New singers and Dalaras

[Konstantinos B. 0]

Hi! I am new here, but not realy new because I visited the club as a guest for the last 2.5 years and used to be a member at the beginning of this efort! I have to give my compliments to Nikos for his dedication to this project.

I am a fan of Dalaras and follow him to concerts for almost 8 years now and the other night I was reading a magazine from 1993 I found by fortune down in the basement..!

It had an interview of Dalaras, which covered nearly half of the magazine and drew his profile at the time. He used to be at the time the undoughtable holder of the first position in recognition among all singers from 1980 to 1993.

After 10 years he is still one of a kind.

But don't you think he is getting a litle bit old and tired..??Do you feel like some new guy, with dedication and prospective will overlap him soon, if not allready..?

Let me hear your views on that.

Kostas

[celeste 0]

Konstantinos,

I don't think he is getting old- well, he's older than he used to be, like all of us- and as for being tired, the question should be put to him. If you talk about inspiration, all singers and composers have had better or worse moments. But a singer of this kind is not like an old car that should be replaced by a more performing one. I think there is room for Dalaras and other good singers, in the greek musical scene ( I confess that I'm not familiar with it). However to achieve the career he has achieved, is more than having a good voice. It has to do also with character, integrity, no compromise -from what he says in one of his last interviews- being faithful to one's principles. He was lucky to manage this but some others are crushed by the machine of success.

I guess the answer is also in the public. He has an audience, people see that he still has things to say. So, I guess that there's no need to look for fresher blood. There will always be people saying "here comes the new Dalaras".

But Dalaras is Dalaras. Full stop.

[ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΑ 0]

δεν πιστευω οτι ο Γιωργος Νταλαρας αισθανεται κουρασμενος

αλλωστε η μουσικη ειναι η ζωη του . Η σταση που ειχε απεναντι

στα πραγματα ειναι η ιδια! εξακολουθει να ειναι παιδι.

Στενοχωριεται και νευριαζει οταν βλεπει καταστασεις παραφθορας...

Ειναι ακομα μαζι μας και νομιζω αυτοι που τον εχουν βαρεθει ή γενικα

δεν τον συμπαθουν , προσπαθουν να μεταδωσουν αρνητικη εντυπωση γι αυτον.

[Antometrios 0]

Concerning the "young" Dalaras: unbelievable beyond belief; no one can sing like him--or maybe no one wants to--but that just makes him unique. I am anxious to hear someone else attempt Paraponemena Logia. If anyone knows of such an endeavor, please fill me in. I think nobody out there today can do it because no one has mastered himself, his voice, as Dalaras has.

Concerning the "old and tired" Dalaras: I don't see a difference. Have you heard him sing To Vouno? At times his voice may be softer than it has been in the past, but he is a man willing to try new things, and his more "soothing" (to me) songs, like on his H Asfaltos Pou Trehei, are just examples of his experiments. Yet even so, whether soft and and gentle as when singing the lyrics of O Palios Stratiotis or loud and powerful as when singing its refrain (proof in my mind that he has "still got it"), he still has the most emotional, most unique voice of any Greek singer (and I personally would say of anyone I've ever heard).

I would say Sfakianakis has the second best [sounding] voice, but he doesn't do much with it, does he? Giannis Kotsiras is excellent and does some of the same material, but when I compare his rendition of Vrehei Sti Ftohogeitonia to Dalaras', he is simply blown away. I don't even understand how some of the newer artists are as popular as they are. Antonis Remos, for example, sings a great song called Monos Mou, but his voice very often sounds throaty or strained--maybe that's the style, of course.... (I do like some of his work, though.)

Yet if we are seeking in this post a singer with a clearer, more powerful, and more living, breathing, bobbing and weaving voice than that of George Dalaras, I will be very interested to hear a serious proposition.

[francois 4]

Yet if we are seeking in this post a singer with a clearer, more powerful, and more living, breathing, bobbing and weaving voice than that of George Dalaras, I will be very interested to hear a serious proposition.

The case is very different of course, but I can remember Sotiria Bellou singing in Brussels to an audience of 2000 people with no "revma" at all, she was standing on a table, so was Diamantis Panaretos her bouzouki player at the time... But Sotiria is dead and Dalaras is alive...

[NIKH 0]

BRAVO STUS OLUS!!!

AND A PEACE OF MY MIND, COULD ANYONE EVER ON THE PLANET EVEN TRY, NOT TO TALK ABOUT SUCCEEDING, SING THE WAY HE SANG THE GREAT

ME TELIOSES.......

[Antometrios 0]

Actually, Nikh, I do.

... not

Is there a version of that song besides the live one?

PS: Sorry for the corny joke...

[NIKH 0]

No, of course not. This is 'one moment in life' song...It makes me shiver.

He is greater than himself there. Godly....

[Astron 17]

It's true that there aren't any really great "Dalaras scale" voices today in Greece.

Kotsiras has a very good voice but his feeling and performance can't even be compared to Dalaras'.

It's true that Dalaras gets older and as he has said that's the way of nature, and that's how things should be. But unfortunately, I can't see someone who could ever take his place.

[christos-regnis 57]

I am anxious to hear someone else attempt Paraponemena Logia.  If anyone knows of such an endeavor, please fill me in.  I think nobody out there today can do it because no one has mastered himself, his voice, as Dalaras has.

I would like to add some more information about other versions of "Paraponemena Logia" which exist in the greek discography or I had listened to them in the past (of course none of them can even be compared to the original version of Dalaras or his live versions interpretations as well..):

First of all there is somewhere in a cd an interpretation of Vasiliki Lavina (Markopoulos' wife). Secondly there is a version of Yannis Savidakis (I haven't listened to it but I was informed that it is a bad one..) and there is also a live version by Vicky Mosholiou contained in a live CD that she released last year.. (her voice is really destroyed and insupportable the last 10 years..). I have also heared (in TV) a live version of Alkinoos Ioannidis - singing this song at Herodeum in a Markopoulos concert 3-4 years before and also a Pashalis Terzis live version (these last versions are not released in a cd yet).

............

As far as Dalaras getting older I think that this fact has possibly an effect in his appetite to do new things as he did in the past.. It is evident that the last years he tries to come back to his enormous repertoire and present again songs that have been lost in his discography or haven't been listened the last years.. (even till 1999-2000.. he used to publish and present constantly new things that he haven't tried in the past.) It's time to return and seek for "new" things in his 35-year repertoire. I have to agree with Astron having said that Dalaras gets older (a fact that affects many aspects on him) but I think that is inevitable.!!

[NIKH 0]

noone, maybe ever

he is probably the top possible

[christos-regnis 57]

I would like to add some more information about other versions of "Paraponemena Logia" which exist in the greek discography or I had listened to them in the past (of course none of them can even be compared to the original version of Dalaras or his live versions interpretations as well..):

As far as "Paraponemena Logia" is concerned.. I remembered another Live version (in TV) of the song as was sang by Marios Fragoulis in a concert of Yannis Markopoulos in Thessaloniki.