George Dalaras - Rembetiko

The Greek national spirit

George Dalaras is one of Greece's greatest and best-known musicians. Since releasing his first record in 1969, he has recorded around 50 albums of his own and contributed to around 40 others. Dalaras has sold more than 15 million albums and has worked with almost all of Greece's major composers, including Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hadjidakis, Stavros Koujioumtzis, Yannis Markopoulos, Manos Loïzos and Stavros Xarchakos. He is considered one of the most distinctive and successful Greek singers of recent decades.

Now, accompanied by a 10-piece band, he pays tribute on stage to rembetiko, the ‘blues’ of Greece, which reflects the melancholy and joys of the Greek soul like nothing else.

More than 100 years ago, the port of Piraeus was a hotbed of activity. The 1.5 million Greeks expelled from Asia Minor brought their oriental-influenced songs with them, and in the dive bars, hash dens and prisons, among sailors, drug dealers and crooks, they matured into lamentations accompanied by bouzouki. This marked the birth of rembetiko, which was banned by the dictatorship from 1936 onwards. Today, this former subculture is an integral part of the Greek music scene and has been modernised over the last few decades by renowned performers.