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Istanbul-born and trained Grigoris Asikis was an oud player and singer who, after moving to Athens, began composing rebetiko songs in the early 1930s.

Until the mid-’30s Metaxas dictatorship’s ban, he wrote and sang Smyrneika style songs: after he switched to writing bouzouki-driven songs. For a time, he was banned from recording because of his support for trade unions, so he survived by selling his songs to other artists.

He was a prolific and popular songwriter, whose works were recorded by just about every performer during the classic era of rebetiko. Bayandera, one of his early-’30s compositions, was recorded by Marika Politssia (Frantzeskopoulou), with Asikis playing oud.