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Sertab Erener was born in Istanbul in 1964. After studying music at various Conservatoirs in Turkey she began working in clubs around Istanbul with her own band. By the end of the 80s she had her lucky break when she began work as a backing vocalist for Sezen Aksu, then regarded as the queen of Turkish pop.
After being encouraged to step from the background to centre stage she immediately found her feet and has since released six successful albums. She is in demand for work with other artist and has duetted with Ricky Martin and the singer representing Greece this year, Mando. Sertab represented Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with "Every Way That I Can", and was the winner.
Mando (Adamantia Stamatopoulou) is a Greek singer. She was born in Piraeus on April 13 and raised in Athens. Mando studied piano and music theory at the National Conservatoire. Due to her talent in music which was shown from her early years, she was considered a miracle child. When she was only 13 she had a small part in "Jesus Christ Superstar". At the age of 18, Mando signed her first record contract with CBS. For five years, she studied singing with Hal Schaeffer in America. Mando''''s first attempt to enter the Eurovision Song Contest was in 1989, when she ended up 2nd, only one point behind Marianna. She brought an action to the Greek television, ERT, because one of the jury members didn''''t vote. She won but because it was too late to change anything, Marianna went to Eurovision. Mando was chosen to represent Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Never let you go". She ended up languishing in a lowly 17th place, despite apparently using the normally reliable tactic of assiduously ensuring she was the least covered-up female contestant of the evening. Her extraordinary choice of costume prompted a typically sardonic aside from the UK''''s commentator Terry Wogan, who enquired if anyone had a whip handy.
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