Stelios Kazantzidis dies

He was born in 1931 in Nea Ionia. His parents were refugees from Asia Minor. He learned the songs of the refugees from them and his grandmother. In 1950, he began singing in clubs, while in 1952, he recorded his first song titled I Go to Kaldara for a Bath. Kazantzidis' first period in popular urban music ends in 1956. In 1957 he met Marinella, and together they became one of the best duets in Greek music. In the 60s and 70s, Kazantzidis performed, in an unsurpassed way, songs by Theodorakis, Hatzidakis, Leontis, Markopoulos, Loizos, Xarchakos, etc. The songs talked about the massive migration that plagued Greece in the 60's, heartbreak and love, compassion, the hardship of the simple people brought on by social injustice. The writer Dionysis Charitopoulos wrote in the News: "In the 50s – 60s Greeks lived in tragic circumstances [...] economic impoverishment, forced migration, injustice, suffering, social segregation... The country's ruling class was following the ways of the West and despised to the point of banishment every form of expression used by the lower classes[...] The Rebetiko song had been obliterated [...]. On public radio and in the popular nightclubs at the time, they played Western-style light songs, mambo, cha-cha, and rumbas. That's when Stelios Kazantzidis became known. A deep, crystal-clear voice traveled over the roofs of the humble houses and met the people in the streets, in cafes, in tavernas, in the backyards [...]"