Maria Tsiokantas' musical inspirations range from Greek composer Yanni to Australia's own Kylie Minogue but the teenage Canberra singer-songwriter is finding her own voice, and ways to make a difference with it.
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In 2018 Tsiokantas, who was in Year 12 at Canberra Girls Grammar School, teamed up with some friends from Canberra Grammar School and raised $3000 for The Kids Cancer Project with the inaugural Moonlight Concert. But that was only the first step.
Now 18 and majoring in economics at the University of Sydney, Tsiokantas wanted to continue fundraising for the charity, which raises money for childhood cancer research.
She's written a song, Unreal, and all the proceeds from when the song is downloaded from Apple Music or Spotify will go to the charity.
It's a catchy pop song that talks about how adversity can bring people together to make a positive change.
"Most of us are incredibly lucky," said Tsiokantas. "The first two lines of Unreal are so important - 'You think life is so easy, but you don't know what you're missing' - they really speak to my message that we should never take anything for granted - family, our health, education, anything."
Tsiokantas was only 12 when her aunty died of breast cancer in 2013.
"Being by her side was very confronting and I couldn't really imagine a child having to endure what she did, especially the treatments, which is why I paired up with the project."
Tsiokantas, who performs as Ria, started singing when she was three and music played an important part in her childhood.
"Unreal is in part inspired by the artists my parents played to me as a kid," she says.
"My mother would play a lot of Yanni and what I really liked about him was he integrates a lot of different genres into his music.
"Dad used to play Kylie Minogue and we'd dance around the living room."
Tsiokantas said Minogue was a role model.
"Kylie is an inspiration to me, she had breast cancer and the way she dealt with the diagnosis as well as her music career was very admirable. She's shaped my music style as well."
Another role model is Guy Sebastian who was one of the judges she met when she was on The X Factor when she was 15.
"He had a lot of insights to share, not just in terms of being an artist, not just music, but the mindset that a successful musician has to carry throughout their career. He taught me the value of being tenacious and not take no for an answer and just keep going even when you're told that you might not be good enough."
Unreal was produced in Canberra at Rob's Garage recording studio, under the direction of Steve Zumstein.
"The creative process was collaborative and really fun. I was particularly excited to shy away from synthetic technology instead using organic items like salt and pepper shakers along with other cooking utensils to make unique and authentic sound effects. We were making music in its rawest form."
- Download Ria's Unreal from Apple Music or Spotify and proceeds will go directly to The Kids' Cancer Project.