Dedicated to my Dutch speaking friends...

with Dutch subtitles... Dalaras for ever!

This clip is so typically Greek. Emotional bouzouki music, played by the best available bouzouki player of all times (I remember I once saw this guy in a live programme with Manolis Mitsias, in Athens, in early 70ies), lyrics that make you think seriously about life (remember, two Greek writers won the Nobel Prize of Literature in the last 40 years, Seferis and Elytis... poetry is really serious shit to Greeks), no elements of banal 'love songs' words in the lyrics at all (like, I love you, I miss you, I see the sky in your eyes, and more of this BS), a whole audience singing along (it's true, the average Greek can sing along hundreds of songs written in most of the previous century), even Theodorakis, shown in the last few seconds of the clip, sitting among the commoners and singing along too (the lady next to him looked very embarrassed, understandable as we all know that Mikis' voice has nothing to be jealous of a mule's, I think a mule sounds better)... and all this, taking place at the feet of the Acropolis hill, at the Roman theater of Herodes of Attica.

Nevertheless, for those who are used of him, Dalaras is the Greek Voice by any conceivable measure. There are many excellent singers but there is one Dalaras above them all. Even if you get irritated by his sound from time to time, you just can't help loving the guy and what he did to the Legacy of Greek popular music...

Now, if you want to hear another version of the same song from a modern Greek Kouros (a stud) with a divine voice as well, and witness some of the dancing fun Greek babes enjoy at similar sounds, link here for more. There's more to it than syrtaki, innit?

(PS. BTW, the dance they are doing is called the 'zeibekiko' and it's sort of reminiscent of a belly dance whereby a person (man or woman) dances to the rythm with sensual jumps and lusty moves of their ass whereas one or several others sit on the floor on one knee and clap their hands to the rythm... that's the only part I could do, if I tried... I think. The term zeibekiko sounds Turkish to me, so, who knows, maybe the dance is a left-over from the hundreds of years long occupation of Greek territories by the Othoman Empire).