Smooth-voiced Odysseas Moschonas was among the most popular singers of rebetiko and laiko music. He was born on the island of Samos, where he was a singer and guitar player in various groups and for festivals. He left the island to pursue a musical career in Athens, reportedly paying for his passage by singing for the ship’s captain.
In Piraeus, he met the composer Yannis Dragatsis and started singing with him. From there, he worked with many of the Smyrneika composers and performers throughout the 1930s. During the difficult years of the occupation of Greece, he met Giannis Papaioannou and started a very fruitful collaboration. After the war, as laiko music gathered popularity, he worked with Tsitsanis on some of that era’s classics.
In 1953, he partnered with Stella Haskil and they toured Turkey. When they returned to Athens, Haskil learned she had cancer. Her death reportedly devestated Moschonas, who stopped performing until 1957. He continued to perform on and off until his death in 1995.
The Separation is a lament, written by Papaioannou in 1947.
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