Stelios Kazantzidis

When television still had strong doses of romance, in the 1980s, I remember as a child watching a gentleman on the screen who, although I felt that he was somehow looking at us watching him from the living room of our house, deep down I believed that he wanted us to listen to him more and watch him less.

The film about the life of the great popular singer Stelios Kazantzidis, Yparho, premiered at the Pallas Theater.

Over 1,200 people watched the film, in the presence of the director, Giorgos Tsemperopoulos, the lead actor, Christos Mastoras, as well as actors and contributors.

Lyricist Lefteris Papadopoulos (center), whose name has been inextricably linked to the golden age of Greek music, enters the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens accompanied by singer Giorgos Dalaras for the concert-tribute to his long career on Wednesday.

A star is born, not made, and has no age. This realization prevailed in the minds of all of us fortunate enough to attend Marinella’s concert last Saturday evening, in the beautiful courtyard of the Moni Toplou.

Christos Nikolopoulos, one of Greece’s most significant folk composers, is set to celebrate his 60-year music career with a grand concert on Saturday, September 7, at the Herodion Theatre.

A biopic on the Greek music legend Stelios Kazantzidis (1931-2001) is currently being filmed in Athens, Piraeus and other locations in a Tanweer production directed by Yorgos Tsemberopoulos. 

Making his cinematic debut in the title role is Christos Mastoras, frontman of the band Melisses. 

Apostolos Nikolaidis started working in construction at the age of 13, singing as he climbed the scaffolding. "Give us another song," the other workmen would shout when he stopped. As a teenager in Thessaloniki, he sang along to the bouzouki played by other boys in the neighborhood, before sneaking off to Athens with dreams of becoming a professional singer.

A number of Greek artists will be coming together at the Evripideio Theater on the island of Salamina on Sunday, August 25, to celebrate the life and music of Stelios Kazantzidis, 18 years after his death. A leading singer of Greek laiko music, he collaborated with many of Greece's foremost composers, including Manolis Chiotis, Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis and Stavros Xarhakos.