The third and final installment of Voice of Greece’s tribute to rebetiko, on “Sound Portraits” with Stavroula Karali, traces the genre’s journey from censorship under the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas and the years of the occupation to the postwar period.
Through the work of Vasilis Tsitsanis, who broadened both rebetiko’s subject matter and its audience, and the iconic voices of Sotiria Bellou and Marika Ninou, we explore the changes in Greek song and the gradual transition from rebetiko to postwar Greek popular music.
Special attention is given to Manos Hadjidakis’s 1949 lecture on rebetiko, a milestone in the reassessment of the genre. This journey toward recognition continued over the decades, culminating in 2017 with rebetiko’s inscription on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The musical journey concludes in the present day, bringing archival recordings together with contemporary performances to reveal rebetiko’s enduring power.
Produced and presented by Stavroula Karali
Sound editing: Giorgos Kostopoulos
Broadcast: Tuesday, 6 October 2026, at 22:00 Athens time
