ANN ARBOR, MI – The University of Michigan Modern Greek Program continues its online series, Generation G: Greek, Gifted, and Global, with “Putting Soul into the Greek Music Scene,” featuring Athenian musician and performer Idra Kayne interviewed by Vogue Greece editor Giota Tachtara on Monday, December 7.

Idra Kayne is known throughout Greece as a remarkable soul-funk-jazz-pop singer-performer. For nearly 20 years, her rich, unique voice has filled the Greek nightscape from the rooftop of Gazarte, with its breathtaking view of Technopolis in Athens, to Thessaloniki’s Music Showcase Greece. The daughter of a Ugandan father and Greek mother, she was born and raised in Kypseli, Athens’ most multicultural neighborhood, during the 1980s.

At a young age, she discovered her passion for the performing arts, took lessons in dance (classical ballet and jazz), and sang in choirs. She studied social work alongside voice and acting and graduated from the Vocal Art Academy in 2007. Since 2000, her performances at popular venues, music awards ceremonies, and music festivals such as the Meet the Streets Festival in Rotterdam (2007) have been extending her style repertoire and expanding the sound of the Greek music scene.

Her first album, Don’t Walk Away (EMI Records, 2011) produced the title hit single, Don’t Walk Away. Her second album was Mic Drop (Universal Music, 2017). She has performed in the Greek operetta “The Daughter of the Storm”(2011) and musicals Rent (2012), Fame (2012), Annie (2013), Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (2014), Sweet Charity (2016), Paw Patrol Live (2018), and Βουτιά στη Βυθούπολη (2019). She has collaborated with many artists, including Giorgos Dalaras, Yannis Kotsiras, Lavrentis Maheritsas, Helena Paparizou, Panos Mouzourakis, Zak Stefanou, Hannah Williams & the Tastemakers, and the British jazz-funk-soul band Incognito. She is preparing a new album of songs in Greek.

Giota Tachtara has been writing, editing and translating for numerous women’s magazines, newspapers and websites since 2002. Her monthly column in VOGUE Greece explores feminism, style, inspiration, and women’s everyday lives through her generation's nostalgic optimism for the future that is yet to come.

To participate in the event, send questions by Friday, December 4 to [email protected].