''Pio Konta'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: ''Πιο κοντά''; ) is the second album released by Greek singer Kostas Martakis, released in Greece and Cyprus on 12 November 2009 by Universal Music Greece. The album has eleven songs in total, including two

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

songs. Furthermore, five songs were recorded and produced at Lionheart Studios in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The album went

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

within four days of its release, and was later certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

Production

Kostas Martakis collaborated with Swedish duo Holter/Erixson on five songs for the album, which were recorded and produced at Lionheart studios in

. Besides the title track and single "Pio Konta", Holter/Erixson also wrote an English-language version of that song titled "Dance on Me (Dam-Dam)" included as a bonus track, as well as composing three other dance songs on the album. "Diskola Na S'agapo" is produced by Holter/Erixson and

Bobby Ljunggren Bobby Ljunggren (born 6 June 1961) is a Swedish songwriter. He has entered the Eurovision Song Contest as a composer six times, five times for his native Sweden (1995, 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010), and once for Lithuania, in 2005. He is a veteran ...

, with music composition by Vasilis Vlahakis. Kostas Martakis also collaborated with duo Symphonic on the English language duet with Bulgarian singer Desi Slava titled "Agapi Mou (Loving U)". Additional songwriters include Hristodoulos Siganos and Valentino with "Glyko Koritsi" and Giorgos Papadopoulos with "Giati", while

singer–songwriter A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk- acoustic tradition with a guitar, although this role has ...

s have also contributed, including Greek rock musician Kostas Tournas with "Proti Mou Fora" and Grigoris Petrakos with "Kathe Proi".

Release

The release of ''Pio Konta'' marks Kostas Martakis' second studio album. Released on 12 November 2009 in Greece and Cyprus, it is Martakis' first album under his signing with Universal Music Greece. Beginning in 2009, Universal Music Greece's promotional campaign introduced new album packaging under a

fixed price A fixed price is a price designated for a good or a service that is neither subject to bargaining nor bartering. The price may be fixed since the seller has placed it, or given that the price is managed by the authorities under price regulati ...

sold through unconventional distribution channels. As a result, the album was released in

digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case A ...

packaging priced at 9.90 euro, notable for being about half of the average price of a CD album in the Greek market. The physical release was available for purchase at newsstand kiosks, as well as at traditional points of sale. Additionally for its first week of release, it was included as a bonus CD when purchasing the magazine ''Tiletheatis''. The album was once again circulated via print media the following year in May 2010, this time being bundled with newspaper ''Espresso News''.

Critical reception

Popular Cypriot music website music.net.cy proclaimed that Kostas Martakis is raising the bar for Greek pop music, as all eleven tracks have a unique sound under current Greek music standards lending to the fact that some of the tracks were produced in Sweden. They concluded that Martakis is ready to conquer the Greek pop music scene, while calling the album one of the best Greek pop albums of recent years.

Promotion

Leading up to the album's release, Martakis appeared on a number of television shows including "Mes Tin Kali Hara" (with Natalia Germanou) and "Kafes me tin Eleni" (with Eleni Menegaki) on

Alpha Channel In computer graphics, alpha compositing or alpha blending is the process of combining one image with a background to create the appearance of partial or full transparency. It is often useful to render picture elements (pixels) in separate pass ...

, as well as a sit down interview with Tatiana Stefanidou on "Axizi Na To Deis" on

ANT1 Antenna, better known as ANT1, is a free-to-air television network airing in Greece. The alternate spelling is wordplay in Greek; ''ena'' (ένα) is the Greek number ''1'' (one), thus ''ANT1'' is pronounced the same as ''Antenna'' (Αντένν ...

, where he also performed some songs off the album. Martakis also appeared on Dromos FM on 12 November 2009 where the station played his new songs over the course of the interview. For the winter 2009–2010 season, Martakis appeared weekly at club ''Theatro'' alongside Nikos Kourkoulis and Aggeliki Iliadi in support of ''Pio Konta''.

Track listing

Singles

"Pio Konta" :The lead single is the title-track "Pio Konta" and it was released as a digital download on 30 July 2009. The

electronic dance Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

single became a radio hit, topping several radio station charts. The single also marks Martakis' first collaboration with Swedish producer duo Holter/Erixson. A music video was released shortly after on 5 August 2009, premiering on Universal Music Greece's official Youtube channel. Directed by Dimitris Silvestrou, the video showcases Martakis in front of a giant video wall along with various dancers, singing to a woman standing across him. An English-language version of the song titled "Dance On Me (Dam-Dam)" is also included on the album. "Gliko Koritsi" :The second single, "Gliko Koritsi", was released as a digital download on 5 November 2009. Martakis had also performed this single at his appearance on "Mes Tin Kali Hara" in October. The single did not gain substantial airplay and was generally not presented during Martakis' promotions for the album. The song's

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

style is also substantially different from the other songs on the album. "Pote" :The third single and second music video, "Pote". "Agapi Mou (Loving You)" :The fourth single, "Agapi Mou, features a music video shot alongside Desi Slava in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. The song was also released by Desi Slava in her native country of Bulgaria where it gained popularity. "Kano Oti Thes" :The fifth and final single, "Kano Oti Thes", features a music video directed by Konstantinos Rigos released on 3 June 2010.

Personnel

*Artemis Papagerakis –

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

*Dimitris Giannetos – grooming *Fox design –

artwork A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

*Mihalis Papathanasiou –

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

, A&R *Nikos Eftaxias – wardrobe styling

References

{{Authority control 2009 albums 2000s Greek-language albums Kostas Martakis albums Universal Music Greece albums