During the German occupation of Greece, the Greek people found refuge from hardship and oppression in the arts, with revues and musical theatres continuing to attract audiences despite bans and blackouts. Rebetiko music also continued to flourish during those difficult years, as many important composers kept writing and left behind a rich repertoire.
That repertoire will take centre stage in the commemorative concert “Rebetiko Songs of the Occupation and Resistance”, presented on Saturday, October 24, at the Maria Callas Municipal Music Theatre in Athens. The Greek Music Workshop of the Municipality of Athens will perform alongside two leading voices of the genre, Fotini Velesiotou and Babis Tsertos.
With arrangements and musical direction by Angelos Ilias, the two acclaimed singers will perform a selection of songs that remain largely unknown to the wider public. Although these songs helped sustain Greek morale during the country’s darkest years, audiences rarely hear them today.
Rebetiko, a deeply popular form of music that expressed the emotions and hopes of ordinary people, also became a vivid chronicle of life under the occupation. Its songs captured hunger, the black market, saltadores — young men who jumped onto passing vehicles to steal supplies — bombings, prisons and the Resistance. Their creators often wrote about events as they unfolded around them.
Alongside the better-known works of Vassilis Tsitsanis, the period produced songs including “Saltador”, “Black Marketeers” and “Raid on Piraeus” by Michalis Genitsaris, “Chaidari” by Markos Vamvakaris, and “May the Bullet Be Sweet” by Dimitris Gogos, known as Bayandera, which he dedicated to the Resistance.
Through the directness of popular expression, rebetiko captured an entire society struggling to survive, resist and preserve its voice.
A distinctive feature of this repertoire is that many of the songs were not recorded when their creators wrote them. Recording activity in Greece had stopped during the occupation, so musicians passed the songs from person to person and performed them live. Some eventually reached record collections after the war, while others survived through the memories of their creators and the people who performed them.
Marking the anniversary of the liberation of Athens on October 12, 1944, the Greek Music Workshop of the Municipality of Athens is bringing this valuable musical heritage back to the stage.
