Artists who performed works by Nikos Moraitis and collaborated with him share some of their thoughts on the lyricist, shortly before the two concerts-tribute to his songs entitled “A hundred times pieces”
THE Nikos Moraitis is an accomplished lyricist of great hits in Greek song, who already counts thirty years of presence in music publications, radio and discography. The first to open the door to his discography was the singer Dimitra Galani, of which he has been a big fan since childhood. “While the other children at school listened mainly to foreign music, my idols were Galani, Dalaras and Alexiou and I felt a bit isolated because of that” confesses Moraitis himself. And Galani, however, still remembers their first meeting: “He came and found me in Harama where I was singing and I had asked him to bring me his verses. I found them interesting and promised him that I would do something with them at some point. Thus, when I wanted to make a folk album with traditional elements, “The Papers” came out with the music of Takis Soukas”.
Galani will be one of the performers who will appear at the two tribute concerts Nikos Moraitis in the Christmas Theater and “it wouldn’t be missing”, as he says, “since everything started for me from Dimitra…”. It will be there, on the two days of February 19 and 20, o Stathis DrakosGlykeria, Iota Nega, Costas Makedonas, Antonis Remos, Michalis Chatzigiannisas well as Miltos Paschalidis, Rena Morphi and Maria Papageorgiou, some artists that Moraitis never had the chance to work with but always wanted to hear his songs with their voices.
“personal stigma”
For Michalis Hatzigiannis who once sang “Hands up” in his lyrics Moraitis, “the song of the 00s” according to IFPI (2009), is “a great modern Greek lyricist who is a continuation of the old iconic lyricists in Greece with over 500 songs that stood out in the Greek pentagram”. And if Moraitis managed to confuse his audience by writing sometimes about Protopsalti and Alexiou and sometimes about Remos and Vandi, the truth is that he always stands out for his personal stamp in writing.
Exactly as he says it Stathis Drakos, the creator of the album “The Waltz of the Lost After”, from which “Excursion” with Dimitra Galani’s voice stood out: “In the years that have passed I met him, I read him, I heard new songs on the radio and I said: “These verses are definitely Nikos’s words”. We exchanged lyrics, melodies and thoughts about our lives and people, and now I can say with confidence that she is an artist whose essence fascinates me, moves me and I know I will always be curious to know her better.”
I wonder what it is that makes the songs in his lyrics so communicative Moraitis, that is, if there is any recipe behind his technique. Because, without a trace of exaggeration, he reminds me of the great Nikos Gatsos, who every time he wrote about Faradouri, Mitsias or Galani, he always took into account the personality of the respective performer. Galani absolutely agrees: “Nikos is not trying to become a poet even though he has poetic elements. It has a prosodic perception and is not a “disembodied head” in the song. He does not seek to discover spirituality and plays with emotions. His lyrics, when you come across them on the radio, describe human relationships and make you escape from our sad everyday life.” Hatzigiannis claims exactly the same: “His verse is realistic and optimistic with reference to dreams for a better life, in which we can all become protagonists”.
“Painter of speech”
Right now the Moraitis he is working in the studio on a new record for Giorgos Dalaras with music by Nikos Mertzanos, while the album “Ninea sto vos” is also being released soon, in his first major collaboration with the leading composer Lena Platonos. These are now Plato’s words about her artistic meeting with him Moraitis: “Nikos is first of all a sweetest creature and then a social and psychological lyricist – poet, a regular painter of words with a very broad thematic spectrum. My composition on his poems had an unprecedented, fast and effortless flow. We bonded a lot.” Precisely this broad thematic spectrum is also the element that tied him not only to Plato but also to his mentor, the legendary lyricist of the Greek song Lefteris Papadopoulos.
Papadopoulos had supported him a lot Moraitis at the beginning, introducing him from his show on state television, even making him the editor-in-chief of another show, while to this day they maintain close friendly relations. Moreover, he considers Nikos Gatsos, Lefteris Papadopoulos and Lina Nikolakopoulou as his teachers in verse, people who created a school in Greek poetry.
I look back at some indicative titles of his songs that were loved over the years of his lyrical activity: “My angel” and “Svise to feggari” in the music of Stefanos Korkolis for the voices of Protopsaltis and Mitropanos respectively (at the concerts at the Christmas Theater the zeibeki “Swise to feggari” will be sung for the first time by Miltos Paschalidis), “I don’t speak for a night myself” with Eleftheria Arvanitaki, “Oxygono” with Iota Nega, “I’m selling the house” with Yannis Parios, but personally I stand out and the entire album “Se koo theo na pistepso” (2002) which they made together with the composer Stamos Semsis for Elli Paspala. Is Moraitis a lyricist-chameleon after all? He also believed this about himself, until Lefteris Papadopoulos confronted him at one point: “They once said the same about me, but you shouldn’t say that about your work itself. We are songwriters who are concerned with many subjects and we are not limited to a specific style of writing.”
Something similar is stated by Stathis Drakos: “Nikos’ lyrics have this magic that makes you feel that a wise child is speaking, an everyday person looking for salvation, while at other times you feel that no one is speaking, as if his words had always existed and as if there were thousands of faces and no one at the same time”. However, all his collaborators, composers and singers, express their gratitude for the “gifts” he gave them, thus showing that Nikos Moraitis above all he is interested in human relations. That is, the content of his lyrics that gives birth to songs.
INFO
February 19, 20, Christmas Theater, ave. 139 Veikou
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