Look up ponte in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Ponte, a word meaning bridge in Italian, Portuguese and Galician languages, may refer to:

Places[link]

England[link]

• Pontefract, a town in the Metropolitan County of West Yorkshire

France[link]

• Ponte Leccia, a civil parish (hameau) in the department of Haute-Corse

Italy[link]

Municipalities

• Ponte (BN), in the Province of Benevento
• Ponte Buggianese, in the Province of Pistoia
• Ponte dell'Olio, in the Province of Piacenza
• Ponte di Legno, in the Province of Brescia
• Ponte di Piave, in the Province of Treviso
• Ponte Gardena, Italian name for Waidbruck, in South Tyrol
• Ponte in Valtellina, in the Province of Sondrio
• Ponte Lambro, in the Province of Como
• Ponte nelle Alpi, in the Province of Belluno
• Ponte Nizza, in the Province of Provincia di Pavia
• Ponte Nossa, in the Province of Bergamo
• Ponte San Nicolò, in the Province of Padua
• Ponte San Pietro, in the Province of Bergamo

Civil parishes and quarters

• Ponte (Rome), a rione in the City of Rome
• Ponte (Formazza), in the Province of Verbano Cusio Ossola
• Ponte della Muda, in the Province of Treviso
• Ponte di Cerreto, in the Province of Perugia

Portugal[link]

• Ponte da Barca, a municipality in the District of Viana do Castelo
• Ponte de Lima, a municipality in the District of Viana do Castelo
• Ponte de Sor, a municipality in the District of Portalegre

South Africa[link]

• Ponte Tower, a landmark city apartment building in Johannesburg

Switzerland[link]

• Ponte Capriasca, a municipality in the Canton of Ticino
• Ponte Tresa, a municipality in the Canton of Ticino

People[link]

• Gabry Ponte, Italian DJ and record producer
• Lorenzo Da Ponte, librettist who collaborated with Mozart

Other uses[link]

• Ponte S.A, the company administering Rio-Niterói Bridge in Brazil

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ponte

• All pages beginning with "Ponte"
• All pages with titles containing "Ponte"
• Negroponte (disambiguation)
• Ponti (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2011)

Espinoza Paz
Background information
Birth name	Isidro Chávez Espinoza
Also known as	Espinoza Paz
Born	(1981-10-29) October 29, 1981 (age 30) Angostura, Sinaloa, Mexico
Genres	Regional
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	2004-Present
Labels	Nueva Generacion Music Group
Website	Página oficial de Espinoza Paz

Isidro Chávez Espinoza (Angostura, Sinaloa, Mexico, October 29, 1981) better known as Espinoza Paz, is a Mexican musician and composer of Mexican Regional music.

Early career[link]

Espinoza Paz was born on October 29, in La Angostura, a small colorful town just north of Sinaloa, Mexico. He was only 11 years old when he wrote his first song which was dedicated to a girl on whom he had a crush. By the time he was 13, he had already written 20 songs; however, it wasn’t until his father sent him money from the United States that he decided to buy his first guitar and teach himself to play it. In 1996, he emigrated to Sacramento, California, where his love for music grew while he earned a living washing tomatoes and picking oranges, olives and grapes. Months later, he decided to return to Mexico where he suffered the hardest experience of his life: the passing of his Mother, Mrs. Maria de la Paz Espinoza. This was a loss from which he would never recover. From that point on, Paz embarked on what seemed a never-ending journey to find his destiny. He returned to the United States (this time to Oregon) and worked as a gardener for about a year. Tired of traveling, he then decided to concentrate on his career as a songwriter, and being convinced of his calling, he returned to Mexico once again. His "muse" was a friend from California, Blanca Estrella. Their platonic relationship inspired many of his songs. For the next eight years he knocked on doors and sang in regional bands, always looking for "the opportunity" as he poured his feelings and experiences into his songs.

Success[link]

His big break came when he showed some of his creations to "El Coyote" - a popular Sinaloan banda singer — who recorded his songs "Besitos En El Cuello" ("Little Kisses On The Neck"); "Prohibido" ("Forbidden"); and "Para Impresionarte" ("To Impress You"), all of which immediately became hits.

In December 2006, Paz met Martin Fabian, a well-known personality within the radio and music industry, who immediately foresaw the extraordinary talent within the young singer-songwriter. They soon began collaborating on his debut album "Paz En Tu Corazón" (literally, "Peace In Your Heart" -- the title being a wordplay on his name). This project was released in 2007 in association with Nueva Generacion Music Group. Another independently-released album, "Amigo Con Derechos" ("Friend With Benefits"), followed in 2008 before Paz was offered a recording contract with the major label Universal Latino, which released his first major label album "El Canta Autor del Pueblo" ("The Village Singer-Songwriter") in 2008 on its Machete Music subsidiary. This album featured eight previously-released favorites such as "El Celular" ("The Cell Phone") and "Amigo con Derechos" ("Friend With Benefits") plus four new recordings. A single from this project, "El Proximo Viernes" ("Next Friday") reached #14 on Billboard Magazine's "Hot Latin Tracks" chart.

Soon Paz was penning songs for a long list of regional Regional artists, including Sergio Vega, La Arrolladora Banda el Limón, Banda Cuisillos, Julio Chaidez, Banda de Jerez, Jenni Rivera, Chuy Lizarraga, Adair Elizalde, El Potro de Sinaloa, El Chapo de Sinaloa, and Duelo, among numerous others. Paz continues to write and record music of his own.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Other albums[link]

• 2004: Prohibido Perder
• 2008: Mis Exitos Con Tololoche
• 2010: Mis Canciones Con Amor
• 2011: 15 Top Hits: Espinoza Paz
• 2011: Exitos Romanticos
• 2012: Enamorado Del Pueblo
• 2012: Un Hombre Normal
• 2012: Amigos De Espinoza Paz

Other songs[link]

• El Paletero
• Prohibido
• Te Compro
• Besitos En El Cuello
• No Se

Collaborations[link]

• 2010: "24 Horas" (featuring David Bisbal) - Sin Mirar Atrás (24 Horas + Edition)
• "Asi O Mas" (featuring María José)
• "Me Voy" (with Paulina Rubio)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Espinoza Paz at Billboard.com

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

Gabry Ponte
non_vocal_instrumentalist
Background information
Birth name	Gabriele Ponte
Born	(1973-04-20) 20 April 1973 (age 39) Moncalieri, Italy
Genres	Italo dance, Dance, Electro house
Occupations	DJ
Years active	1998–present
Labels	Dance & Love, Ultra Records
Associated acts	Eiffel 65 Julissa Veloz, Pitbull
Website	www.gabryponte.com

Gabriele "Gabry" Ponte (born Turin, 20 April 1973^[1]) is an Italian DJ best known for his membership in the Italian dance group Eiffel 65. Ponte has been involved with the Bliss Team, DJ Gundam, and Sangwara. With Eiffel 65's rise to fame in the late 1990s, his celebrity (or semi-celebrity) status was established, and he later went on to produce the Italian hits "Geordie" (a cover of Fabrizio de André's song by the same name) sung by Italian vocalist Stefania Piovesan as well as hits Time to rock and Got to Get and then "La Danza delle Streghe" (literally "The Dance of the Witches"). Also to his credit are a number of remixes of popular dance songs such as Gianni Togni's Giulia. In 2005, Ponte announced he would be separating from Eiffel 65 to pursue solo work. In 2007 he released a brand new EP, "Love Songs in the Digital Age According to Gabry Ponte" which includes the new track "the Point Of No Return".

Music career[link]

Gabry Ponte first started his career as a DJ at BlissCorporation in 1993, in late 1995 he started his own record label there known as Worldbus Records. The primary focus of the label was to remake current and past hit songs of other artists into modern dance tracks. Several of the label's artists became some of BlissCorporation's biggest, Full Sex, Karmah, Funktastica, and Sangwara, which Gabry Ponte was directly involved in. After three years Worldbus Records became Piranha Records and Gabry Ponte, as part of a trio dubbed Eiffel 65, went on to create a song called "Blue (Da Ba Dee)", at that point a normal BlissCorporation release under the label Skooby Records. The song became a hit in Italy and was the first from BlissCorporation to be released outside of Europe, from there it became a worldwide hit. Eiffel 65 then produced an album called "Europop" which too became a large hit. 2 Albums, 10 singles, and 6 years later, Eiffel 65 parted ways and Gabry Ponte stayed with BlissCorporation to continue with his solo work, releasing a number of singles and staying active in Italy's music scene.

His original group, Eiffel 65, has reformed as of June 2010.

Sangwara[link]

Sangwara was one of the projects that was released under Gabry Ponte's record label, Worldbus Records in the late 90s. It was the only one he was directly involved in and produced the most hits the label had to offer. Their first release was a cover of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise", which was well received in both Italy and Spain, followed by a remake of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly", which had also been recently remade by the Fugees. This track became one of Sangwara's most well known and was made into a music video. This was followed by a release called "Bohemian Rhapsody", a cover of Queen's classic, also recently remade by The Braids. This release wasn't such a big hit for them and is now hard to find as a result. In early 1997 they produced their fourth release and final cover, a remake of No Doubt's "Don't Speak". This became Sangwara's biggest hit and was released on CD throughout Europe. After being inactive for almost a year Sangwara recorded their final release, an original track titled "Find A Way" which was released with four remixes. It was at that time that Worldbus Records ceased existence, which may have contributed to Sangwara's end. Over the 2 year career of Sangwara, its primary members, DJs Gabry Ponte and MTJ Capuano, and vocalist Claire Thomas, often paired up with various other people to make the releases. Jeffrey Jey sung vocals on two of their releases and Joe Fancey, an American rapper, on one. Simone Pastore, of Da Blitz was also one of many well known figures from BlissCorporation to lend his hand in the production and mixing stages. Ultimately Sangwara was Gabry Ponte's big entrance into the world of music.

EPs[link]

• Time to Rock
• Modern Tech Noises According to Gabry Ponte (2006)
• Electro Muzik is Back
• U.N.D.E.R.G.R.O.U.N.D.
• Love Songs in the Digital Age according to Gabry Ponte (2007)
• Sexy DJ (In da Club)

Containing:

• Now & Forever
• The Point of No Return
• The Point of No Return (Bufalo & D-Deck Remix)
• La Libertà (Hard Love Remix)
• Geordie (Eurotrance Remix)

Albums and Discography[link]

• Gabry Ponte (2002)
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. DJ (2004)
• Modern Tech Noises According To Gabry Ponte (2007)
• Love Songs In The Digital Age According To Gabry Ponte (2007)
• Tunes From Planet Earth According To Gabry Ponte (2007)
• Gabry2o (2008)
• Gabry Ponte - Gabry2o Vol.II (2009)

[edit] Dance and Love albums

• Gabry Ponte pres. Dance & Love selection vol.1 (2010)
• Gabry Ponte pres. Dance & Love selection vol.2 (2010)
• Gabry Ponte pres. Dance & Love selection vol.3 (2010)
• Gabry Ponte pres. Dance & Love selection vol.4 (2011)

References[link]

• Discogs: Accessed March 28, 2005.

External links[link]

• Official website
• Bliss Corporation
• Sangwara

Lorenzo Da Ponte
Engraving by Michele Pekenino after Nathaniel Rogers

Lorenzo Da Ponte (10 March 1749 – 17 August 1838) was a Venetian opera librettist and poet. He wrote the librettos for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's greatest operas, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte.

Early career[link]

Lorenzo Da Ponte was born Emanuele Conegliano in Ceneda, in the Republic of Venice (now Vittorio Veneto, Italy). He was Jewish by birth, the eldest of three sons. In 1764, his father, the widower Geronimo Conegliano, converted himself and his family to Roman Catholicism in order to remarry. Emanuele, as was the custom, took the name of Lorenzo Da Ponte from the Bishop of Ceneda who baptised him. Thanks to the bishop, the three brothers studied at the Ceneda seminary. The bishop died in 1768, after which Lorenzo moved to the seminary at Portogruaro, where he took the Minor Orders in 1770 and became Professor of Literature, and was ordained a priest in 1773. He began at this period writing poetry in Italian and Latin, including an ode to wine, Ditirambo sopra gli odori.^[1]

In 1773 moved to Venice, where he made a living as a teacher of Latin, Italian and French. Although he was a Catholic priest, the young man led a dissolute life, . While priest of the church of San Luca, he took a mistress, with whom he had two children. At his 1779 trial, where he was charged with "public concubinage" and "abduction of a respectable woman", it was alleged that he had been living in a brothel and organizing the entertainments there. He was found guilty and banished for fifteen years from Venice.^[2]

Vienna and London[link]

Lorenzo Da Ponte moved to Gorizia, then part of Austria, where he lived as a writer, attaching himself to the leading noblemen and cultural patrons of the city. In 1781 he believed (falsely) that he had an invitation from his friend Caterino Mazzolà, the poet of the Saxon court, to take up a post at Dresden, only to be disabused when he arrived there. Mazzolà however offered him work at the theatre translating libretti and recommended that he seek to develop writing skills. He also gave him a letter of introduction to the composer Antonio Salieri.^[3]

With the help of Salieri, Da Ponte applied for and obtained the post of librettist to the Italian Theatre in Vienna. Here he also found a patron in Mozart's benefactor, the banker Raimund Wetzlar. As court librettist in Vienna, he collaborated with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri, and Vicente Martín y Soler. Early successes were Le nozze di Figaro and Soler's Una cosa rara. Da Ponte wrote the libretti for Mozart's most popular Italian operas, Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790). All of Da Ponte's works were adaptations of pre-existing plots, as was common among librettists of the time, with the exceptions of L'arbore di Diana with Soler, and Così fan tutte, which he began with Salieri, but completed with Mozart. However the quality of his elaboration gave them new life.

In the case of Figaro, Da Ponte included a preface to the libretto which hints at his technique and objectives in libretto writing, as well as his close working with the composer:

[...] I have not made a translation [of Beaumarchais], but rather an imitation, or let us say an extract [...] I was compelled to reduce the sixteen original characters to eleven, two of which can be played by a single actor and to omit , in addition to one whole act, many effective scenes [...] In spite, however, of all the zeal and care on the part of both the composer and myself to be brief, the opera will not be one of the shortest [...] Our excuse will be the variety of development of this drama,[...] to paint faithfully and in in full colour the divers passions that are aroused, and [...] to offer a new type of spectacle [...]^[4]

With the death of Austrian Emperor Joseph II in 1792, Da Ponte lost his patron – he had already been formally dimissed from the Imperial Service in 1791, due to intrigues. He received no support from the new Emperor, Leopold. He could not return to Venice, from which he had been banished until the end of 1794. In 1792 Da Ponte travelled via Prague to London, accompanied by his companion Nancy Grahl (with whom he eventually had four children); in 1803 he became librettist at the King's Theatre, London. He remained based in London undertaking various theatrical and publishing activities until 1805, when debt and bankruptcy caused him to flee to the United States in 1805 with Grahl and his children.^[1]

American career[link]

In the United States, Da Ponte settled in New York first, then Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where he briefly ran a grocery store and gave private Italian lessons. He returned to New York to open a bookstore. He became friends with Clement Clarke Moore, and, through him, gained an appointment as the first professor of Italian literature at Columbia College. He was the first Roman Catholic priest to be appointed to the faculty, and he was also the first to have been born a Jew. In New York he introduced opera and produced a performance of Don Giovanni (1825).^[1] He also introduced Gioachino Rossini's music in the U.S., through a concert tour with his niece Giulia Da Ponte.

1n 1807 he began to write his Memoirs (published in 1823), described by Charles Rosen as "not an intimate exploration of his own identity and character, but rather a picaresque adventure story."^[5]

In 1828, at the age of 79, Lorenzo Da Ponte became a naturalized U.S. citizen. In 1833, at the age of eighty-four, he founded the first opera house in the United States, the New York Opera Company. Owing to his lack of business acumen, however, it lasted only two seasons before the company had to be disbanded and the theater sold to pay the company's debts. It was, however, the predecessor of the New York Academy of Music and of the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Lorenzo Da Ponte died in 1838 in New York; an enormous funeral ceremony was held in New York's old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street. Some sources state that Da Ponte is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, but that cemetery did not exist before 1848. Other sources say Da Ponte was buried in lower Manhattan. Calvary Cemetery does contain a stone marker to serve as a memorial to Da Ponte.^[6]

In 2009 the Spanish director Carlos Saura released his Italian film Io, Don Giovanni, a somewhat fictionalized account of Da Ponte, which attempted to link his life with his libretto for Don Giovanni.

Da Ponte's libretti[link]

The nature of Da Ponte's contribution to the art of libretto-writing has been much discussed. In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, it is pointed out that "the portrayal of grand passions was not his strength", but that he worked particularly closely with his composers to bring out their strengths, especially where it was a matter of sharp characterization or humorous or satirical passages.^[1] Richard Taruskin notes that Mozart, in letters to his father Leopold, had expressed concern to secure Da Ponte, but was worried that the Italian composers in town (e.g. Salieri) were trying to keep him for themselves. He specifically wished to create a buffa comedy opera which included a seria female part for contrast; Taruskin suggests that "Da Ponte's special gift for was that of forging this virtual smorgasbord of idioms into a vivid dramatic shape."^[7] David Cairns examines Da Ponte's reworking of the scenario for Don Giovanni, (originally written by Giovanni Bertati and performed in Venice as Don Giovanni Tenorio, with music by Gazzaniga), in 1787). Cairns points out that "the verbal borrowings are few", and that Da Ponte is at every point "wittier, more stylish, more concise and more effective." Moreover, Da Ponte's restructuring of the action enables a tighter format giving better opportunities for Mozart's musical structures.^[8] David Conway suggests that Da Ponte's own life 'in disguise' (as a Jew/priest/womaniser) enabled him to infuse the operatic cliche of disguise with a sense of Romantic irony.^[9]

Works[link]

• Opera libretti:
  • La Scuola de' gelosi (1783) – composer Antonio Salieri
  • Il ricco d'un giorno (1784) – composer Antonio Salieri
  • Il burbero di buon cuore (1786, from the play by Carlo Goldoni) – composer Vicente Martín y Soler
  • Il Demogorgone ovvero Il filosofo confuso (1786) – composer Vincenzo Righini
  • Il finto cieco (1786) – composer Giuseppe Gazzaniga
  • Le nozze di Figaro (1786, from the play by Pierre Beaumarchais) – composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Una cosa rara (1786, from the comedy La Luna della Sierra by Luis Vélez de Guevara) – composer Vicente Martín y Soler
  • Gli equivoci (1786) – composer Stephen Storace
  • L'arbore di Diana (1787) – composer Vicente Martín y Soler
  • Il dissoluto punito o sia Il Don Giovanni (1787, from the opera by Giuseppe Gazzaniga) – composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Axur, re d'Ormus (1787/88, translation of the libretto Tarare by Pierre Beaumarchais) – composer Antonio Salieri
  • Il Talismano (1788, from Carlo Goldoni) – composer Antonio Salieri
  • Il Bertoldo (1788) – composer Antonio Brunetti
  • L'Ape musicale (1789) – Pasticcio of works by various composers
  • Il Pastor fido (1789, from the pastoral by Giovanni Battista Guarini) – composer Antonio Salieri
  • La Cifra (1789) – composer Antonio Salieri
  • Così fan tutte (1789/90) – composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • La Caffettiera bizzarra (1790) – composer Joseph Weigl
  • La Capricciosa corretta (1795) – composer Vicente Martín y Soler
  • Antigona (1796) – composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
  • Il consiglio imprudente (1796) – composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
  • Merope (1797) – composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
  • Cinna (1798) – composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
  • Armida (1802) – composer Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi
  • La grotta di Calipso (1803) – composer Peter Winter
  • Il trionfo dell'amor fraterno (1804) – composer Peter Winter
  • Il ratto di Proserpina (1804) – composer Peter Winter
• Cantatas and Oratorios:
  • Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia (1785) – composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri and "Cornetti" (lost)
  • Il Davidde (1791) – Pasticcio from works by various composers
  • Hymn to America – composer Antonio Bagioli
• Poetry:
  • Letter of complaint in blank verse to Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor^[10]
  • 18 sonnets in commemoration of his wife (1832)
• Other
  • translations from English into Italian.
  • several books of elementary instruction in the Italian language
  • Memorie (aurobiography)
  • History of the Florentine Republic and the Medici (2 vols., 1833).^[11]

References[link]

Notes

Sources

• Angermüller, Rudolph, "Da Ponte, Lorenzo", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, London: Macmillan, 1990 ISBN 0333231112
• Cairns, David, Mozart and his Operas. London: Penguin, 2006. ISBN 9780713994919
• Conway, David, Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2012). ISBN 9781107015388
• Da Ponte, Lorenzo, tr. E. Abbott, intr. Charles Rosen, ed. A. Livingstone Memoirs. New York: New York Review of Books, 2000. ISBN 9780940322356
• Einstein, Alfred, tr. A. Mendel and N. Broder, Mozart: His Charcter, His Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press (1962). ISBN 0195007328
• Holden, Anthony, The Man Who Wrote Mozart: The Extraordinary Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte, London: Orion Publishing Company, 2007 ISBN 0-7538-2180-X
• Taruskin, Richard, Music in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2010) ISBN 9780195384826

Other reading

• Bolt, Rodney, The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte – Mozart's Poet, Casanova's Friend, and Italian Opera's Impresario in America, New York: Bloomsbury, 2006 ISBN 1-59691-118-2
• Hodges, Sheila, Lorenzo Da Ponte: The Life and Times of Mozart's Librettist, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002 ISBN 0-299-17874-9
• Jewish Museum Vienna (pub.), Lorenzo Da Ponte – Challenging the New World, exhibition catalogue from the Jewish Museum ISBN 978-3-7757-1748-9, ISBN 3-7757-1748-X
• Steptoe, Anthony, Mozart–Da Ponte Operas: The Cultural and Musical Background to "Le nozze di Figaro", "Don Giovanni", and "Così fan tutte", New York: Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, 1988 ISBN 0-19-313215-X

External links[link]

• "Nights At The Opera: The Life of the Man who put Words to Mozart" by Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, 8 January 2007
• "The phoenix" by Anthony Holden, The Guardian (London), 7 January 2007
• "Lorenzo's Toil", review of Rodney Bolt's The Librettist of Venice, by Jonathon Keats, The Washington Post, 16 July 2006
•  "Lorenzo Da Ponte". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

Nikki Ponte Νίκη Πόντε
Background information
Birth name	Nikki Ponte
Born	(1991-08-01) 1 August 1991 (age 20) Toronto, Canada
Origin	Toronto, Canada
Genres	Pop, dance, R&B, soul
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals, piano
Years active	2010–present
Labels	Sony Music Greece

Nikki Ponte (Greek: Νίκη Πόντε; born 1 August 1991), is a Canadian-Cypriot-Portuguese singer who rose to fame in Greece and Cyprus through her participation in the third season of Greece's version of the singing competition The X Factor, in which she placed third. While still participating in the show, she signed with Sony Music Entertainment Greece and was one of six candidates who were selected to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Ponte competed in a national final held in March 2011 with the song "I Don't Wanna Dance", but did not manage to win.

Early life[link]

Nikki Ponte was born in Pickering, Canada to immigrant parents; her father is Portuguese and her mother is originally from Cyprus. Ponte is fluent in English and proficient in Greek. She attended St. Monica Catholic School for elementary school, and later Saint Mary Catholic Secondary School in Pickering, Ontario. She took opera lessons for ten years and attended Sheridan College's renowned Music Theatre Performance program.

[edit] The X Factor

In 2010 at age 19, Ponte auditioned for Greece's talent show The X Factor at auditions held in New York City. Ponte received approval from the judges and was invited to bootcamp in Athens, Greece, eventually making it through to the live shows. Throughout the competition, she was one of the favorites to win and would spend her free time in her hotel room alone practicing her songs. She ended up placing third.

Performances[link]

[edit] Post-The X Factor

2011–present: Professional debut[link]

After a few months of living in Greece, she was granted Greek-Cypriot citizenship due to her Cypriot descent. While still in the competition, she caught the attention of Greece's Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) and was sequentially approached and signed by Sony Music Entertainment Greece.^[1] On 11 January 2011, ERT announced that Ponte was one of six participants in a national final to select Greece's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011.^[2][3] She competed with the song "I Don't Wanna Dance" in the national final held on 2 March 2011, but did not manage to win. The song was released as a digital single in February 2011.^[4]

In mid-2011, she was featured on Dimension-X's single "Hey You". She was also featured on the soundtrack of Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure with the song "Mesa Ston Thavmaton Ton Kosmo", performing the theme song to the film. In November 2011, Ponte released the single "Remembering The Summer Nights".^[5]

Discography[link]