Orianthi Penny Panagaris was born on January 22, 1985, in Adelaide, South Australia, to a Greek family — a guitarist, singer, and songwriter who became one of the most visible and celebrated female electric guitarists of her generation, known equally for her technical virtuosity and her high-profile collaborations with some of the most iconic names in music. She began playing piano at three, moved to acoustic guitar at six at her father's encouragement, and discovered electric guitar at eleven. Her father's record collection — Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, B.B. King, Eric Clapton — defined her early musical vocabulary, and by age fourteen she was performing with bands in Adelaide. At fifteen she opened for Steve Vai, one of her guitar heroes, and performed her first stage show with him. At eighteen she met Carlos Santana and, invited to join him at soundcheck, was later asked onstage to jam during his Adelaide concert at Memorial Drive on March 30, 2003 — an encounter Santana cited as evidence of exceptional natural talent.
She independently released her debut album Violet Journey in 2005, composing all the material and playing guitar, vocals, keyboards, bass, and drums on most tracks at her home studio — a complete artistic statement made before any major label involvement. Signed to Geffen Records in 2006, her second album Believe was released in 2009 and produced the platinum single According to You, which peaked at number 17 in the US, number 8 in Australia, and number 3 in Japan. That same year she performed as the lead guitarist for Carrie Underwood at the 51st Grammy Awards, one of the most watched live music broadcasts in America, which led directly to a call from Michael Jackson's camp. Jackson personally selected her to serve as lead guitarist for his This Is It concert series — the planned 50-show residency at London's O2 Arena that was to be his return to live performance. The concerts never happened: Jackson died on June 25, 2009. Orianthi performed at his public memorial at the Staples Center and appears throughout the documentary film Michael Jackson's This Is It, her playing documented alongside Jackson's in the final weeks of rehearsals.
In 2011 she joined Alice Cooper's touring band, becoming the first female guitarist to hold that role. Alice Cooper described her time in the band directly: "Orianthi killed it every night, twenty-eight solos and standing ovations. She is one of the best female rock guitarists in the world." She toured internationally with Cooper until 2014. Heaven in This Hell (2013) was her third solo album. She has collaborated across an extraordinary range of artists including Steve Vai, Santana, Prince, ZZ Top, John Mayer, Dave Navarro, Don Felder, Michael Bolton, and Adam Lambert. She was in a relationship with Richie Sambora from 2014 to 2018, with whom she recorded EPs and the album Radio Free America as RSO. In 2015 she contributed to Hollywood Vampires's debut album. Her fifth solo album Some Kind of Feeling was released in 2025. She was named one of the twelve greatest female electric guitarists by Elle magazine in 2009 and won Guitar International's Breakthrough Guitarist of the Year award in 2010.
Wayne Dennon photographed Orianthi as part of an archive that values guitarists who earn their place through unmistakable ability. Orianthi arrived in the consciousness of millions through the most public possible audition — playing for Michael Jackson, and then being documented doing it — and she has spent every year since proving that the choice was correct.
