MUSIC & DANCEGREEK DANCEWhile few Greek performers have made it big internationally – 1970s
genre-defying icons Nana Mouskouri and kaftan-wearing Demis Roussos
remain the best known – there is a strong local music industry.
Big names include veteran George Dalaras, who has covered the gam-
ut of Greek music and collaborated with Latin and Balkan artists as well
as Sting, and Dionysis Savopoulos, dubbed the Dylan of Greece. Distin-
guished women of Greek music include Haris Alexiou, Glykeria, Dimitra
Galani and Eleftheria Arvanitaki.
Cypriot-born ‘modern troubadour’ Alkinoos Ioannides, with his rocky
folk-inspired songs and ballads, is one of the stand-out new-generation
artists, along with singer-songwriters Thanasis Papakonstantinou, Dimi-
tris Zervoudakis and Miltiadis Pashalidis.
Acclaimed vocal artist Savina Yannatou, ethnic jazz fusion artists
Kristi Stasinopoulou and Mode Plagal, are making a mark on the world-
music scene, while other notable fusion bands include the Cretan-
inspired Haïnides.
On the pop scene, Greece’s answer to Madonna is Anna Vissi, while
idol Mihalis Hatziyiannis and Greek-Swedish singer Elena Paparizou
(who claimed Greece’s fi rst-ever Eurovision Song Contest win in 2005)
have the youth vote. Headline modern laïkaa performers include Yiannis
Ploutarhos, Antonis Remos and Thanos Petrelis.
Greek Dance
Dancing has been part of Greek social life since the dawn of Hellenism.
Some folk dances derive from the ritual dances performed in ancient
THE GREEK BLUESTwo styles make up what is broadly known as rembetika. Smyrneika or Café Aman music
fi rst emerged in the mid- to late-19th century in the thriving port cities of Smyrna and
Constantinople, which had large Greek populations, and in Thessaloniki, Volos, Syros and
Athens. Characterised by a rich vocal style, with haunting amanedhes (vocal improvisa-
tions) and occasional Turkish lyrics, it had a more oriental sound. The predominant instru-
ments were the violin, outi (oud), guitar, mandolin, kanonaki and santouri (fl at multistringed
instrument).
The second style evolved in Piraeus, where rembetika was the music of the under-
class, and the six-stringed bouzouki (musical instrument in the lute family) and bagla-
mas (a baby bouzouki) dominated. With the infl ux of refugees from Asia Minor in
Piraeus after the 1922 population exchange (many also went to America where rembe-
tika was recorded in the 1920s), the styles somewhat overlapped and rembetika became
the music of the ghettos. Infused with defi ance, nostalgia and lament, the lyrics refl ected
the bleaker themes of life. The protagonists of rembetika songs were often manges, the
smartly dressed (often hashish-smoking and knife-carrying), street-wise outcasts who
sang and danced in the tekedhes (hash dens that inspired many songs).
Although hashish was illegal, the law was rarely enforced until the mid-1930s when
Metaxas attempted to wipe out the subculture through censorship, police harassment
and raids on tekedhes. People were arrested for carrying a bouzouki (and apparently
had half their slick moustaches cut off or pointy shoes lopped). Many artists stopped
performing and recording, though the music continued clandestinely.
After WWII a new wave of rembetika performers and composers emerged, essentially
eliminating its seedy side, including Vasilis Tsitsanis, one of the most prolifi c and beloved
composers, Apostolos Kaldaras, Yiannis Papaioannou, Georgos Mitsakis, Apostolos
Hatzihristou, Sotiria Bellou, who was one of the great rembetika songstresses, and Ma-
rika Ninou, whose life inspired Costas Ferris’ 1983 fi lm Rebetiko.
The music later morphed into lighter laïka (urban popular music) with the lyrics re-
fl ecting more social and sentimental themes. It was played in bigger clubs with electrifi ed
bands, losing much of the original essence.Road to
Rembetika: Music
of a Greek
Sub-Culture:
Songs of Love,
Sorrow and
Hashish by Gail
Holst-Warhaft is
a fine account
of the genre, as
is Ed Emery’s
translation of
Elias Petropoulos’
Songs of the
Underworld:
The Rembetika
Tradition.