Elena Papandreou was born in 1966 in Athens, Greece. She has studied the guitar with Evangelos Boudounis at the National Conservatory of Athens and graduated in 1985 with honors. She continued her studies with Gordon Crosskey at the Royal Northern College of Music, England, on a British Council scholarship, obtaining the Diploma in Advanced Studies in Musical Performance (1986). She has also participated in master classes held by Oscar Ghiglia, Alirio Diaz, Julian Bream, Leo Brouwer and Ruggero Chiesa.

Elena Papandreou gave her first public performance at the age of 15. She has won the First Prize in three International Competitions, "Maria Callas" (Greece), "Gargnano" (Italy), "Alessandria" (Italy) and the Second Prize in the "Guitar Foundation of America" Competition. In the latter she was also awarded the "NAXOS" Prize, which gave her the opportunity to record two personal CDs with the company while she had previously released five other records. She has also been collaborating with the Swedish BIS recording company since 2001.

In 1992 she was honored by the Academy of Athens with the "Spyros Motsenigos" Prize, which is awarded to one outstanding performer every two years.
Elena Papandreou has performed in most European countries, as well as in the U.S.A., Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Japan. Within the "Rising Stars" program of the "European Concert Hall Organisation" (ECHO), she gave concerts in some of the most prestigious halls in Europe, the Vienna Musikverein, the Koelner Philharmonie, the Birmingham Symphony Hall and the Athens Concert Hall. She has also played in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow and the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London. She frequently tours the U.S.A. and in 1998 she gave her Carnegie Hall debut in New York.

Elena Papandreou has also collaborated with outstanding musicians such as Alirio Diaz, Oscar Ghiglia, Roland Dyens, Nikita Koshkin, Evangelos Boudounis and Yorgos Mouloudakis, the violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Gerardo Ribeiro, the singers Vasso Papantoniou, Herbert Lippert and Nena Venetsanou and the flutist Stella Gadedi. Elena Papandreou has played as a soloist with the State Orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki, the Camerata Orchestra, the Orchestra of Colours, the Orchestra of Patras and the Orchestra of Alessandria, Italy. Her performances were recorded by the Greek Television and Radio, Radio France, Deutsche Welle and the Turkish Television.

Many composers have dedicated works to her. Among them, Roland Dyens, Nikita Koshkin, Nikos Mamangakis (including a concerto for guitar and orchestra), Evangelos Boudounis, Giorgos Koumendakis and Dimitris Nicolau.

She has received critical acclaim for he recordings from significant people of the music world and enthusiastic reviews from the Press in Greece and abroad. Alirio Diaz said about her: "Her musicality through her refined technique cannot but stir up the admiration of her audience". And Leo Brouwer: "If you want to hear music of the highest level of interpretation with poetical perfection you must hear Elena Papandreou". The Washington Post called her "a poet of the guitar" and the Greek newspaper "Ta Nea" wrote: "Now we see Elena Papandreou as one of the greatest interpreters [...] the critic becomes silent ... when the Music begins".

Elena Papandreou currently lives in Greece where she teaches at the "University of Macedonia" in Thessaloniki and at the National Conservatory in Athens, also giving Postgraduate classes