Eleftheria Arvanitaki has been one of the most important figures of contemporary Greek music for the past years. The clarity and emotional depth of her voice, her magical stage presence, and the sincerity in her musical choices allow her to combine traditional Greek music idioms with up-to-date western rhythms and sounds.
She has worked with some of the most acclaimed composers, songwriters, lyricists and poets, such as the American-Armenian composer and ud soloist Ara Dinkjian. She has released a number of albums (Contraband, Meno Ektos, Ta Kormia Keh Ta Maheria, Tragoudia Gia Tous Mines), which have all gone platinum.
Eleftheria started her career in the Opisthodromiki Company at the beginning of the 1980s. Furthermore, she is the most well-known voice of all the rembetico music that developed in the area of Greece, and the promoter and promoter of this genre, unknown and until then little known. Repetitive music, along with the smyrneika, contain songs whose tradition goes back to the folklore played by refugees from Asia Minor.
After leaving the group, Eleftheria began a solo career that led her to quickly establish herself as the most promising female voice in her country. The political and social events that took place in her nation made her the voice that championed the expression of new feelings and ideals.
Her personality, warm but strong, her voice, her ambition to create a bridge between Greek music of deep roots and the new aesthetic emerged from the urban sounds of the most famous and distinguished composers, lyricists and poets, led her to present a work which is already considered a classic in Greek music.
After meeting the young Greek composer and writer Stamatis Spanoudakis, her career took off to new levels. The result of this collaboration is an album, Contraband, which saw the light in 1986. This work received excellent reviews and is considered one of the most innovative of the 1980s. It embraces tradition and novelty, combining electronic instruments and rhythms and Greek melodies.
Greek composer N Xyadkis found in Eleftheria the ideal performer for his songs and his collaboration continued in the future resulting in magnificent works, such as Tenedos, Melti Ton Gremon and Akrotirio Tenaron.
1991 marked a milestone for Eleftheria Arvanitaki with her album “Meno Ektos” including lyrics and music composed by various composers. This album incorporated influences from the Balkans and the East and the energy of electronic instrumentation. This work contains one of the best known songs in Europe, Dynata-Dynata.
In the mid-1990s, Eleftheria was already a consecrated artist in Greece and her concerts in Greece and Cyprus were a succession of successes. Then came Ta Kormia Ke Ta Maheria in which once again had the best composers and writers.
This work contains songs with deep lyrics, but also their songs combine two civilizations in a very natural way. On this occasion the musical arrangements were taken care of more if possible. It was the moment in which the international audience, eager for new ethnic sounds, welcomed with great satisfaction the new ethnic sounds that intermingle with Eleftheria’s voice.
The album Mirame (2008) maintains a fragile and beautiful balance between roots and evolution, between bouzouki and flamenco guitar, between Greece and Andalusia (Spain). Eleftheria’s voice, as if it were Mediterranean water, unites all these cultures.
Discography:
Eleftheria Arvanitaki (Lyra, 1984)
Kontrabanto (EGE, 1986)
The Bodies and the Knives (Polygram, 1995)
Tragoudia Gia Tous Mines (Polygram, 1997)
Meno Ektos (Cobalt Music, 1999)
Ola Sto Fos (Universal, 2005)
Live (Universal, 2005)
Grigora I Ora Perase (Universal, 2007)
Ektos Programmatos (Cobalt Music, 2007)
Dromoi Paralliloi (Universal, 2007)
Mirame (Wrasse, 2008)
Kai Ta Matia Ki I Kardia (Universal, 2008)
9+1 Istories (2015)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.