The third and final episode in Voice of Greece’s tribute to rebetiko, presented on “Sound Portraits” with Stavroula Karali, traces rebetiko’s journey from censorship under the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas and the years of the Occupation to the postwar period.
Through the music of Vasilis Tsitsanis, a songwriter who broadened both rebetiko’s subject matter and its audience, and the iconic voices of Sotiria Bellou and Marika Ninou, we follow the changes in Greek song and the gradual transition from rebetiko to postwar laiko.
Special attention is also given to Manos Hatzidakis’s 1949 lecture on rebetiko, a milestone in the reassessment of the genre. This journey toward recognition would culminate decades later, 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 together vintage recordings and contemporary performances to reveal rebetiko’s enduring power.
Produced and presented by Stavroula Karali
Sound editing: Giorgos Kostopoulos