Nikos Xilouris

Nikos Xylouris succumbed to lung cancer and metastasis to the brain after a long battle on 8 February 1980, in Piraeus, Greece. He was interred at the First Cemetery of Athens.

During the early 1970s, Xylouris' voice became identified not only with Cretan music but with the youth of Greece rebelling against the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, which came to power after a coup d'état. He embodied a new kind of popular, folk-music style which adapted verses of famous Greek poets, incorporating well-known poems into the music genre of the particular artist in the mantinada style. The emergence of this music, based on renowned Greek poets such as Nikos Gatsos, Yannis Ritsos, Giorgos Seferis, Kostas Varnalis, and Dionysios Solomos, was uplifting and inspiring to the Greeks, much like Sofia Vembo had galvanized the Greek populace during the Second World War. Other Greek singers had also embraced this style, such as Yannis Markopoulos, Stavros Xarchakos, Christodoulos Halaris, and Christos Leontis. Xylouris' music was as much a thorn in the side of the Greek military junta and its colonels, as it was a beacon of hope for liberation and return to Democracy to the Greek people.

The turning point in his career came in 1969, with the release of another famed vinyl single, also in 7-inch 45rpm format, this time under the Columbia label, which carried the songs "Anyfantou" (Weaver | Greek: Ανυφαντού) on the obverse and "Kavgades me to giasemi" (Quarrels with the jasmine | Greek: Καβγάδες με το γιασεμί) on the reverse. The single was a resounding success, and the public's enthusiastic response meant that prior reservations concerning the appeal of Cretan folk music were mostly unfounded, a fact which was not lost on company executives. Xylouris had caught the eye of the top brass, and his future looked brighter than ever. Shortly thereafter, he began making appearances in Athens, which would eventually become his new home. Nevertheless, in spite of Anyfantou's soaring popularity, not all parties involved in folk music were enthralled. When, at the behest of his brother Giannis and Zacharias Fasoulas who both accompanied him with their lutes and were his permanent associates, Xylouris met with the highly controversial musicologist and Director for Folk Music Programming at the Greek National Radio Simon Karas, the latter derided Anyfantou and questioned Xylouris' ability to properly render traditional songs that were core to his repertoire, an opinion which none of the major composers and conductors Xylouris would later work with shared, but which left him understandably shocked and dismayed at the time. Ultimately, the Greek National Radio would come around to embrace Anyfantou, by featuring the song in one of its special commemorative broadcasts.

At a very young age, Xylouris discovered his musical inclination (all three male siblings learned the basics of how to play the mandolin and other instruments alongside their friends at village feasts and peer gatherings) and besought his father Giorgis to purchase him a Cretan Lyra, (the three-stringed or four-stringed Cretan fiddle analogue, which is played held upright, usually supported on the knee), a significant investment at the time. Giorgis resented the notion of his elder son becoming a musician, which was deemed somewhat menial and rather disreputable as a full-time occupation, and preferred that he attain higher education instead, which would enable him to improve the overall outlook of his life, and escape the circumstances of poverty and hardship that plagued his fellow villagers. Thus, Giorgis fiercely opposed his son's demand at first. However, between the boy's entreaties and the exhortations of local school teacher Menelaos Dramountanis who had identified Xylouris' enormous potential and considered his singing voice a decisive asset, Giorgis acquiesced and Xylouris acquired his first instrument at the age of twelve. After an apprenticeship under the tutelage of the experienced lyra player Leonidas Klados, Xylouris started performing at social functions and local festivities throughout the region and later across the island, usually accompanied by his younger brother Giannis who played the lute. In those events, gifted musicians were being generously rewarded, and not just by one single organizing party, but by all participants to the celebration who, if affluent enough, as per custom, would present the orchestra with banknotes for every single song or dancing tune they requested be played. A musician's reputation grew by crowd acclaim and word of mouth, once they were proven able to please, stir and entertain their audience for the duration of the event, which could sometimes last for days on end. Having earned such a reputation of a capable musician, at age seventeen Xylouris again surprised his parents when he decided to move from Anogeia to the city of Heraklion, making nightly appearances at the venue "Kastron" (Greek: Κάστρον, literally meaning Castle, which invokes the city's Medieval name) and aspiring to become an established professional musician with full financial independence. At first, little was gained in terms of headway, and making ends meet in the city was challenging. The audience, mostly urban and somewhat upper class, had moved away from Cretan traditional music, Xylouris' own turf, and had become much more accustomed to European rhythms and tunes, looking down upon the "old men's music" of their rural contemporaries and counterparts. In such an environment, folk musicians struggled to adapt and survive financially, not least due to their utter lack of multilingual term familiarity, which foreign lyrics seemed to necessitate. Furthermore, city musicians were distrustful of all newcomers and unwilling to yield them any professional breathing space. By his own account, Xylouris was reluctant to admit to his father that he was facing great hardships at that time, and instead assured him to the contrary. Gradually, he managed to develop a personal following, found a firm foothold, and carved out a niche for himself. His friends and admirers not only provided encouragement, but organized gatherings for him to play music at, earn a living from, and attract additional support by. In 1967 he took an unprecedented step and established in Heraklion the first exclusively Cretan music hall, which he named "Erotokritos", in honor of the great poetic work of the same name. In the course of time, Xylouris not only managed to find acceptance as a musician in Heraklion, but he was also able to turn his demanding urban audience around, causing them to rediscover, appreciate and preserve Cretan traditional music for future generations. And a few years later, he would manage to captivate the attention of the Greek national audience in its entirety.

In 1966 Xylouris was selected to represent Greece at the Sanremo Music Festival and won First Prize. In 1971 he was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque by the Académie Charles-Cros in France for his performance of the Cretan Rizitika album with Yannis Markopoulos.

Xylouris' first foray into studio recordings came in 1958 by means of a vinyl single in 7-inch 45rpm format which carried the songs "Mia mavrofora otan perna" (When a woman clad in all black passes by | Greek: Μια μαυροφόρα όταν περνά) on the obverse and "Den klaine oi dynates kardies" (Strong hearts don't cry | Greek: Δεν κλαίνε οι δυνατές καρδιές) on the reverse. The recording very nearly did not materialize. Although Odeon Records, the company Xylouris, his brother Giannis and their friend Zacharias Fasoulas had approached to make their pitch, followed standard procedure and granted them an audition, the executives were worried that Cretan music lacked commercial potential at that time, and therefore initially rejected the idea of going forward with the release of a single. Upon hearing of the company's decision, Greek MP from Crete Pavlos Vardinogiannis, who provided Xylouris lodging during his visit to the label's corporate headquarters and was fond of Cretan musical tradition, intervened not only vouching for Xylouris as a musician, but promising to fully reimburse Odeon for every unit that remained unsold, should the project fail to meet their expectations. Odeon relented, and the recording took place with Xylouris' wife Ourania providing supporting vocals for her husband at the studio. The single was a major success, completely vindicating Vardinogiannis and his judgment. Other singles would follow with Odeon, but its executives remained ambivalent as to the marketability of both Xylouris as an artist and Cretan music as a genre. Much later, when Columbia, their main competitor, signed Xylouris and his popularity exploded, Odeon having realized their mistake, tried to lure him out of his new contract and back into their ranks with a very lucrative counteroffer. However, being a person who as a matter of principle placed honor and loyalty before profits and self-advancement, Xylouris politely turned them down. When Columbia leadership found out about their rivals' failed bid, they decided to improve the financial terms of Xylouris' contract of their own accord, without him ever having requested a renegotiation.

When Xylouris was age eight, and with World War II battles still raging, the Nazis razed Anogeia to the ground in reprisal for acts of Cretan Resistance against the Axis Occupation, as well as the great number of casualties the Germans had sustained during their initial assault on Crete some three years prior, when German paratroopers, descended upon the island, only to be decimated by the locals. The mayor and citizens of Anogeia would support and harbor Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents and Cretan Resistance fighters in their village. In addition, under the direction of Captain William Stanley Moss, Cretans ambushed a detachment of German soldiers which had received orders to attack Anogeia. The legendary SOE operative Captain Patrick Leigh Fermor had also been ensconced in Anogeia during the kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe in May 1944 but escaped with his band of Cretan partisans when the Germans forces approached. Such acts of defiance caused Germans to target specific villages and retaliate against them, sometimes regardless of direct villager involvement. The razing of Kandanos and the Viannos massacres were similar instances of Nazi atrocities committed in Crete. In the aftermath of the devastation, Xylouris family members, along with the rest of the inhabitants of Anogeia, were forced to flee to other villages of the Mylopotamos region, and in some cases found refuge in major cities until the Liberation of Crete, which came with the Allied Advance and the German Surrender. Upon their return to Anogeia, citizens had to rebuild their homes and town from scratch, and the harshness of the undertaking imbued them with a sense of purpose, dedication, self-reliance, solidarity and pride. Due to the fact that village archives had perished in the flames, some ambiguity still remains as to the exact birth dates of all persons who had yet to produce additional official documentation (such as marriage and/or military service certificates), Xylouris included. This is the reason why certain sources may offer conflicting birth dates, although the one presented herein is considered to be the most probable and accurate by consensus. Archives were recreated based on village elder and relative testimony, to the best of the inhabitants' ability. The unique cultural climate of Crete left lasting impressions to all Allied personnel who had served there. In the years following the war, Patrick Leigh Fermor so often sang what would later become one of Xylouris' most popular hits, the song Filedem (Greek: Φιλεντέμ) that his friends attached it to him permanently as a sobriquet reminiscent of his war years.

Nikos Xylouris (Greek: Νίκος Ξυλούρης, 7 July 1936 – 8 February 1980), Cretan nickname: Psaronikos (Greek: Ψαρονίκος), was a Greek singer, Cretan Lyra player and composer, who was and remains to this day among the most renowned and beloved Greek folk musicians of all time. Xylouris' outstanding vocal ability and diverse discographic repertoire managed to capture the essence of the Greek psyche, ethos and demeanor, rendering him extremely popular among the youth of his day, and making his work an essential part of the Great Greek Songbook. This fact, along with his appealing physical features (also reminiscent of Byzantine Iconography) and enormous personal affability ("noble in both countenance and decorum" as per the Ancient Greek Ideal) earned him the honorific moniker Archangel of Crete which is still in use, especially in Athens. His songs continue to be played regularly on Greek radio stations, and his legacy is held in the highest regard throughout the Greek Nation and the Greek Diaspora alike.