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Dimitris Semsis was a violinist, composer and record executive, involved in hundreds of recordings, beginning in the 1920s.

Widely acclaimed as the best violinist in the region, the young Semsis toured the Balkans, Asia Minor and North Africa with a travelling circus, and later as part of an orchestra. He and his family moved to Thessaloniki in 1919 and then to Athens in 1927, where was nicknamed Salonikios (from Salonica, the old name of Thessaloniki).

He was recording director for two major labels in Athens, EMV and Columbia, and then named artistic director for His Master’s Voice in 1931, a position he held for almost 20 years.

He wrote more than 100 rebetiko songs, recorded by all the leading rebetiko performers, and was involved, as a violinist, in the recording and performance of many more traditional and rebetiko songs. Let’s Take a Boat Tonight, was recorded by Ioanna Georgakopoulou in 1940.