Yovanna

Ioanna Fassou Kalpaxi (Greek: Ιωάννα Φάσσου Καλπαξή; born 14 November 1938), known professionally as Yovanna, is a Greek singer, novelist and poet known for her participation in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest representing Switzerland.

==Early life and education== At the age of 14, she started her vocal studies at the Athens Conservatoire and trained as an opera singer, namely a lyric soprano. Concurrently, using the stage name "Yovanna", she was broadcasting on the National Radio with the Greek Radio Light Music Orchestra, thereby putting in jeopardy the scholarship that the Athens Conservatoire had awarded her, as this sort of activity was strictly forbidden. In a graduate contest with fifty contestants, and just one year before obtaining her diploma, she won the leading role of Margit in the operetta "Where the Lark Sings" by Franz Lehár. The following year, she took her degree with honours and was awarded a state scholarship to continue her studies in Rome at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. However, this never materialized as the scholarship was finally given to another applicant for some unspecified reason. It was then that Yovanna decided to move into popular music.