This week, we have been honouring five distinct individuals who, for different reasons, have left a profound mark on my personal mythology and who were born or passed away on one of this week’s days. Today, we will be remembering a superbly sensitive and expressive composer who passed away exactly 4...
Today, we will be introducing ourselves to the exciting ideas and songs of Greece’s most explicitly political lyricist, who was born exactly 72 years ago, on September 16, 1953. His vision? “Singing is not about expressing yourself individually. When you write, you cannot start with your own experience. It ...
Giannoulis Halepas, who died exactly 87 years ago on September 15, 1938, is widely regarded as Greece’s greatest sculptor. He came from the island of Tinos and a family of famous marble cutters and sculptors. Halepas studied at the School of Arts in Athens and, in 1873, he left for Munich, under a s...
Throughout the week that ends today, we explored the work of some very talented and perhaps less advertised singers-songwriters who recently released personal albums of theirs and who definitely deserve our attention. Born in the neighborhood of Kesariani in 1987, Vassilis Korakakis has collaborated...
Today is the 11th of September and there are two very sad occasions associated with this day - the 9/11 with the 2001 terrorist attacks against the US, and the “Chilean 9/11” with the 1973 coup d’etat organised by dictator Augusto Pinochet. Today, we will be turning our attention to the latter event...
Danae Panagiotopoulou, with important albums in her personal discography (Oikos Antohis, Homo Logotypous', Antipyra) returned with “Exit #44”. “Eight songs and an orchestral piece span a period of 15 unpredictable years that certainly caught us off guard. With sometimes classical and sometimes unort...
Today, we are honouring the memory of an outstanding rock singer-songwriter who sadly died six years ago, on September 9, 2019. Our destination - the best live recordings of Lavrentis Maheritsas – will remind us of the talent and the sensitivity of an influential artist who stood at the crossroads o...
Nasos Matrakas is one of the most interesting singer-songwriters of a slightly older generation, having first appeared in the discography in 1994. Thankfully, he continues to offer his knowledge and his talent to today's artistic reality. As for Stavros Stavridis, the number 1 element that captivates...
Today, we will be enjoying a rather predictable partnership between Greek rock and the theme of streets and roads. Why predictable? Because the roads contain all the mystery, the dynamism, the freedom found in rock. They are unexpected, unknown, noisy and burning, just like our rock songs are. From...
Today, we will be enjoying a rather predictable partnership between Greek rock and the theme of streets and roads. Why predictable? Because the roads contain all the mystery, the dynamism, the freedom found in rock. They are unexpected, unknown, noisy and burning, just like our rock songs are. From...
Roads are a permanent theme of Greek popular song; they represent fate, motion, life itself, with its multiple options and choices, its dilemmas, its dead ends, its fresh starts. Roads can be wide but they can also be narrow, tired and tiring, straight or with obstructions, empty and closed. And those...
Antonis Vardis was a major composer and singer-songwriter who sadly passed away on September 2, 2014, at the age of just 66. In his massive 40-year career, he collaborated with several major singers, including George Dalaras, Vassilis Papakonstantinou, Haroula Alexiou, Christina Maragozi, Manolis Lidakis...
Throughout the week that starts today, here at GME, we will be exploring the theme of streets and roads and other urban paths in Greek music. Today, we start with a tribute to the streets of Athens. Why? Well, because I somehow miss urban songs, i.e. songs that contain references to urban themes and...
Undoubtedly, Stelios Kazantzidis and Sotiria Bellou became famous thanks to their contribution to folk, popular song. However, it is interesting to note that art-song composers also entrusted them with their creations; from Mikis Theodorakis to Elias Andriopoulos and from Manos Hadjidakis to Dionysis...
Stelios used to say: “My homeland has been tyrannizing me, torturing me since I was a three-month-old baby. It is one of the reasons why I sing with pain, because I sing for myself first and then for the world”. Sotiria had her own fair share of persecution and hardship, starting with the abuse tha...
Sotiria Bellou was a generous person. Throughout her ups and downs, she offered her help without thinking. But she did not get the same help from others, when she needed it; this was her only complaint. As for Stelios Kazantzidis, vocalist Martha Frintzila once told me: “This voice that rises and f...
Stelios Kazantzidis and Sotiria Bellou are two voices that became symbols of the pain, the desires, the hardships and the visions of postwar Greeks – both those who stayed in the country and those who emigrated in search of a better life. With their popular songs, these two vocalists were loved fanatically b...
Throughout the week that starts today, we will be celebrating the legacy of two magnificent vocalists whose recordings marked the entire evolution of Greek music, and especially the rebetiko and popular song. The one was born on August 22, 1921 and the other on August 29, 1931. Our destination: Sotiria...
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