APOLLO

The name APOLLO signifies a project in which several artists get the chance to collaborate in the making of music. The result is a wide variety of musical styles and expressions.

The first APOLLO production "Pes mou to sagapo/Say that you love me" was released in 1998 on CD-Single and was Apollo's first Freestyle hit! It was a remake of Stevie B's classic Freestyle song "Spring love (come back to me)". This was a combined effort between the singer Christos Grigoriadis, the rapper Zed and the producers Chris K. & Tanassi Koulidis. What makes this song so special is that the guys wrote their own lyrics to the rhythm of Stevie B's hit and then recorded the vocals in Greek! The rapper Zed wrote and performed his rap for this song also. The song made it on several music charts and was played on the radio.

APOLLO was destined not to be a one hit wonder. In the year 2000, Tanassi Koulidis (the founder of APOLLO) co-produced the second APOLLO single "Say you will" with 2 other producers - Bob Darwin & Stephan Distel (from T.H.T., Free Team). "Say you will" was released on many different Freestyle compilations as well as on CD single with 6 special versions (2 Freestyle versions, 2 Flamenco versions, 1 Hip-Hop and 1 Ballad). "Say you will" has been the most successful Freestyle remake song in Germany.

After releasing "Say you will", the APOLLO team continued to grow. Tanassi Koulidis teamed up with another talented producer-T.C. Chalkias. More artists were drawn to the producers Tanassi Koulidis and Theo "T.C." Chalkias. Soon several artists and the fabulous producer duo worked together to create the first APOLLO album "More Than Freestyle". This is an invigorating blend of various music styles. For example, it contains the "APOLLO theme", a high energy Freestyle song produced by Theo "T.C." Chalkias and Tanassi Koulidis with the vocals by Ximena, Tasrip and Nicki Daniels. The album contains 8 Freestyle songs, 2 Hip-Hop songs, 2 Dance songs and 1 oriental Dance song. Freestyle fans have loved the songs "Say you will", "Don't make me wait", "Memories of loving you", etc. Greek and English Hip-Hop fans have enjoyed ZMS's song "Ela edo stin gyra mas/Join our way" and the dance community has liked Modify's song "Tonight (Rhythm Mix)".

The APOLLO family organized a "More Than Freestyle" CD-Release Party at Dancing-Park "Palazzo". Over 1000 People came to party with the APOLLO Crew. After the Album, "More Than Freestyle", the producers Tanassi Koulidis and T.C.Chalkias spent more time to produce new songs for their solo artists. For Ximena, they produced "I wanna dance with somebody", for K`Lee "Conga", and APOLLO`s single "Einsamkeit/Lonely". "Einsamkeit/Lonely"(a Freestyle song half in German and half in English) featured Sons of Storm. In 2002, Tanassi and T.C. Chalkias began working with international recording artist and Freestyle legend Johnny O. They produced for his album "The sounds of my heart", "I'm so in love" (one of Johnny O`s favorites), and for his single "Take me through the night"(freestyle mix). After that, they accompanied Johnny O on tour in the middle of 2002 here in Germany. They opened the show and performed Apollo's song "Einsamkeit/Lonely", K`Lee with "Conga", Ximena "I wanna dance with somebody" and The Freestyle Academy with "Here we are". The Freestyle Academy was a new project from Tanassi Koulidis. Tanassi had the idea to create a project in which several artists would perform a song together in order to bring Freestyle to a higher level. At the second tour with Johnny O at the end of 2002 Ximena and Johnny O performed live the hit "Dreamboy/Dreamgirl".

After many releases on countless compilations ... with songs from APOLLO, Johnny O, Ximena, K`Lee, The Freestyle Academy ... Johnny O and Ximena with their summer pop, r`n`b hit "Dreamboy/Dreamgirl" the APOLLO Crew grew bigger and bigger. New Artists joined the Apollo family. Richie Santiago and Jay R are the most recent artists to join forces with Tanassi Koulidis, T.C. Chalkias and the Freestyle Academy. Richie Santiago was a surprise destiny was saving for all of them. Richie Santiago was searching for producers that he could trust and knew what Freestyle Music truly is for so long. One of the first songs Richie presented to T.C. and Tanassi was "Black Rose of Love". The two producers immediately fell in love with the songs passion and uniqueness. A few months after meeting Tanassi and T.C., Richie Santiago had his first single, "Black Rose of Love" released.To date it has done very well both in Europe and the U.S.

This year (2004) with all these artists: Sons of Storm, Richie Santiago, Ximena, Nicki Daniels, Lil`Missy (Mirsada), Jay R. and The Freestyle Academy, Tanassi Koulidis and Theo "T.C." Chalkias have recorded the second album "APOLLO & Friends". And this time it's more than only an APOLLO album. It's more of a mega-compilation with songs from all these talented artists. "APOLLO & Friends" is distributed by ZYX Music.