10 Facts About Manos Hatzidakis

Manos Hatzidakis was a Greek composer and theorist of Greek music, widely considered to be one of the greatest Greek composers and one of the most globally recognised.

Manos Hatzidakis was one of the main proponents of the "Entekhno" form of music .

Manos Hatzidakis was born on 23 October 1925 in Xanthi, Greece, to lawyer Georgios Manos Hatzidakis, who came from the village of Myrthios, Agios Vasileios in the Rethymno prefecture in Crete; and Aliki Arvanitidou, who came from Adrianoupolis.

The young Manos Hatzidakis earned his livelihood as a docker at the port, an ice seller at the Fix factory, an employee in Megalokonomou's photography shop and as an assistant nurse at the 401 Military Hospital.

Manos Hatzidakis focused on the economy of expression, the deep traditional roots and the genuineness of emotion displayed in rembetika, and exalted the likes of composers like Markos Vamvakaris and Vassilis Tsitsanis.

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Manos Hatzidakis always maintained that he wrote his serious pieces for himself and his less serious ones to make a living.

In 1958, Manos Hatzidakis met Nana Mouskouri, his first "ideal interpreter", a skilled vocalist who shaped the sounds of his music.

Manos Hatzidakis wrote the music for a song which Arthur Altman added English lyrics to and gave to Brenda Lee.

Manos Hatzidakis returned to Greece in 1972 and recorded Magnus Eroticus with opera-trained alto Fleury Dantonaki and singer Dimitris Psarianos.

Manos Hatzidakis died on 15 June 1994 in Athens at the age of 68, from acute pulmonary edema.