Orianthi Panagaris

Simply known as Orianthi, she was born in Australia in 1985 and grew up surrounded by music. Her father was a musician and had several guitars laying around the house, so it was only a matter of time before young Orianthi picked one up and learned to play.

Oranthi can be seen playing a Gibson Songwriter Deluxe cutaway which is her favorite acoustic and you’ll also see her playing PRS or Paul Reed Smith electric guitars.

Orianthi has two famous people to thank for her musical career, Carlos Santana and Michael Jackson. When she was 11 years old she saw Santana in her hometown and was so inspired she moved on from the acoustic guitar to shredding on the electric. Nine years later, when Santana came back through town, she was invited to help to a sound check prior to the concert. Carlos was so impressed with her talent that he invited her to play on stage and she ended up playing for 35 minutes which included a solo in front of a home town crowd. That was step one in getting her name and talents out to the masses.

Buy Orianthi’s Latest CD Here!

Her second big break came when she auditioned for Michael Jackson’s “This is It” tour. Out of over 100 guitarists, she was chosen to play with his band and tour the globe. Unfortunately, Jackson’s death put an end to that tour, but it still gave Orianthi the exposure she needed and she is featured in the movie “This is It”. It seems everyone wants to know who that girl is that played in that movie.

Since then, she has had a couple of hits and has played with some big time guitarists and can hold her own with the best of them. For her solo career producers have played on her young attractiveness and decent singing voice and turned her into a typical pop star. One difference is that she’s not stuck just playing rhythm guitar, but she shreds the solos in all her songs on stage. Let’s hope she is able to continue focusing on her guitar playing and not turn into just another girl singer with a guitar around her neck.

Being young, in her mid twenties, I’m certain we will see plenty more of Orianthi and we can look forward to hearing her team up with musicians all around the world.

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!