Cypriot songs; Ta Rialia in particular really got the Cypriots amongst the crowd going, as although it’s great singing this rhythmic classic in the comfort of your own home, one feels a sense of pride when a singer from Greece performs this cheeky number.

Most of us have grown up hearing the Lady’s music and what is a bit of an anomaly is how her voice is timeless. She hails from the eras of Stratos Dionysiou, Dimitris Mitropanos and of course Stelios Kazantzides and has shown that her style prospers even with today’s Greek performers; her hit single Come Back featuring Master Tempo, competes with the likes of Stan, Paola and Stavento!

Parikiaki put on a show getting you all ripe and ready for the winter holiday season! From all here, we wish you a very Merry Christmas, Kala Hristougenna, Kales Giortes! Enjoy the festivities!

Contributor: George Charalambous