Originally Posted by
evaba
Hi Bateli,
I actually *like* many Israeli covers of Greek songs! There are many cases where the Israeli version is *better* (in my humble opinion, of course!) than the Greek original. For example, I'm not especially fond of Sfakianakis (he sings through his nose and he is pretty arrogant) but I enjoy the Hebrew-language versions of his songs by artists like Itzik Kalah ("Ad yom moti") or Stalos-Oren Chen ("Avinu Malkeinu"). There are Mizrahi singers in Israel who are just as good (or better) as many current Greek stars....Itzik Kalah, Haim Moshe, Yoav Yitzhak, Zehava Ben, Ofer Levi, Ishay Levi, Yuval Taieb, Lior Elmalich, Sarit Hadad, even Omer Adam has a very nice voice for a 17-year old...Especially the religious singers are excellent performers of oriental music, maybe because they learn the "maqamat" in the "beit ha-knesset".
As for the lyrics in Greek songs...well, Yehoram Gaon complained about the quality of the lyrics of current Mizrahi music-if you knew Greek, you would know that many current Greek pop laika hits could likewise be regarded as pretty shallow! There is much quality music in Greece, but many if the songs you hear at the "bouzoukia" nowadays are all pretty much in the same style when it comes to the lyrics. I'm maybe old-fashioned, but I prefer the classic singers like Kazantzidis, Manolis Angelopoulos or Stratos Dionysiou, whose songs had real substance and were about things that the people ("ha-am") could identify with. Anyway, I understand that you can't get stuck in the past (which in my case is the 70's-80's when I lived in Greece!) and that every decade has its own stars-right now it's Plutarchos, Nikos Vertis etc. and they are all good in their genre.
I don't think Israeli covers of Greek songs are a problem-the whole of the Balkans covers Greek tunes-I was just wondering whether Greek songwriters, producers etc. really know how popular Greek music is in Israel. Most Greeks know that Glykeria is very popular in Israel, but do they know that Manolis Angelopoulos performed at "Ha-Flaka" in Tel Aviv in the late 80's or that Greek artists have been appearing in clubs in Israel since the 70's?
For the record, the Israelis aren't the only ones who cover melodies from other countries. There are many "classic" Greek songs which carry the name of a Greek composer, but which are really Turkish or Indian songs with Greek lyrics. In the 50's and 60's Greek composers would record the music of the Indian movies that were shown in movie theaters with tape recorders, learn the melody and present them as their own compositions. There is even a book about this era, called "The discovery of the Hindi-style songs", where all these songs are listed. Many songs recorded by Kazantzidis and Angelopoulos have a Turkish or Arabic origin. Zafiris Melas has recorded songs of Ibrahim Tatlises and other Turkish singers. Jannis Parios had hits with Greek-language versions of Italian, French and Spanish songs in the 70's and 80's. There is a lot of borrowing going on in all parts of the Mediterranean and the Balkans...although there are probably more covers of Greek music right now because there is a very lively record industry in Greece.
Best, Eva