Giorgos Xintaris – Half a Century a Rebetis

Giorgos Xintaris was born in Skopelos in 1952. In 1967, at the age of 15, he left for Athens, following the trend of urbanization of the time. He worked in construction, had a stint on ships, and bought his first bouzouki. After work, he started "strumming" on his instrument the songs he heard on the island's gramophones, the ones he now hears on Juke-boxes, mainly Piraeus rebetiko. He experimented, persisted, and learned! Completely self-taught!

In 1972, while still working in construction, he began playing bouzouki and singing in taverns in Athens. He always returned to Skopelos in the summers! In 1979, he signed a contract with "Minos" and in 1980 released his first album entitled "Giorgos Xintaris - Rebetika Nights". In 1981, in partnership with his compatriot, Pavlos Vasiliou, he opened "Rebetiki Istoria" (Rebetiko History) in an old neoclassical building at 181 Ippokratous Street, a legendary venue that essentially inaugurated the "fashion" of rebetiko clubs. Over these years, he met many of the greats of rebetiko in person (Markos, Tsitsanis, Bayianteras, Roukounas, Roza Eskenazy, etc.).

The Minore of Dawn

1982 was a landmark year for Xintaris for two reasons. First, filming began for Fotis Mesthenaios' historical series on ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation), "The Minore of Dawn," in which Xintaris sang, "dubbing" Antonis Kafetzopoulos, songs by Markos Vamvakaris. In the same year, he started his beloved "Anatoli" (East), in one of the most beautiful spots in Skopelos, at the highest point of the Castle. He literally built it with his own hands, having been a construction worker, while transporting the materials with mules. In this venue, he does everything from then until today! He chooses or collects the raw materials himself, cooks, plays, and sings, always with his wife, Evgenia, by his side! Although he continues to divide his time between Athens and Skopelos, his "natural" place is in "Anatoli," a venue that writer Thomas Korovinis has described as "The Herodion of Skopelos," while others go even further, calling it "The Acropolis of Rebetiko."

There, in the summers, you'll find him sitting at a small table, chewing lemons with the peel on to "clean" his voice, a trick he learned from a tenor. At the same time, in a corner of the venue, the musicians start strumming, "warming up" the crowd until his time comes. With his very distinctive voice that harkens back to the best eras of Piraeus rebetiko, playing and singing as in the "old days," simply, without microphones, he invites us to a mystagogy and to "revelry with sad songs"! We hope for many more years to come!