Giannis Papaioannou ( el, Γιάννης Παπαϊωάννου; January 18, 1913 – August 3, 1972) was a famous

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

musician and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

born in

Kios Cius (; grc-gre, Kίος or Κῖος ''Kios''), later renamed Prusias on the Sea (; la, Prusias ad Mare) after king Prusias I of Bithynia, was an ancient Greek city bordering the Propontis (now known as the Sea of Marmara), in Bithynia and in ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

(now Gemlik, Turkey). In English his name is sometimes romanticized as ''Yannis, Ioannis'' or ''Yiannis''. Most active in the 1940s, he wrote many songs, some of which are today considered classics of the

rebetiko Rebetiko ( el, ρεμπέτικο, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek music which have come to be grouped together since the s ...

folk music style. These include: ''Pente Ellines Ston Adi'', ''Kapetan Andreas Zeppo'', ''Modistroula'', ''Prin To Charama Monachos'', and ''Fovamai Mi Se Chaso''. His style retains much of the musical quality of the classical rebetika of the likes of

Markos Vamvakaris Márkos Vamvakáris ( el, Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης; 10 May 1905 – 8 February 1972), was a ''rebetiko'' musician. He is universally referred to by ''rebetiko'' writers and fans simply by his first name, Márkos. The great significance ...

, 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. He died in Athens on August 3, 1972 in a road accident and was buried in a cemetery in

Kallithea Kallithea (Greek: Καλλιθέα, meaning "beautiful view") is a district of Athens and a municipality in south Athens regional unit. It is the eighth largest municipality in Greece (96,118 inhabitants, 2021 census) and the fourth biggest i ...

, just southwest of Athens near the Tzitzifies area of south Kallithea where he, like many other rebetiko and laiko musicians, would frequently perform.Periphery: Attica
A description of Athens and its prominent citizens.

Notes

Sources

*Gail Holst: ''Road to Rembetika'', 5th ed., 1994: Denise Harvey & Co. () *https://web.archive.org/web/20070817132741/http://www.rebetikorow.com/papa.htm 1913 births 1972 deaths People from Gemlik Anatolian Greeks Greek musicians Greek composers Greek bouzouki players Road incident deaths in Greece 20th-century composers Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Greece {{Greece-composer-stub