Greek Music Express

This week, here at GME, we will be celebrating ten distinguished figures of Greek film music: Giorgos Hatzinasios and Panagiotis Kalantzopoulos today; Eleni Karaindrou and Marios Strofalis tomorrow; Stamatis Kraounakis and Manos Loizos on Wednesday; Evanthia Reboutsika and Stamatis Spanoudakis on Thursday;...

The week that ends today, here at GME, was dedicated to swing covers of Greek originals – uplifting songs that are conveyed to a younger audience through a “modernisation” of their sound and rhythm. Among others, Babis Goles is revisited by The Burger Project, “Patriarch” Markos Vamvakaris is rejuve...

From Swing Shoes to Gadjo Dilo and from Mariza Rizou to The Swingin’ Cats, a fascinating story of producing new sounds through old songs is unfolding before our eyes: The story of swing covers of Greek classics. Lack of inspiration? Recycling of existing hits? Or a sincere turn to our musical past w...

Covers are everywhere in today’s Greek recording landscape, as we are going through a period where the return to the past counterbalances the relative absence of contemporary, commercially relevant creation. And among these covers, swing is the dominant style, bringing fresh sounds and powerful rhythms w...

Here comes the second part of GME’s tribute to swing covers of Greek songs. Today, we are listening to some of the finest light songs and ballads originally performed by important voices such as Dimitris Horn, Marinella, Arleta and Margarita Zorbala. Their swing-inspired renditions belong to inventive a...

The week that starts today, here at GME, is dedicated to swing covers of Greek originals – uplifting songs that carry the classics of the past into our modern era and introduce it to a younger audience. The format of all GME broadcasts this week will be the following: one song in its original recording, f...

Tania Tsanaklidou’s Hamburg; Giannis Koutras’ Liverpool and Barcelona; Maria Farantouri’s Gibraltar; Giannis Kotsiras’ Alexandria; Vassilis Papakonstantinou’s Puerto Rico; Mario Frangoulis’ Bosporus; and Nena Venetsanou’s Hanoi. Welcome to the ports of the world, as celebrated by Greek song. Welcome...

Today, we are singing the harbours of rock – wild harbours, rough, unwelcoming, with pirates and fires and praying birds. But they are also harbours of nostalgia and memory, marked by significant departures and much-desired arrivals. Today’s ports belong to Greek rock ballads and are performed by fam...

Today, we will be enjoying the presence of ports in Greek popular songs – a beautiful combination of musical form and poetic content performed by the likes of Litsa Giagkousi, Sofia Papazoglou,Giota Nega, Polys Kermanidis and Aspasia Stratigou. In between the tracks, we are sharing fragments from t...

Second day of our week-long tribute to ports and their songs here at GME and today we will be listening to just …four songs. Can you have an entire one-hour broadcast with just four songs? Sure, as long as these songs are the favourite ones of the producer, have had many inventive covers, and take u...

The week that starts today, here at GME, is dedicated to ports – ports of Greece and of Hellenism, ports of the world, sites of history and voyages of utmost social and economic significance. Our songs about harbours, today, fall into the category of art – “entehno”, a style characterised by sophist...

May 1 at GME means remembering the workers’ struggles that secured the social and economic rights enjoyed by our societies today. And it also means celebrating the identity and culture of the working classes, old and new. A part of this identity consists of the Greek labour songs that reflected an e...

Today, here at GME, we are celebrating the life and work of an important figure of folk music, a radio producer and music journalist who died exactly twenty years ago, on April 30, 2005. With his texts and broadcasts, he remained faithful to his ideals – folk song, social justice, artistic originality –...

Today, we are remembering an important poetess who died 95 years ago, on April 29, 1930, at the age of just 28. Lyrical and sensitive according to some observers, torrential and dynamic according to others, her powerful poetic voice was transformed into songs performed by some of the greatest female...

Vassilis Dimitriou is the creator of the great instrumentals of Greek music, primarily written for the original scores of popular TV series. “The Dress Rehearsal”, “The Execution”, “The Great Anger”, “Love Was One Day Late”, and so many others… Director Costas Koutsomytis wrote about the composer: "Wh...

George Dalaras with Dulce Pontes, Haris Alexiou with Sezen Aksu, Locomondo with Tonino Carotone, Thanos Mikroutsikos with Milva, Lavrentis Machairitsas with Salvatore Adamo and Angelo Branduardi – endless international collaborations, endless blending of cultures, peoples and geographies leaving a n...

What we will be listening to today is not really a collaboration but rather an indirect coexistence, between a leading Greek vocalist and a prominent American composer. This is the live recording of a concert with excerpts from works by George Gershwin, performed by Maria Farantouri, which was given...

Today, we will be celebrating the joint appearance on stage of a superb Greek lyrical singer with various international stars, from Deborah Myers and Lara Fabian to Lucio Dalla. Mario Frangoulis is a Greek vocalist, famous for his refined tenor vocals. He has recorded songs in Italian, Spanish, English,...