Spania (Latin: Provincia Spaniae) was a province of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire from 552 until 624 in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. It was a part of the conquests of Emperor Justinian I in an effort to restore the western provinces of the Empire.

The conquest of the Vandal kingdom in Tunisia and reestablishment of the Byzantine province of Mauretania by Belisarius was accomplished in 534 and brought the Byzantine military in contact with the Visigoths of Spain. Despite his efforts, the Vandal king Gelimer had been unable to effect an alliance with the Gothic king Theudis, who probably took the opportunity of the collapse of Vandal authority to conquer Ceuta (Septem) across the Straits of Gibraltar in 533, probably to prevent the Byzantines from using it as a launch point for an attack on Spain. This citadel was reconquered the following year by an expedition dispatched by Belisarius, but Spain was not invaded. Ceuta, which was briefly recaptured by the Visigoths in 540 and lost through a subterfuge, became a part of Mauretania. It was an important base for reconnaissance of Spain in the years leading up to the peninsula's invasion by Justinian's forces in 552.

Despina Vandi (Greek: Βανδή, pronounced [ˈðespina vanˈði]), born as Despina Malea (Greek: Δέσποινα Μάλεα; born 22 July 1969), is a Greek singer. Born in Tübingen near Stuttgart, West Germany, Vandi's family returned to Kavala, Greece when she was six years old. She enrolled at the University of Thessaloniki, but eventually dropped out to begin a career in music. After moving to Athens in the early 1990s, Vandi signed with Minos EMI and released two albums Gela Mou (1994) and Esena Perimeno (1996). She then began an exclusive collaboration with songwriter/producer Phoebus and struck commercial success with her third album, Deka Endoles (1997), followed by the multi-platinum Profities (1999), where she incorporated pop elements into her music, in addition to laïko, as well as a more pop stage performance style and image, becoming one of the most prominent portrayers of the laiko/pop genre that was thriving into the mid-2000s.