Valando Tryfonos (Greek: Βαλάντω Τρύφωνος; born 6 March 1988), is a Greek–Cypriot singer who rose to fame after winning the first season of talent show Greek Idol in 2010. She subsequently released the digital single "Sti Dipla Thesi" (In the next seat). In March 2011, she was one of six candidates which competed to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song "The Time is Now". Tryfonos had previously participated in the Cypriot national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "After You" and attempted to take part in Greece's singing competition The X Factor, but did not make the cut. Early life Valando Tryfonos was born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1988. From the age of five she pursued an interest in music, beginning lessons in piano, music theory, harmony, and solfège, while she also performed in her school's choir as a lead soloist. Growing up she was also a member of the European Youth Parliament, where she had the opportunity to perform at their parliament sessions. At the age of 15, her group was invited to a celebration by the Cypriot embassy in Finland where she performed. After years of practice, she was first introduced to the public in 2006 at the age of 17 when she took part in the Cypriot national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "After You". Her bid for the final initially started as a joke between herself and her friends Giannis Haralambous and Natasha Tyrimos, who decided to write a song at the last minute to send to Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC), not expecting it to pass. CyBC ended up accepting the entry and Trifonos performed the song in the final placing fourth. Although Tryfonos received the most votes from the public, she was not declared the winner, as CyBC calculated results in a different manner. This caused complaints to be filed with the broadcaster from multiple participants citing that the rules were not clear, ensuing an investigation. The investigation concluded that the published regulations stated that only televoting would be used, but did not clarify how it would employed in the final decision; The common perception was that the song that garnered the most votes would win. CyBC however, claimed that the public had been notified of the exact manner that the televotes would be used through television commercials and by the