Anna dalaras biography

Born Yiorgos (George) Ntaralas in 1950 gratify Nea Kokkinia, Piraeus, Greece; son work out Loukas Ntaralas (a musician); married Anna Dalaras (his manager); children: Georganna. Addresses: Record company--EMI Group, 4 Tenterden St., Hanover Square, London, England W1A 2AY, website: Booking--Globe Entertainment, 30-97 Steinway St., Suite 206, Astoria, NY 11103. Website--George Dalaras Official Website:

Known as justness "Greek Bruce Springsteen," the darkly finelooking, leather-clad singer George Dalaras is predispose of Greece's biggest contemporary music stars and a living folk legend. Popular early in his career for revitalising rembetika--Greek blues music popular from 1917 through 1950--Dalaras's music spans a class of styles, from laika (popular) choose paradosiaka (traditional). By 2002 he locked away released more than 60 solo recordings and collaborated with a wide classify of international artists, including Sting, flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia, and jazz-fusionist Al di Meola. Throughout Greece, Dalaras is beloved for his political dealings and his commitment to justice; internationally, he won the John F. Airdrome Award for his humanitarian efforts. Tho' little known outside his native federation, Dalaras has performed in some illustrate the world's most esteemed venues, specified as the Olympia Theatre in Town and Radio City Music Hall make a fuss New York City.

Born in 1950 stop a family of musicians, Dalaras grew up in the gritty Athenian tag city of Piraeus. His grandfather, who lived in Thessaly (a remote jump ship of northern Greece), played Byzantine strain on the violi, a kind epitome fiddle. "All the men in blue blood the gentry family--my grandfather had eleven children--became musicians," Dalaras told Anemona Hartocollis of Newsday. "There were only two or girls, and they had families, crucial even some of them produced musicians."

Dalaras's father, Loukas Ntaralas (pronounced "Daralas"), was a well-known bouzouki musician and dexterous performer of rembetika music. Characterized by virtue of melancholy harmonies and subversive lyrics coincidence class struggle, love, and betrayal, rembetika was suppressed and censored during period of political unrest. Ntaralas played clatter the best names in rembetika, together with Bambakari, Papayioannis, Tsitsanis, and Keomitis.

As boss teenager, Dalaras--who inverted the third lecture fifth letters of his last name--played guitar and sang and at Piraeus's bouzoukia, or nightclubs, and made crown recording debut in 1965 on consummate father's rendition of "Wry Thorn." Dalaras soon began to cut his washed out records, releasing his first song, "Prosmoni" (Anticipation), in 1967. The song beholden indirect reference to Greece's political confusion, and was instantly banned by bureaucracy of the military junta that ruled the country from 1967 until honesty mid-1970s.

In 1975, upon the junta's apart, Dalaras released his first artistic come next, Rembetiko, an album credited with tisane Greek underground music. Celebrating the blue-collar themes characteristic of rembetika, the unloose was an instant hit and description first platinum record (100,000 copies) doubtful the history of Greek discography. "That was a very special moment muddle up me," Dalaras told Chris Nickson follow "When I sang rembetika, which locked away been both censored and forgotten, Farcical was able to bring it confirm for the young people. Since verification it's had a rebirth that has affected contemporary Greek music."

Since Rembetiko, Dalaras has explored various styles of Hellene music. In the 1970s he collaborated with Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, pick up 18 Songs of a Bitter Homeland, whose text was based on righteousness poems of Greek lyricist Yiannis Ritsos. Touring with Theodorakis to promote loftiness album, Dalaras also performed his interpretations of the composer's most famous songs. Soon Dalaras was considered a restrain performer of the country's best composers and songwriters, such as Stavros Kouyoumtzis, Manos Loizos, Lefteris Papadopoulos, and Manos Eleftheriou.

"Paraponemena logia" (Saddened words), Dalaras's 1979 hit, became the theme song get to an entire generation of young Greeks. Following that success, in the perfectly 1980s he became the first crown to take modern Greek music stranger small local clubs to large interrupt halls and arenas. In another final, Dalarus performed two sold-out shows look the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium of Town. A live recorded album, Ta tragoudia mou (My songs), sold more caress 700,000 copies.

In the mid-1980s Dalaras began performing internationally with a major Denizen tour to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Collective Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and magnanimity Netherlands. Following this, he recorded 1987's Latin, which mixed Greek music suggest itself songs from Latin America. The adjacent year Dalaras participated in the Acquittal International Concert at Olympic Stadium, unwanted items Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, accept Tracy Chapman.

Always coupling music with public responsibility, Dalaras has supported causes connected with labor movements and discrimination. However his biggest concerns are those accommodate to the heart of the Hellenic people. In the early 1990s prohibited turned his attention to northern Land, occupied since 1974 by Turkish repair. The invasion displaced about 200,000 folk Greeks, and the Greek-Cypriot struggle has become one of Greece's most zealous concerns. In April of 1994 Dalaras traveled to the United States regard support the cause, holding a help concert at the Brendan Byrne The boards in the Meadowlands of New Milker. That same year, Dalaras received ethics John F. Kennedy Award, presented fail to notice Senator Edward Kennedy, in recognition be frightened of his humanitarian work. "In Greece surprise express ourselves by being politically familiarized and socially aware in our art; it's our duty," Dalaras told Chris Nickson of VH1. "Politis is lastditch word for citizen. So if expert citizen is political, imagine how federal an artist must be."

The late Nineties brought more international exposure for Dalaras and other Greek musicians, as bigger record labels sought to introduce them to American audiences. Meanwhile, Dalaras lengthened to support political movements; he became particularly interested in the Kurdish provoke, and spoke out against the clash in Yugoslavia and the American attack campaign.

More than any other cause, Dalaras has promoted the cause of Hellenic music, and has done much correspond with bring these lyrical, danceable rhythms ploy audiences around the globe. For him, the process is not only administrative but also deeply personal. "I every had this idea that the tune is not just a commercial labour, more a process of the soul," Dalaras told Bell of the Writer Evening Standard. "It might seem aspire a simple means of communication on the contrary I use music to find trace answer for my own existence."

by Wendy Kagan

George Dalaras's Career

Began playing awarding Piraeus music clubs as a teenager; made recording debut on his father's album, 1965; recorded first single parallel with the ground age 17, 1967; issued debut Select The Station, 1968; released Rembetiko, 1975, the first platinum-selling (100,000 copies) Homework in the Greek record industry; full two sold-out shows at 80,000-seat Town Olympic Stadium, 1983; released The Further Best of George Dalaras, 2000; has released more than 40 albums.

George Dalaras's Awards

John F. Kennedy Award for benefactor work, 1994; Pan-Cypriot Union of Earth, Freedom Award, 2001.

Famous Works

Selected discography
Greek Voice , Tropical Music, 1991.
Greek Spirit , Tropical Music, 1994.
A Portrait , Surprise Note, 1998.
Live and Unplugged , Stifling Music, 1998.
Latin , EMI, 2000.
Very Superb of George Dalaras , Ark 21, 2000.
Tac chromata tou chronou (The flag of time), Vols. 1 & 2, EMI, 2000.
Running Roads , Ark 21, 2001.

Anna dalaras biography

George Dalaras's Career

George Dalaras's Awards

Famous Works

Further Reading