Nino (Greek singer)

Stefanos Xypolitas (Στέφανος Ξυπολητάς, ), known professionally as Nino (Νίνο ), is a Greek singer.

Nino was born Stefanos Sakellarios Xypolitas in Stockholm, Sweden, on 29 June 1981, and shortly after moved with his family to Rhodes, Greece.

His first experience with music was at age three, when his parents gave him a piano as a gift.

At a young age Nino wrote his first song, titled "Eisai To Pio Omorfo Pou Iparhi" ("You are the most beautiful that exists"), dedicated to his mother.

He learned to play the harmonium, guitar (electric classical), drums, harmonica, accordion, and bass by the age of 16.

His first real performance was at age 15 live at a night club, where he gained impressions.

He started to take music seriously at the age 16.

After school, Nino moved to Athens to pursue a music career, where he attended various auditions, while attending college for sound designing at the same time.

Shortly after, Nino accepted to perform at a large night club back in Rhodes, and moved back.

After a successful concert-series, Nino then went on and performed in Patras.

He rose to fame in 2003 after appearing as a contestant on the debut season of the television show Fame Story.

He has since released five studio albums.

During the winter season of 2003–04, Nino appeared alongside Anna Vissi, Konstantinos Christoforou, and Hi-5 for a series of concert at club "Diogenis Studio".

Follow those appearances, in early 2004, he appeared alongside Apostolia Zoi, Elena Paparizou, and Thanos Petrelis in a series of concerts at club Thalassa.

In July 2004, Nino released his debut album titled Nino, Nino, Nino.

The album contained 13 songs, mostly love ballads, along with songs containing folk and pop elements.

The music for seven of the songs wewasenned by the then up-and-coming composer Kyriakos Papadopoulos.

Additional music was penned by Christoforos Germenis and Takis Damaschis while two songs from the album were also penned by Grigoris Petrakos, a fellow gamer from "Fame Story".

The lyrics were written by Vasilis Yiannopoulos, while Natalia Germanou wrote the lyrics for the song "Horis Na Se Ksero" ("Without knowing you").

The album debuted at No. 1 on Greek Album Chart and after 3 weeks was certified gold selling more than 20,000 copies.

The album spawned many airplay hits such as "Kalimera", "Sa Navagoi", "As Telionoume", etc. After three months the album reached platinum status.

Reception of the album was generally well perceived, while a magazine wrote "The El Nino phenomenon has just reached".

For the winter season that followed, Nino appeared alongside Peggy Zina and Kostas Karafotis (another player within fame Story) for a series of concerts at the Apollon Club in Athens.

During the first half of 2005, Nino accompanied Peggy Zina for part of her world tour to Australia and the United Kingdom.

Following the success of his debut album, Nino started working on his second album.

Nino returned in November 2005 with a more mature sounding album titled Ilikrinis (Honest), containing 15 songs.

The album featured more laika than his previous album.

The first single from the album was "Fovamai" (I'm Scared), which gained substantial airplay.

"Gia Na Eimai Ilikrinis" (To be honest) and "Sexy" were further released as radio singles.

The album was certified gold.

In March 2006, Nino released his third studio album Epireastika (Influenced), which included 11 songs.

The cover of the album depicted Nino as a statue after special treatment, while it was notable for differing from traditional album covers that the Greek audience was accustomed to until that point.

Ιn May 2007, Nino was a victim of an armed attack.

Two strangers riding on a motorcycle "squeezed" his car in an attempt to stop him on a road in Thessaloniki.

Neither himself nor his brother, who was also in the car, were injured.

From 2008 to 2010, Nino dated Doukissa Nomikou.

He then dated Chrysi Vardinoyannis whom he married in 2012, having two children: George Skeyos (born 2013) and Karen Agapi (born 2014).

Their marriage ended in August 2017.

After a few years of performing at small venues, Nino decided to audition for the first season of "Fame Story".

After being eliminated from "Fame Story", he received offers from various Greek labels acting as second optionners, as he was bound to sign to Heaven Music, the record company that had the management rights on the players of the game, and which a subsidiary of Ant-1 TV, airing Fame story.