Born in Piraeus, Genitsaris taught himself to play bouzouki and wrote his first song when he was 17. He performed alongside all the greats of the era, while reportedly regularly running afoul of the police as part of their crackdown on rebetiko.
He recorded The Swiper just after World War II, which he survived in part by being a saltadoros –– someone who stole whatever they could from Nazi trucks during the occupation on Greece for sale on the black market.
Genitsaris largely disappeared in the post-war years as the music changed but was rediscovered after George Dalaras recorded this as part of a collection of songs from the Nazi occupation.
Genitsaris started performing and recording again in the early 1980s, regularly referred to as the last rebete. He also had one of the most luxurious moustaches ever to grace a rebetiko singer.He died in 2005 at age 88.
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