Lefteris Hapsiadis
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2010) |
Lefteris Hapsiadis Λευτέρης Χαψιάδης | |
---|---|
Contemporary laïka, rebetiko, traditional pop | |
Years active | 1983–2023 |
Lefteris Hapsiadis (
Biography
Lefteris Hapsiadis was born in 1953 in
Hapsiadis attended high school in
For six months, he attended college classes in
Lefteris Hapsiadis died on 2 October 2023, at the age of 69 from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece.[10][11]
Songs
Per the generally accepted public opinion his most popular song lyrics were Mia einai i ousia (Μια ειναι η ουσία, "One matter counts") that he wrote upon a Nikolopoulos
Μία είναι η ουσία: |
There is one reality |
The lyrics playfully deal with immortality, whereby the author admits that nothing is "immortal" and begs Almighty God to eliminate Death for good, after the former had a few drinks first. The lyrics are used in a passage in his second book, when the author dies and struggles to get into Paradise, but comes across a rather annoyed St-Peter, who didn't seem to have liked his "Mia einai i Ousia" song at all.
Another popular song of his, performed by
Κάποια, κάπου, κάποτε ήταν η ζωή μου[13] |
Some woman somewhere, sometime was my whole life |
Among his songs there are two referring to the Prefecture of Evros, the towns of Alexandroupolis and Orestiada, in the far north. It is generally known in Greece that the border regions of the country, especially Greece's eastern border with Turkey, are the least desirable areas for young Greeks to serve their country during their military service. In addition, until recent years, Greek conscripts were treated as second rank citizens in the towns and villages of Evros, as many among them would admit to this day. Unless they enjoyed a military rank of some sort, conscripts wouldn't be typically admitted inside many public venues, and many local businessmen would prefer to live without them entering their businesses. Hapsiadis was inspired by this to write two emotional songs, Alexandroupoli meria,[14] originally performed by Dimitris Mitropanos, and Oresteiada,[15] performed by Stelios Dionysiou and Ploutarchos.
Songs for my friends
(Tracks of the CD[16] Τραγούδια για τους φίλους μου)
by Nikolopoulos and Hapsiadis, 1986[17]
- Μοιάζουμε (We resemble each other) with Manolis Mitsias
- Αν τέλειωνε η ζωή (If life ended) with Stratos Dionysiou
- Πως μπορεί (How is it possible) with Eleni Vitali
- Ετσι σ'αγάπησα (I loved you this way) with Dionysis Theodosis
- Φοβάμαι (I'm afraid) with Dimitra Galani
- Κάποια, κάπου, κάποτε (Some woman, somewhere, some time) with Giorgos Dalaras
- Καλύτερα ελεύθερος (Better be free) with Yannis Parios
- Το διαβολάκι (Little devil) with Haris Alexiou
- Τώρα που έφυγες (Now that you've gone away) with Litsa Diamanti
- Οι δρόμοι τής ανατολής (The streets of the East) with Christos Nikolopoulos
- Με χρώματα κι'αρώματα (With colors and odors) with Mary Vassou
- Οταν χορεύεις μάτια μου (When you're dancing, my love) with Manolis Aggelopoulos
Novels
In addition to poems and song lyrics Hapsiadis recently wrote three novels. He only lately decided to focus on writing novels and had his first three written after 2005, more than twenty years after he started writing lyrics. All of them are largely autobiographic with many details about events that actually took place and form part of the history of modern rebetika. His first two novels were "Η ζωη μου τραγούδι το τραγούδι ζωη" (My life (is) a song, the song (is) life)[18] and "Ο αλήτης άγγελος" (An angel vagabond).[19][20] In his second novel, although most of his writing describes real life events, locations and names of real persons, the author presents them as the building blocks of a "fiction" storyline. His third novel was presented to the public on 23 October 2010. It is called "13+1 Γιατί;" (Γιατί=why in Greek)[21][22] completes a trilogy in which rebetiko holds a central role.
As a self-taught author, Hapsiadis creates unusual plots wherein key Greek music industry players participate as personages. In all his novels to-date his heroes maintain their real life names; however, in his second novel, Hapsiadis uses the name Lelos[23] instead of his own given Christian name of Lefteris to represent himself as the leading actor. All three novels are written in simple everyday spoken Greek. He usually places verses inside the text, often for reasons of historic significance to the context he describes.[24] All his novels expose events with actual historic data. He often offers his own insights in the evolution of rebetika from the times of Markos Vamvakaris and Vassilis Tsitsanis (pre- and post-World War II) to the present day. The events he addresses, many of which he himself witnessed as participant, are presented in quite a bit of detail. With a few scarce exceptions, Hapsiadis avoids criticism of his book personages, however, on occasions, he is being quite critical of himself and his own weaknesses.
Honors
During his 25-year-long career as a lyrics writer, Hapsiadis achieved a number of Golden and Platinum record awards and occasionally he has been publicly recognized[25] for his contribution to the Greek Popular Music by the Prefecture of Evros[26][27] and Municipalities of Alexandroupolis and Feres with organized concerts dedicated to his song-lyrics successes.
See also
- Mangas
- Rembetiko – a film by Costas Ferris
References
- ^ "Greek organization for Intellectual Property Rights". Archived from the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
- ^ mygreek.fm
- ^ Book Review by Elliniko-Fenomeno.gr
- ^ Ta Nea tou Didimoteixou
- ^ Θρακική Γή
- ^ second chapter pp25 of his second novel "A vagabond angel"
- ^ Thrakinea June 3rd, 2009
- ^ Στην πλατεία του Θρυλορίου - New Free Day Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Interview of L.H. by XRONOS.GR". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
- ^ https://www.espressonews.gr/cover-story/381612/chapsiadis-voyvi-zoi-oikonomiki-katarreysi/
- ^ Πέθανε ο σπουδαίος στιχουργός Λευτέρης Χαψιάδης (in Greek)
- ^ ΟΑΣΙΣ
- ^ From Stixoi.info
- ^ song lyrics
- ^ song lyrics
- ^ ΑΡΩΜΑ ΒΙΝΥΛΙΟΥ
- ^ Χρήστος Νικολόπουλος: Τραγούδια για τους φίλους μου - Minos-EMI AE 7243 4 80559 2 7
- ISBN 978-960-631-793-4
- ISBN 978-960-93101-0-9
- ^ Book Review by Elliniko-Fenomeno.gr
- ^ "Xronos.gr". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
- ^ NEWS ERT Archived 24 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ελεύθερο Βήμα
- ^ VJK Diaries
- ^ Η ΠΑΤΡΙΔΑ
- ^ Νομαρχία Εβρου Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ΘράκηΝΕΤ
External links
- Stelios Kazantzidis: Ta zeibekika at Music Corner
- World News: Glykeria - Older Videos
- Thrakinea - 3 June 2009
- Interview with Nikolopoulos at Icona
- Lyrics of 158 of his songs
- Rebetiko On-line Brief introduction in Greek and English, and a large photo collection.]
- Lefteris Hapsiadis discography at Discogs
- Lefteris Hapsiadis at IMDb