Kalomoira, known as Carol in America, hails from Nassau Country, New York. She was born to Greek American restaurant owners Nikos (Nick) and Eleni (Helen) Sarantis on January 31, 1985 and has one sister.
Since childhood, Kalomoira's dream was to become a pop star. She took part in many extracurricular activities at school including drama productions and musicals. Her favorite instrument was the viola, which she studied for 9 years and played in the school orchestra. She was also Miss West Hempstead (Homecoming Queen) at her high school in 2003.
On a tip from her cousin, she entered and won second place at a music contest organized by WBLI Radio.Following her appearance, she participated as a supporting actress in several live shows with famous American artists, such as Jessica Simpson , LL Cool J and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Kalomoira entered the New York City auditions for Antenna's Fame Story 2 (licensed from Star Accademy, a reality talent show similar to American Idol in the United States and Fame Academy in the United Kingdom) and was one of the two singers chosen from a group of 200 performers. Despite speaking primarily English, although nonetheless fluent in Greek, Kalomoira went to Greece after having completed one semester of college at Adelphi University where she was a music major, and competed on the three month long show. Kalomoira placed first and her professional singing career began.
Following the success of her first performance, she performed the popular song "Stand By Me". The following week, the challenge became bigger as she performed the Greek song “H Γκαρσόνα” ("The Waitress"), which seemed totally out of Kalomoira's vocal and style capability. She was also told to perform Aliki’s song “Γατούλα” ("Pussycat"), written by Manos Hatzidakis. The songs became more challenging for the singer as her teachers in the academy pushed her to sing Greek songs. Her next songs were “Ανάβεις φωτιές” ("You are lighting fires") and "Dancing Queen"
The judges assigned Kalomoira with Barbara Streisand's "Woman in Love", a song with special vocal requirements. Kalomoira fared well, but in the week that followed, Kalomoira's rendition of Stavros Ksarhakos’ “Ένα πρωινό” ("One morning") left the judges unimpressed. Next, Kalomoira chose to perform "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna and managed to stay in the game. This was followed by a duet with another participant (Nikos Mihas) in "Gucci των Μασάι" ("Masai's Gucci"), which gave her a chance to remain in the show for another week.
Marinella's "Γιατί Φοβάσαι" (Why are you afraid) was difficult for her, but
Kalomoira made it through to the next week’s "Περιττός" which was better received. She continued in the game with a performance of Britney Spears' "Oops!... I Did It Again" . After many weeks of the competition, Kalomoira was one of the final six participants of the game with only two performances left. Her rendition of "Εϊ Καζανόβα" ("Hey Cazanova") equalled her success with Madonna’s "Express Yourself" in the final show. Kalomoira won the contest, earned 200,000 Euros and a rec
ording contract with Heaven Music.
Kalomoira performed in Thessaloniki's FOCUS from July 8 to August 14. While entertaining audiences by night, she was recording her first album by day. Outside of Greece, Kalomoira has appeared on NBC's "Today Show" and "Acess Hollywood" during the events of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, along with a number of other shows and websites. On September 1, 2004 Kalomoira released her 15 track first album Kalomoira which went gold. She then toured Greece accompanied by the rest of the "Fame Story" participants with appearances in Athens’s "Thalassa". In the same year, she closed her season at the REX studio with Despina Vandi and Thanos Petrelis Kalomoira received good reviews from critics and was awarded "Woman of the Year - Best Newcomer" by Life and Style magazine.
In 2005, Kalomira released her second album titled Paizeis? (You Playing?) with 12 songs, of which two were written and composed by her. She also agreed to appear with Elli Kokkinou, Andreas Stamos and Constantinos Christoforou at the Piraeus 130 music club. In her program, she included covers of songs such as "Scandalous," "Don't Cha" and "Don't Phunk with My Heart," in addition to songs from her first and second albums. On April 11, 2005. She was a special guest on the first live concert of the first season of Star Academy Bulgaria.
In the fall of 2006, Kalomoira became the female co-hostess on the hit Sunday night show Poli Tin Kiriaki alongside with Griggoris Arnatouglou on Mega Channell. In December, she released her third CD I Kalomoira Paei Cinema (Kalomoira Goes to the Cinema). It features songs from classic Greek movies which Kalomoira re-vamped.
At the end of 2007, Heaven Music chose Kalomoira to be their contestant in the 2008 National Final to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. Kalomoira picked an R&B tyle upbeat song with a Greek feel composed by Konstantinos Pantzis with lyrics by Poseidonas Giannopoulos titled "Secret Combination". The song has an "American production" feel to it. On February 7, 2008 Kalomoira won the National Final with "Secret Combination" and represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. To promote the song, Kalomoira had a pre-Eurovision tour and visited several Eurovision Countries hroughout March and April.
In the first semi-final, held on May 20, 2008 Kalomoira fared well coming in first place while at the Eurovision final, on May, 24, she came in third behind Russia and Ukraine with 218 points. In an interview with Elene Menegaki she said that her Eurovision participation was the biggest thing that she has done in her career, and that it was also one of the most personal events in her life that will always be remembered with good memories. When asked if she expected to do so well in the competition, she stated that she had always wanted to do well, but above all she wanted the Greek people to be proud of the performance regardless of how well it did. In the same interview, host Eleni Menegaki stated that for her as well as many others, it was one of the most defining points in their view of Kalomoira's career to date. This was due to the fact that it displayed her as more of a mature professional performer, distancing her from the innocent little girl image people had associated her with after her participation in Fame Story.
Kalomoira announced on her online diary that she recorded her new album during September and October 2007 in Greece. The album, named Secret Combination the album, was released on May 29, 2008 and contained songs in both Greek and English, including "Secret Combination". There is also a bonus rap remix of "Secret Combination" by Master Tempo. The writers are Konstantinos Pantzis, Tasos Vougiatzis and Sunny X.
Kalomoira had been in New York for months after Eurovision because of her sister's baby and did not do any promotion for the new album, which is her lowest charting. In an interview with Downtown Magazine, Kalomoira's father stated that she was treated "like dirt" by Music Heaven and that she may or may not continue her singing career, but that it is up to her, and she will make her decision some time in August. In response, Makis Pounentis, CEO of Heaven Music, claimed that he was "surprised" by Kalomoira's remarks and couldn't offer an explanation, though he did say that her contract would be honored should she choose to go back and sing again. Despite the rumors claiming that Kalomoira had quit singing, she once again returned to the music industry. After a concert upon her return to Greece, she began hosting the Greek version of the game show Big In Japan hich will take place in Japan and feature 12 contestants.
