A National Greek Television tribute to the great Giorgos Mitsakis
Giorgos Mitsakis (Greek: Γιώργος Μητσάκης; Constantinople, 1921 - Athens, 17 November 1993) was a Greek composer and lyricist of numerous rebetika and folk songs, as well as a skillful bouzouki player. He was also known by the nickname the teacher (ο Δάσκαλος)
Mitsakis was born in Constantinople but his family was forced to move to Greece. He was introduced popular music and started to take music lessons. In 1937 he fled to Thessaloniki where he met Vassilis Tsitsanis, Apostolos Hatzichristos and attended performances by Markos Vamvakaris.
In 1939 he started to perform professionally in the port city of Piraeus and met many of the prominent rebetiko singers and musicians of the time. Mitsakis composed his first songs in early 1941, however the soon to come German occupation prevented him from producing any recordings until 1946. After the war, Mitsakis cooperated with artists such as Giannis Papaioannou, Manolis Chiotis and Apostolos Kaldaras and quickly rose to fame. During the 1950s, he worked with important singers such as Stelios Perpiniadis, Stratos Pagioumtzis, Anna Hrisafi, Sotiria Bellou, Marika Ninou, Stella Haskil and Keti Grey. His successful career continued in the 1960s, during which he worked with Grigoris Bithikotsis, Spyros Zagoraios, Manolis Angelopoulos, Stratos Dionysiou, Stelios Kazantzidis, Marinella, Poly Panou, Yiota Lydia, as well as younger singers such as Giannis Kalatzis and Giorgos Dalaras.
Mitsakis wrote over 700 songs that are officially registered under his name and numerous more that he gave away to others. Many of these songs continue to be highly popular today, holding him a special place in rebetiko and Laïkó genres.