Haris Alexiou (born Hariklia Roupaka in Thebes in 1950) has one of the world’s great voices and an extensive discography that includes rebetiko, laiko and what would be called adult contemporary in the west. She is the third-best selling artist in Greece since the 1960s, has a world-wide reputation, and she’s currently wowing TV audiences with her acting in the Greek Netflix series Maestro in Blue.
She has long been one of my favourite singers and it was with a sense of mourning that I (and many others) greeted her announcement that she was retiring from public performance and recording in 2020 at the age of 69. “I can’t sing like I used to,” she said. “And I will not continue doing it if I cannot do it well.”
Alexiou came of musical age in the 1970s and she was active during the rebirth of rebetiko. In 1972, she burst into public awareness with the album Mikra Asia (Asia Minor), works by Apostolos Kaldaras, recorded with George Dalaras. It was the first Greek album to go platinum.
Alexiou blazed her own trail across Greek music, along the way recording a number of rebetiko and folk songs that helped centre the older music in the modern music scene. Lili the Mischievous Girl, was written by Panagiotis Tountas and originally recorded by Rosa Eskenazi in the 1930s. This exuberant version features violinist George Koros, who played on many rebetiko and laiko recordings and in his later career emerged as a leading proponent of Greek demotika (folk song).
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