The square was full” and people were watching the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and the Mixed Choir of Thessaloniki, playing and interpreting songs by Dionysis Savvopoulos.
In the chorus, the artist’s own voice could be heard singing “Don’t talk about love anymore, love is everywhere”. This was followed by the emblematic “Synnefoula”, which “Nionios of Thessaloniki” sang to the public gathered in his honor in the courtyard of the City Hall.
In addition to the songs, he also shared stories that connect him to the city where he was born, grew up and “always carried with him”, even when he changed cities, countries or continents. Wearing the Thessaloniki Silver Medal on his chest, which was recently awarded to him by Mayor Stelios Angeloudis, Dionysis Savvopoulos “travelled” his family, friends and fans into the past, presenting images and incidents clearly.
“I am so sorry that my father and mother are not alive, they were consumed by worry when I was young, ‘what will become of this child?’ To! I’ve made progress! I am recognized by my hometown”, he said with his well-known humor immediately after receiving the medal, emphasizing emphatically and with pride: “After all, ladies and gentlemen, I am from Thessaloniki. I was born here on December 2, 1944.”
“We owe a lot to the man who remains to this day one of the greatest creators and main shapers of Greek art”, emphasized Mayor Stelios Angeloudis and addressing the artist himself, said “you are much more than a ‘Greek who throws stones’. ” You are a visionary, a poet of Greek rock and Greek music in general, who challenged established political norms. You are the great composer, subversive, genius, transcendent, but above all our fellow citizen, who for six decades has been recording and dresses the history of modern Greece with lyrics and melody. And you do it with boldness, with realism, with your fascinating look and with a unique artistic approach that doesn’t fit into molds, doesn’t compromise, overcoming conditions and limits.”
The event was opened by the Mayor, Spyros Vougias, who highlighted that the organization’s decision was unanimous in awarding Dionysis Savvopoulos the Silver Medal of Thessaloniki, “for his enormous contribution to modern Greek culture, for his special contribution to the promotion of Thessaloniki and in the formation of our collective self-awareness and cultural identity”. “Our dear Dionysus, welcome to your home”, he said to him characteristically and referred to his most important biographical details.
The first story that Dionysis Savvopoulos shared with the public was that of the last minutes before coming to life, an event that she loves to tell and did so again last night. “The day my mother felt pain, the family went out into the street looking for a car to go to the maternity ward, but those were chaotic days in Thessaloniki, there were no buses, just a few gas stations that passed by and didn’t stop,” he said. he, explaining that it was during the period when ELAS (Hellenic People’s Liberation Army) troops with Marko Vafiadis had already entered Thessaloniki and the EAM (National Liberation Front) had taken over the political administration of the city “In our neighborhood. , on Zanna Street – a small parallel to Botsari, where it was on the corner with Vasilissis Olgas, there was a large building, half destroyed by a bomb, where an ELAS unit was installed,” said Savvopoulos.
The guard at the gate was approached by the grandmother, who responded with great enthusiasm and led them to the maternity ward on a motorcycle with…carrots on the side. “Me (before it was me) and my mother got into the cart and behind the wheel we sat happily the… Original ELASite, with blisters and a beard, who said: “Hello, man” and roared the motorbike… ” And what Let’s do with this, childish partner? We’ll do it communist!” and broom. And with bangs and smoke we arrived at the maternity ward, where I was born when she arrived”, he said characteristically.
Although in the early years of his life civil war enveloped them, with the eyes of a child he saw a paradise and a world of wonders. His neighborhood was dominated by stately homes – albeit in decline, with abandoned gardens, often without frames, and in some the plaster was falling apart. “However, in this worn-out face there was a reflection of a greatness that existed before, of a different Thessaloniki, multinational, tolerant and above all cosmopolitan. The cool thing is that this feeling was in the air and we know it very well, those of us who were born and grew up in these years here”, he observed.
One of these two-story houses was also rented by his own family, and the owner, Mrs. Ulla, lived upstairs. The house’s backyard, although poorly maintained, abandoned and full of grass, had “a huge acacia that gave a pleasant coolness in the summer, two apricot trees, a plum tree and the pericoclades had made naughty arches”, he described saying that Mrs. Oula fenced most of the yard and put two puppies running around inside, a male and a female, Ali and Vasilos.
He still remembered how impressed he was when the traffic on the streets stopped abruptly and people stopped every Sunday afternoon, when the flag was raised on the White Tower to the sound of the philharmonic playing the national anthem, memories came to him of the Sunday walk on the beach old woman, the four cinemas in Aristotle Square, the waiters who came and went frantically holding the trays, but also the inflated balloons, the cotton candy that he described as a “pink cloud that you could eat”, and the ruffles, which – like he said – in Athens they call them “mills” incorrectly.
His memories also extended to the Upper City, where he visited the Monastery of Vlatadon and from there he had his beloved city at his feet, the sea and in front of the snowy Olympus. “He had a very beautiful garden full of peacocks and I was trying to imitate their crying to make them open this colorful tail, a meter of plumage with some colors… A blue roe and a deep green and they had these beautiful eyes. wings too…”, he said, reliving the image.
He remembered the 12th primary school he attended, the pedagogical academy, the historic 5th Men’s Gymnasium, but also the Church of the Ascension across the street, where as a wolf he also held the pole in M. Paraskevi to order the epitaph pilgrimage. “I have been friends with my classmates since then, since I was a wolf cub, and of course, with the friends I met later in Thessaloniki,” he said emotionally, explaining that this is the reason why he never took away his electoral rights from the city. .
The descent into Athens in 1963
“It’s true that I left Thessaloniki young, my… his wanted that”, said Dionysis Savvopoulos and tried to explain his decision to abandon his law studies and go to Athens to work with music. “Thessaloniki – as you know, is part of” tsiftetelos “. A repertoire like mine would have been difficult at that time here. Representatives from record companies had not yet come, there was no suitable store and there were no studios,” he said, saying that when the situation changed he worked here and wrote albums alone, but also with Nikos Papazoglou or Lavrentis Mahairitsa.
He also spoke about the people who influenced him personally and professionally, the poets he read and lived with, such as Nikos-Alexis Aslanoglou, Giorgos Ioannou, Dinos Christianopoulos, Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis, Zoi Karelli, Manolis Anagnostakis. “I was a student at this school and I want to belong to this school. And as a student at this school, I did everything I did and exerted all the influence I had on Greek singing and on younger generations”, he highlighted, at the same time wishing Marinella of Thessaloniki well.
“Nionios, the invincible” – Article by G. Skabardonis
On the occasion of the awarding of the Thessaloniki Silver Medal to Dionysis Savvopoulos, the prose writer and journalist Giorgos Skabardonis wrote the following article:
“Dionysis Savvopoulos is a special and unrepeatable case – he did not come from a musical family, no one in his family seemed to have artistic tendencies and he emerged like a wild and unexpected flower in the rock. Obviously this is a case of genius. His composition and the fact that from a very early age he found his own style that later developed in the same richer and bolder direction, his creative breath and his themes that move between lyricism, tragedy and Eutrapelia are inexplicable elements of his personality. It contains an exuberant combination of gift, vision, talent and insight that, according to him, has origins and references to the literary school of Thessaloniki, to Pentzikis, to Ioannou, to Christianopoulos, to Aslanoglou. from Hellenism through the centuries, from Aristophanes to the Byzantine member, from folk song to the perception of rock, children’s songs and rap. Musically, Nionios also assimilates material from many regions, from ballad, sung, rebetiko, folk,. of folk, European melodies and great contemporary creators, European and American, creating his own fluid Savvopoulian amalgam that he transfigures, he performs in a unique way on stage, being one of the most talented interpreters in our musical history. Dionysis is a holistic artist, in the sense that he creates a song out of nothing, composing his own lyrics and music and performing it himself, endowing it with additional elements of idiosyncrasy and uniqueness. Its prosperity, for sixty years, is continuous and uninterrupted. He gives us work that is excellent and brilliant, moving, sharp, lyrical and tender, intrusive and profound, poignant, provocative and poignant – forever.”
