Greek artist Konstantinos Argiros has one of the biggest hits right now with the beautiful ‘Athina Mou‘.
It’s an emotional ‘zeimbekiko’ with a timeless nostalgia harking back to the golden age of rebetiko and the roots of classic Greek Laika.
The song seems to be a massive hit with our listeners and radio presenters alike gaining a dominate foothold on the London Greek Radio air-play chart.
The melancholic zeimbekiko song has a ‘feel good’ sound with a strong evocation of patriotic sentiment about the Athenian capital and is about searching for a “long-lost love”.
The melody and lyrical depth compliment the sense of nostalgia, although there is a social conscious undertone due to it being released at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. The lyrics and music are written by Lefteris Kintatos whose inspiration was the silenced streets of Athens where local Athenians obeyed the stay-at-home lockdown.
The song starts with a few lines of a rain-soaked Saturday night in the Grecian capital. The verse in the song reminisces this along with a barely audible “barrel piano” from the “jasmine and night flowers smell from the balconies”.
The chorus sings, “It’s been months since you’ve been away from me, and the baby doll I had in my shop window is fading away, but I’m desperately looking for you, in my Athens.”
It is a pain exacerbated with the verse, “The bell at Lampadiaris Church is ringing mournfully, it’s like it’s saying we lost once again today…”
In the music video, Argiros is cast in the role of a working-class man with a deeply felt-sadness as he dances a slow-zeimbekiko in a quaint taverna. The video, directed by Giannis Dimolitsa, is atmospheric and captures the taverna scene with the nostalgia and romanticism that is bellowing beneath the song.
The video appears to be an ode to the classic film “Evdokia” from 1971 by Alexis Damianos from which the legendary “Zeimbekiko Tis Evdokias”, written by Manos Loizos, became known.
Tune in to LGR to hear the song, ‘Athina Mou’ and more of today’s biggest Greek hits on 103.3 FM in London, DAB+ in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, at lgr.co.uk and here: ‘Alexa, Play London Greek Radio’.
