Just a few days after she was warmly welcomed in her home country as a winner, having achieved a third place at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, Kalomira Sarantis left for the United States to be present at her sister's childbirth. Or so everyone thought at first. The truth is that due to a conflict between the artist and her label, the former has decided to leave the country indefinitely, putting her singing career on hold for the time being.

Kalomira Sarantis expresses great bitterness and although she still refuses to reveal the exact reasons that forced her to halt her successful singing career in Greece, she makes it clearthis had nothing to do with her participation in the contest. On the contrary Eurovision was something that made her happy and proud she claims: " It was an honour for me to represent Greece in this contest." she says " I say this from the bottom of my heart as I felt the love of the people through all the nice things they said about me. I thanked them because they supported me from the first moment I said I'd do it."

Kalomira claims it was a number of things, all of major importance, that accumulated until she could not endure the situation any longer. According to her father, the main problem lay with Heaven Music, Kalomira's record label and the way they treated the artist. He feels that his daughter was purposefully mistreated by the label and by some people in particular "who treated her like dirt".

Mr Makis Pounentis, the newly appointed CEO of Heaven Music, when asked by Ciao magazine, claimed he was surprised to hear about the singer's complaints and as he has been at his post for a few months he could not offer an explanation. Heaven Music ,he says, will honour the contract with Kalomira.

Currently, the young artist is in Long Island where she helps out at her family's taverna. At the beginning of the month, she was secretly engaged to her long time boyfriend Yiorgos. As for the plans for her return, nothing has been decided yet: "I miss Greece and all the people I really love, but I need to calm down and think" she says.