Shows in English

White boats”, a “white dove”, “white nights”, “white birds dancing”, “white jasmine”… We start our week-long tribute to colours with songs containing white items. The colour of innocence, purity and simplicity in songs performed by leading vocalists such as Elli Paspala, Dimitra Galani, Giannis Kal...

Is there an objective criteria to define what “great art” is?Essentially, art’s greatness is a personal and subjective judgment, varying from individual to individual. It appears that the value of art is often shaped by a few galleries and museums exhibiting a specific artist. So the decisions made ...

Mihalis Papazisis is one of the many singers who come from Thessaloniki and have supported with their talent and dedication the case of the art or entehno song. Today, we will be listening to songs from his two personal albums composed by Giorgos Kazantzis and Costas Kaldaras respectively, two composers...

Maryo is the last grande dame of rebetiko, a true ‘rebetissa’ and one of the most expressive and original representatives of the genre. When asked what brought her to the world of singing, she answers: "the rebetiko song from the gramophone and my father who was a musician", but also "the Smyrna son...

Born and raised in Thessaloniki, Pashalis Terzis has been associated with the nucleus, the soul of the city. The backbone of today’s track list is a 1986 album titled “National Squad of Thessaloniki” with songs composed by Thodoros Derveniotis and Christos Nikolopoulos – a creator who helped Terzis ...

Throughout her discography, Lizeta Kalimeri has demonstrated her immense musical and interpretative range, experimenting with different styles while always maintaining her artistic consistency. She has collaborated with leading art-song creators, like Giorgos Kazantzis, top-class composers such as Nikos...

The death of Vasilis Karras on December 24, 2023, sparked a huge public debate over the notion of ‘kapsoura’, i.e. strong erotic desire, infatuation and the grievance that accompanies a break-up. Irrespective of the opinion one might have concerning the aesthetics of the genre that Karras represented, the...

Art transcends and breaks down the boundaries of societies and history and answers this very big question: how do we define beauty in art?If you look at any dictionary or encyclopedia of the past two centuries and look for the definition “aesthetics,” you will find the classic definition that “aesthetics is th...

How can we summarize Tsitsanis’s contribution to Greek music? He was brilliant as a composer, lyricist and bouzouki player. He removed the stigma that had originally been attached to the bouzouki, which became a legitimate lead instrument. And he incorporated western features, eliminating some oriental el...

During his long career, Vassilis Tsitsanis collaborated on stage and in the studio with many great interpreters of popular song. However, a special place in Tsitsanis' discography is held by his collaboration with Grigoris Bithikotsis and Stelios Kazantzidis, because they were not just some random singers....

Vassilis Tsitsanis was born on January 18, 1915, and died on January 18, 1984. Thus, this week here at GME is dedicated to this influential figure of Greek music who left a huge footprint on laiko and rebetiko song. Tsitsanis wrote more than 500 songs and is still remembered as an extraordinary composer...

On this episode of VoG's English-language show ''Infinitly Curious'', Katerina Batzaki explores whether and how much animals have empathy, can sense others’ emotions, and understand what they are feeling.Listen to Cats of Antiparos' founder Iliada Stavrinidi about how her cats c...

We conclude our week-long tribute by sharing information about the three mountains of Athens, Penteli, Parnitha and Hymettus, and by listening to songs from three albums that contain the mountains in their title: "My Inner Mountain" by Soulis Liakos, "I Want to Go to the Mountains" by Theodore Theodorides,...

Giannis Poulopoulos sings immigration songs The songs of today’s GME are mostly taken from the album “The songs of foreign lands”, which was released in 1976. This unjustifiably forgotten collection was composed by Giorgos Katsaros, written by Dimitris Iatropoulos and performed by Giannis Poulopoulos. Ο Γιάννης Πουλόπουλος στα «Τραγούδια της Ξενιτιάς» Μια σημαντική δουλειά από το μακρινό 1976, με τη βελούδινη φωνή του Πουλόπουλου, τους εμπνευσμένους στίχους του Ιατρόπουλου και τις στιβαρές μελωδίες του Κατσαρού, που δεν ακούστηκε σχεδόν καθόλου. Πάντως, με το συνεχιζόμενο δράμα της προσφυγιάς και της μετανάστευσης να ξεδιπλώνεται σήμερα, διατηρεί όλη τα διαχρονικότητά της.