www.talkcyprus.org

[brother]

Quote:




ARIANA FERENTINOU

  News related to Greece last week was dominated by women. Dora Bakoyannis, the new Greek foreign minister, met another woman, Condi Rice, in Washington and talked about Turkey. Ms. Bakoyannis repeated the Greek positions on Cyprus and the Chalki Theological School while reassuring the support for Turkey's EU target. It was the first visit of Bakoyannis as foreign minister to the United States and was not expected to produce any spectacular news, except that Ms. Rice promised to pay a visit to Greece.

  While Ms. Bakoyannis was in Washington, another famous Greek woman hit the headlines in Turkey. She is not a politician, yet she is perhaps more familiar to the Turks than Bakoyannis. Because, as the greatest living Greek popular singer for some time now, Haroula Alexiou has managed to enter the collective recent memory of Turks and become one of their favorite popular faces.

  In spite of her maternal origins from Izmir, Turkey was not among her destinations for a long time. Actually, Turkey was not a destination for Greek artists until after the 1999 earthquakes. I remember trying to persuade her to spread her career towards this country where she could find new musical ways and a new audience. But Turkey, until the turning point of the ?99 earthquake, was an unknown, risky option for Greek artists, which they would rather put aside for a later time. A lot of them still do.

  She did eventually come to Turkey, first as a friend, about 10 years go. We did stroll in Istanbul and reached the small fishermen villages near Kilyos, We did have fish in Sariyer and had lunch on Chalki Island. She did come to know my local green grocer from where she shopped for her favorite pastrami; she managed to communicate in Turkish with the patisserie owner and got her beloved sweets from the local patisserie. Even from her first visit, she felt an instant familiarity with the life and the city that made her eventually come back as an artist and she was immediately adopted by the Turkish audience. So much so that when she was in Istanbul last week for the promotion of her latest album, the news anchorman who interviewed her labeled her ?the diva from the other side.?

  But Haroula is not Maria Kallas. If there is a characteristic of hers that has kept her on top of the Greek musical scene for almost 30 years, it is that she never became a diva. A diva is someone who is remote and above their audience, even above their national culture. There is a certain arrogance involved in that, too. If there is something that Haroula is not, it is arrogant and remote. And besides, she is very Greek. Since the beginning of her career she kept herself very firmly on the ground; she never rejected her roots from a poor Izmir immigrants' settlement on the outskirts of the city of Thebes, some 80 km outside Athens. In fact, she always made a point of referring to her origins on every occasion. But besides poverty and hardship, those immigrant groups had in them the wisdom of life and the determination of survival. So, from a very early age, Haroula was wise enough to know that in order to survive she had to develop, and in order to develop she had to be open to learning. To be gifted with a unique voice is not enough to make you a special artist. What made her special is the energy for constantly improving herself and keeping her head on her shoulders.

  Haroula is one of the few Greek artists who are just known by their first name. This is not incidental. Her charisma is that she manages to develop an emotional relationship with her audience. The audience loves her like their gifted daughter, sister, lover. And she, with her strong antenna, picks up all the changes that are happening around her and expresses them in her music, in the way she sings, the lyrics she writes and the music she composes.

  This is a period where popular music in Greece is undergoing a dramatic change for the worse. With Mikis Theodorakis in his 80s, with popular composers of the 70s and 80s generations drying out, with a rock-like new Greek music struggling in the background, the musical scene in Greece is in danger of being squeezed under a mass produced globalized sound pushed forward by multinationals.

  In that confusing scene, Haroula is the bridge maker. She can still wave her magic wand and enchant her audience with a rebetiko song as well as a western-type pop ballad of her own. Who is her audience? Actually, everybody. She has the capacity to communicate with that secret sensitive corner that all of us try to preserve, the corner from where imagination and feelings are triggered. I have followed her concerts for years. There is never a special audience, no special age or social group. She is beyond musical fashions. Everybody goes and likes it. She knows the way to merge the eastern and western elements of Greek popular music, to link old and new, because Haroula has managed something hat very few do. She managed to become the singer of her nation. Like Edith Piaf, like Amalia Rodriguez, like just a handful of others.

  Haris Alexiou was in Istanbul to promote her album Atnhologio, a compilation of her best performances. She will be coming to Turkey during the summer for a series of concerts.


http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=39172

[cypezokyli]

haris alexiou is one of the best greek singers. some of the songs she sang have been translated in tukish as well.
i know for sure the "ola se thymizoun" and "teli-teli" .

funny but i am expecting to get these songs, in turkish sometime today...if this guy i met keeps his promise :roll:
and i wanted to ask where i can get the lyrics in turkish. but i ll wait till he sends me the titles of the song.

Quote: This is a period where popular music in Greece is undergoing a dramatic change for the worse. With Mikis Theodorakis in his 80s, with popular composers of the 70s and 80s generations drying out, with a rock-like new Greek music struggling in the background, the musical scene in Greece is in danger of being squeezed under a mass produced globalized sound pushed forward by multinationals.
thats so true.
but i can assure you, some people are resisting :wink:

[moonskin]

cypezokyli wrote: haris alexiou is one of the best greek singers. some of the songs she sang have been translated in tukish as well.
i know for sure the "ola se thymizoun" and "teli-teli" .

funny but i am expecting to get these songs, in turkish sometime today...if this guy i met keeps his promise :roll:
and i wanted to ask where i can get the lyrics in turkish. but i ll wait till he sends me the titles of the song.

Quote: This is a period where popular music in Greece is undergoing a dramatic change for the worse. With Mikis Theodorakis in his 80s, with popular composers of the 70s and 80s generations drying out, with a rock-like new Greek music struggling in the background, the musical scene in Greece is in danger of being squeezed under a mass produced globalized sound pushed forward by multinationals.
thats so true.
but i can assure you, some people are resisting :wink:

Geia sou re filo mou! How are you? I hope you are doing fine!

The beautiful songs sung by Haris Alexiou are covered or remade with Turkish lyrics by various Turkish artists & bands. I believe the total number of songs from her that are covered in Turkey is above 10 or 15. Of those, Yeni Türkü (means "The new folk song") is one of my favorite Turkish bands. But also bigger names than Yeni Türkü, like Sezen Aksu and many others have covered her songs. From Yeni Türkü, from on top of my head and including the ones you mentioned, there are: "Olmasa Mektubun" (without your letter) from the original "Olese Thimizoun", "Telli Telli" from the original "Teli Teli" and "Maskeli Balo" (Fancy Dress Ball) from the original "Pes Mou Pos Ginete". All of the lyrics of the Turkish versions of these three songs are written by Murathan Mungan. Here are the lyrics from Olmasa Mektubun (Olese Thimizoun) and with a quick translation by me:

Olmasa mektubun, yazdıkların olmasa
Kim inanır senle ayrıldığımıza
Sanma unutulur kalp ağrısı zamanla
Herşeyi unutarak yaşanır sanma..

Without your letter, without your writings
Who would believe that we broke up?
Don't think that heartache is forgotten with time
Don't think that you can live with forgetting everything

Neydi bir arada tutan şey ikimizi
Birleştiren neydi, ellerimizi
Bırak bana anlatma imkansız sevgimizi
Sevmek birçok şeyi göze almaktır

What was it that kept us together
What was it, that unified our hands?
Stop explaining to me our impossible love
Love means risking many things

Olmasa mektubun, yazdıkların olmasa
Kim inanır senle ayrıldığımıza

Without your letter, without your writings
Who would believe that we broke up?

Baksana geçmişe, ne çok anıyla yüklü
Nerde o taverna, nerde sinema
Harcanmış zamanlar yeniden yaşanmazki
Geç kaldıktan sonra arama boşa

Look at the past, it is filled with so many memories
Where is that tavern, where is the cinema?
But wasted times can not be lived again
After being so late, don't look for it, as it doesn't matter anymore

If you are really into listening this music and you can not get it from your contact, let me know and we will arrange something. If you are only interested in these particular songs from Alexiou, I can perhaps email them to you. But I also have this amazing 6 CD greatest hits set from Yeni Türkü if you are interested. I am still in Germany, so it shouldn't be a problem to post it to you ;-)

Cheers

[city]

yes, she is the best! I'm still waiting to see her live!

But why they say Anthologiou is her 'new' album? I bought it in Cyprus last September.... Or did they simply mean her 'latest' album?

[Mete]

moonskin wrote:
Of those, Yeni Türkü (means "The new folk song") is one of my favorite Turkish bands. But also bigger names than Yeni Türkü, like Sezen Aksu and many others have covered her songs. From Yeni Türkü, from on top of my head and including the ones you mentioned, there are: "Olmasa Mektubun" (without your letter) from the original "Olese Thimizoun", "Telli Telli" from the original "Teli Teli" and "Maskeli Balo" (Fancy Dress Ball) from the original "Pes Mou Pos Ginete".

I love these songs! Thanks for reminding them to me. I didn't know that they were originally Greek songs.
Quote:
If you are really into listening this music and you can not get it from your contact, let me know and we will arrange something.

Is it possible for you to put at least some of the best of these songs to somewhere public so we can download? :-) I know I know it's illegal but I really miss these songs. I'm also eager to hear the Greek versions of these songs.

[cypezokyli]

Quote: If you are really into listening this music and you can not get it from your contact, let me know and we will arrange something. If you are only interested in these particular songs from Alexiou, I can perhaps email them to you. But I also have this amazing 6 CD greatest hits set from Yeni Türkü if you are interested. I am still in Germany, so it shouldn't be a problem to post it to you Wink
thanks moonskin.
considering the fact that my contact is greek and he said : sometime around monday or tuesday , i should give him time till the w-end...at least. assuming ofcource he didnot throw away the paper with my adreess on it.
thanks for the offer. in case, i ll let you know :wink:

[moonskin]

Mete wrote:
Is it possible for you to put at least some of the best of these songs to somewhere public so we can download? :-) I know I know it's illegal but I really miss these songs. I'm also eager to hear the Greek versions of these songs.

As a matter of fact, I watched on the Turkish television last Friday evening, Haris Alexiou and Candan Ercetin singing "Telli Telli" live together, in a one verse Greek one verse Turkish manner, and it turned out to be really good! Haris Alexiou was also singing the original of "Olmasa Mektubun", "Olese Thimizoun". It was also very good!

If forum is willing to host some of these songs, I can surely pass them to Erol or whoever it is to host the files. Otherwise, I think it is best that we do it with emails. The thing is, I do not really want to host mp3 files on my personal homepage and advertise it here publicly.

Cheers.

[Dhavlos]

so they can do a pop song in greek and turkish, but the thought of a national anthem doing it scares people :roll: cuh.

[brother]

Dhavlos wrote: so they can do a pop song in greek and turkish, but the thought of a national anthem doing it scares people :roll: cuh.

Excellent point, you should start a poll on this as it could be a very probable solution and use the above as an example. :wink:

[cypezokyli]

i guess will have to talk about those yeni turkun songs moonskin.

the greek guy did reply but only send two songs.
i am not sure what the titles are, but if that gives a hint :
SD_IstanbuluDinliyorum_YavuzBing_mp3

SD_Baharat_tarcin_ve_buse.mp3
(the second is from the film politiki kouzina)

is there a chance to find the lyrics so i can sing... even without understanding

[cypezokyli]

Dhavlos wrote: so they can do a pop song in greek and turkish, but the thought of a national anthem doing it scares people :roll: cuh.

excuse me or that dhav... but
haroula is not (yet, who knows later :roll: ) singing pop - music :wink:

[Dhavlos]

well, whatever...her music is POPular ;)

you see what i mean...but even so, there are loads of songs in a mix of turkish and greek.

[city]

I would like to hear the Turkish versions!
(moonskin, email? :wink: lütfen/please)