Marina Satti has been announced as the artist representing Greece in the 68th Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö, Sweden’ from 7 to 11 May 2024. Satti did not have an easy childhood; as she has said, her Greek and Sudanese origins made her look different from other children her age.
It wasn’t easy to get to where she is today. However, despite her young age, Satti is a versatile musician with a remarkable career.
She holds a degree in classical piano and a diploma in classical singing and acting. She has studied orchestration, production, and jazz at Berklee College of Music. Her music combines various musical traditions, including Greek, Arabic, and Balkan.
The singer is not limited to one musical genre, as she can express herself as pop, ethnic and mainstream at the same time, blending traditional and contemporary elements in her music.
Marina Satti will be in Adelaide in a few days to participate in one of the state’s most prominent festivals, WOMADelaide. The performer was delighted to accept ERT’s offer to represent Greece in a symbolic year, as this year marks the 50th anniversary of Greece’s first participation in Eurovision in 1974.
The song to be performed by Marina Satti has yet to be chosen.
Speaking to ERT, she elaborated on the decision to represent Greece: “Well, it’s something we’ve been discussing for a few years. Certainly, the previous time was not about to happen. The time has come. I’m more confident in myself, too. I’ve done the things I want to do and learned some basic things because I didn’t know anything. Getting songs out, having a team, having partners.”
“I’ve been asked to do this before. This year is the third year.
I thought it would happen sooner or later. I feel like I can handle it; I don’t have any anxiety. It’s like the travelling I do, playing festivals, meeting people from other countries. That’s how I imagine it. We’ll see if it’s like that.
I’m looking forward to it. If I think of it as a competition, there’s no such thing; it will make me nervous,” she added.
Difficult childhood years
Marina Satti did not have an easy childhood. She talked about her parents and sister living in Sudan in several interviews. In an interview with Studio 4, she said of her parents: “My mom was raised in Greece, while my dad was raised in Sudan. There were differences, as you can understand, and there still are. They found a balance because of love, and then we, the children, came along. I used to go to Sudan in the summers; the family there welcomed me even more warmly than in Greece.”
Marina added that her father still lives in Sudan, and she has a sister there, whom she first met when she was seven years old.
“My dad still lives in Sudan now. He’s just currently in Egypt because of what’s going on. My dad, his new wife and my little sister are there. My sister and I first met when she was seven years old. She was very excited. She’s smart, talented and speaks many languages,” he said.
In another interview on the “2night Show,” she said of her childhood, “I don’t know if it was so much of what I experienced from the outside environment or if I was experiencing it on my own dramatically. I was ashamed on my own to have my dad come to pick me up from the tutoring centre because he is black; it wasn’t common then and in Crete. My grandmother in Heraklion was the first time she saw a black person up close. That’s why I admire my mom.”
Finally, Marina commented on the behaviour of the other children in Crete towards her and said: “I don’t know if the kids at school say it to hurt you. At a reunion at Christmas in Crete, one of my classmates came to me and apologised because he felt he might have hurt me for teasing me at school. I took a lot of time, thought, and accepted some things because I didn’t know how to exist in society. I still don’t know what I’m afraid of. It’s all the stuff on the internet and television.”
