Γιάννης Παπαϊωάννου,Ρ.Νταλια - Γκελμεντεμ GELMENDEN (1969)

Giannis Papaioannou (1913-1972) born in Kios, a Greek city occupied by the Ottomans and he came to Greece as a refugee when he was 9-years old. He first moved with his mother and grandmother on the island of Samothrace before settling in Piraeus. After his brief stint as a footballer came to an end as a result of an injury, Papaioannou devoted himself to songwriting.

He is considered by many as the first song writer to have taken bouzouki music out of the "tekke" (drug den), making it more acceptable to the non-hashish smoking stratum of Greek society.

The multi-talented Papaioannou's music varies from old-style rebetika ("Pente Ellines ston Adi", "O boufetzis"), to oriental ("Cifteteli", "Karabiberim") and even island music.

Although primarily a song writer, Papaioannou was also an accomplished bouzouki player whose "Taksim" remains a unique instrumental masterpiece to this day.

His style retains much of the musical quality of the classical rebetika of the likes of Markos Vamvakaris, although the thematic content of the lyrics tends not to focus as much on the typically dark topics – drugs, death and prison – of earlier rebetika.

Papaioannou died in Athens on 3 August 1972 in a road accident and was buried in a cemetery in Kallithea, near the Tzitzifies area in south Athens where he, like many other of the ‘rebetiko’ and ‘laiko’ genre musicians, would frequently perform.

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