Lio (Belgium)

Lio is the stagename of Wanda Maria Ribeiro Furtado Tavares de Vasconcelos, born in Mangualde, Portugal on 17 June, 1962. After her parents divorced in 1968, she emigrated with her mother Lena to Belgium to escape the dictatorship of Salazar.

Lio, a student at the Athénée Royal Isabelle Gatti de Gamond in Brussels, was discovered by Jacques Duvall. In 1979 she takes her stage name from a character in Barbarella (comic strip by Jean-Claude Forest), referring to that little girl that carries her pictures everywhere she goes.

At the age of sixteen, she records the pop/punk song ‘Banana Split’ which becomes a huge success in 1979, selling over two million copies. The song was produced by Marc Moulin, a Belgian avant-garde jazz and pop artist, who participated in the trio Telex, that participated in the Eurovision Songcontest in 1980 with ‘Eurovision’, an electro anthem and probably one of the weirdest Eurovision entries ever.

After the success of ‘Banana Split’, Lio and her production team released the single ‘Amoureux Solitaires’, which becomes a huge success throughout Europe (4 million copies sold). Lio is cultivating her Lolita character perfectly, singing punky electro songs with lyrics with a clear double, erotic meaning. A few successful albums were released (‘Lio’, ‘Suite Sixteen’, ‘Amour Toujour’) and Lio was the hot girl in France during the first half of the eighties. She collaborated with many trendy artists like Alain Chamfort, Etienne Daho, Jay Alanski and Jacques Duvall. Soon a lot of new female singers popped up unto the music scene, who clearly were inspired by Lio and her team; Elli Medeiros, Caroline Loeb, Elsa, Vanessa Paradis and, more recent, Alizée. In 1984, she participated on Etienne Daho’s classic track ‘Weekend à Rome’ and her performance in the video clip is pure pop history. And even now, after thirty years, her first two albums sound extremely new and fresh and it is no wonder why Europe embraced this young and sexy girl back then.

In the second half of the eighties, Lio wanted to record more mature music, but her record company did not reacted enthusiastically. Therefor she turned her energy more towards other ways of expressing herself. She started an acting career and became quite a successful fashion designer. Her 1988 release ‘Can Can’ flopped, and the 1991 release ‘Des fleurs pour un caméléon’, (again with the collaboration of Etienne Daho) was only slightly more successful despite the artistic quality of the work and good critics.

In 1996 she recorded the very personal and experimental album ‘Wandatta’. The songs were miles away from the punky pop tunes that launched Lio’s career and the public did not show much interest in the re-born, mature singer. Nevertheless, Lio clearly needed to record the ‘Wandatta’-album as proof of her newly found artistry. And looking back at her career, it still is one of her finest releases, cherished by her real fans. And it was the album that helped Lio to accept the fact that she had become a cult figure with a smaller yet very loyal fan base. With her newly found status and identity she could record and release whatever she wanted in stead of what the record companies wanted. In 2000, a year after giving birth to a twin (her fourth and fifth kids), she recorded the album ‘Lio chante Prévert’, and she even took the experimental set of songs live on stage (‘Coeur de rubis’). With these recordings, Lio proved that – even with her limited voice – she could interpret serious material in a credible way. It opened the way to new creative projects. In 2006 she released the very intimate and reflective album ‘Dites au Prince Charmant’ and in 2009 she once again collaborated with Jacques Duvall, who discovered her and helped her launching her career thirty years earlier. Duvall wrote the lyrics of many of the songs for the album ‘Phantom feat. Lio’. Phantom is a backing formation founded by multi talented artist Benjamin Schoos (aka ‘Miam Monster Miam’, owner of record label ‘Freaksville Record’). Lio participated in the live performance of this album and it was then that Schoos proposed to her and Duvall to do a Phantom album featuring Lio, singing Duvall’s lyrics. Teaming up with Duvall is Lio’s career coming full circle. Being recognized by these young creative musicians as a serious cult figure, emphasizes Lio’s importance in European pop history.

Lio is the mother of 6 children: Nubia (1987), Esmeralda (1995), Garance, and Leah (1999) and Diego (2003). She is the sister of singer Helena Noguerra. She was made a Knight of the Order of the Crown in 2004. Click here to visit Lio's page on europopmusic.eu.

At the start of the Eighties Spanish popmusique was picking up fast. On the forefront of La Movida Madrilena ((gestated ideological movement in the late seventies in Spain after the fall of the dictatorship of Franco) was the bizar persona of Alaska. Het first combo was called the Pegamoides playing poppy electronic music. But it was when Carlos Berlanga left that band (taking Alaska and key board player Nacho Canut) that Alaska went pop with Dinarama. The first album ‘Canciones profanas’ was an excercise in Spanish synthi-pop but it would take untill 1984 that Alaska y Dinarama got their sound right with ‘Deseo Carnal’ (Carnal desire). In sync with the era the album featured ten songs that comprised an air of  “anxiety, despair, revenge and destruction, all in an wave of twisted relationships and pessimistic thoughts wrapped in philosophical and moral desolation.” Or at least that’s what the band’s bio states. The first single and album opener, ‘Como pudiste hacerme esto a mi’ (How could you do this to me) is a duet between Carlos and Alaska and was an immediate success on radio and encouraged the rapid acceptance of the album by the public. The song handles the story of a jealous girl and her husband (who is cheating with another). She follows one night to the address where he commits adultery and, without thinking twice, decided to kill him running over him. Drama all over. Second single ‘Ni tu ni nadie’ (Neither you nor anyone) also handles the subject of a relationship going down the drain: “where our error occurs / Was I guilty or were you / Neither you nor anybody, Nobody can change / Thousand Bells' in my heart,  / Difficult is to ask for forgiveness / Neither you nor anybody, nobody can change. “

But it was the third single ‘Un hombre de verdad’ (A real man) that meant the definitive breakthrough. Not in the least due to the gay-erotique suggestion that hung around the single: “I'm so alone at night  / without sleep, without dreams, without living /who wants to keep me company ? / I envy all my friends / I am a volcano erupting / I am a strict governess / looking for someone all the time because: / Without doubt / I go and find / a real man / I will crawl and beg /a real man”. The art-work for the single and the album was made by young fashion photographer Javier Vallhonrat who Alaska met during his debut show at the Aele Gallery in Madrid in 1983. The single showed two muscled boys wrestling in their underwear, on the album Javier placed Alaska holding a very muscled man. No wonder rumours started that Alaska was actually a man but all this added to the popularity of the band.  Over the years the song has become a sort of gay anthem in Spain.
The fans of Alaska started calling themselves the Alaskitos. And her popularity and bizar persona got Alaska to be asked to do the musical TV-show ‘La Bola de cristal’ (The crystal ball).

In addition to the singles that were released, the album is diversity of musical styles, adjusted to the general synthipop tone of the album. ‘Isis’ (a hymn to the Revelation), ‘Falsas costumbre’ (a song without absolutely any sense), the title track (a kind of bolero, with hints of blatant sexual dalliance) and album closer ‘Carne, huesos y tu’ (Meat , bones and You) (a song about necrophilia dressed in a soothing ballad-form) all make out a coherent Spanish pop classic. The album went on to sell over 500,000 copies in Spain and to more than one and a half million albums worldwide. It was their biggest success. To celebrate the 25th anniversary a special edition of ‘Deseo Carnal’ was released recently with an extra CD filled with remixes and outtakes.

Click here tot visit Alaska's page on europopmusic.eu.
More information on Javier Vallhonrat click here.

Raymond van het Groenewoud (Belgium)

To understand what possessed Belgian singers like Johan Verminnen and Raymond van het Groenewoud to create their own Flemish version of blues we have to take a look to what happened in Belgium in the sixties. That era started with the violent loss of the colonies, Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. Thus deriving Belgium from valuable resources the country joined the EGKS (the pre European Communion conglomerate) with its coal and steel industry. In 1962 the Flemish movement gained more terrain and the Flemish-Wallonion differences came back on the agenda. This resulted in a new language barrier with Dutch-Flemish on one side and Wallonian-French on the other. A new language law in 1963 fuelled the so called linguistic wars that still go on today.

And last but not least the violence of WW1 and 2 left deep, deep scars in the Flanders country. Due to this most of the post-war Marshall help went to Flanders Doing so a significant percentage of the foreign capital (particularly from the United States), coming into Belgium to support new industries was being invested in Flanders. In contrast, Wallony's coal mines and time-worn steel plants and factories were in crisis. The region had lost thousands of jobs and much investment capital. A new Dutch-speaking, upwardly mobile "populist bourgeoisie" was not only becoming visible and vocal in Flemish movements but also in both the local and national policy. This Flemish resurgence has been accompanied by a corresponding shift of political power to the Flemish, who always constituted the majority of the population (around 60%). Only in 1967 was an official Dutch version of the Constitution accepted. The linguistic wars attained a first climax around 1968 with the splitting of the Catholic University of Leuven into the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Université Catholique de Louvain.

To know this is to understand why Verminnen and friends were so eager to create their own version of the blues. And in the Flemish language. Raymond was a guitar player with Johan Verminnen before he started the band "Louisette" in 1972 with Erik Van Neygen. His first two albums ‘Je moest eens weten hoe gelukkig ik was’ (You should know how happy I was) and ‘Ik doe niet mee’ (I’m not joining in) breathes the inward turned depressed bittersweet state Belgium was in at the time. They mirror the Flemish unemployed workman eager for love, sex, beer or just some recognition but stuck in old traditions. Searching for a meaning to his life. Like perfectly put in ‘Waar ik niet tegen kan’ (What I can’t handle): “It can be painful sometimes / to be alone / without a job / the girl can’t come today / and also not tomorrow / bad luck, like a too small beer / at the age of 24 / I feel lonely and old”.

Songs like (Translated) ‘No, I don’t wanna die tonight’, ‘She’s not aware what she does’, ‘Bourgious blues’ and ‘Christmas song 1972’ handle the same theme: “These are tough days / Christmas oozes its stench / Tired heads, fat stomachs / How long can I keep this up”. Unlike Verminnen who is more romantic by nature Van het Groenewoud stays close to the themes of the blues but with a unique Flemish signature. No other would make a song like ‘Bierfeesten’ (Beerfest): “When I’m here in this place / and the smell of beer is everywhere / and outside lays the vomit / No, I won’t jump in the canal / because the water is polluted / as long as I have this / I will survive”. During the seventies he would make some more masterpieces up to ‘Ethisch reveil’ all sung in his typical unsteady voice (which for non-Dutch speakers might be a challenge). Commercially this was a maybe not the wisest choice since singing pop and rock in your own language was not considered very cool in those days. In the eighties he is able to make a switch to more general themes and so wins a steady fanbase in Belgium and Holland. He refers to himself as a musician but also a poet, philosopher and clown. And that he is.

Click here to visit Raymond's page on europopmusic.eu. If you're searching for a good introduction to Van Het Groenewoud's work; Dutch collector Vic van der Reijt just released a three-disc compilation celebrating Raymond's anniversary. Under the title 'Omdat ik van je hou' (Because i love you) it is split in a section protest-songs, comedy-tracks and his bittersweet songs.

Antonello Venditti (Italy)
Sotto il segno dei pesci - ♪♪♪♪♪

Venditti made name for himself in the 1970s with the social themes woven into his songs. With the LP Lilly: the yearning title-track was a strong accusation, this time against drugs, but it met an outstanding success anyway. Other famous pieces in the album were ‘Compagno di scuola’ (Schoolmate) and the long ballad ‘Lo stambecco ferito’ (The Wounded Steinbeck), the story of a corrupted Northern Italy tycoon. Venditti continued to deal with front-page facts with the following LP, ‘Ullalà’ (1976), whose ‘Canzone per Seveso’ was about the industrial accident that happened in July of that year. Political involvement, however, had side-effects on Venditti's inspiration in the late 1970s, marked in Italy by the growing menace of terrorism and by the ‘strategia della tensione’. The ‘strategy of tension’ was installed by the United States and the then-fascist Greek government who supported far-right terrorist groups in Italy and Turkey – whose institutions appeared to be threatened by communism – to spread panic among the population who would in turn demand stronger and more dictatorial governments. Some say this mingling into Italian affairs is the main reason for Berlusconi’s power today.

Anyway, some events in 1977 (like the public booing of his friend De Gregori by politicized fans during a show) forced Antonello to rethink his way of being a public personality. This resulted in writing and recording ‘Sotto il segno dei pesci’ (Born Under the sign of Pisces) (1978) which contained more personal and intimate themes. The album was recorded in Rome and London and arranged by Nicola Samale and Joseph Mazzucco.

The title track is one of the best-known songs Venditti, a song attempting to contemplate on the lives of contemporaries of the singer, who had lived through the '68 and the years of commitment and that they were preparing to face the years of reflux, and it is also an educational response to the charges against him for having "sold out to the market". The title refers to the zodiacal sign of the singer (who was born on 8 March 1949) As they unite all their fellow youth in a single matrix, however fictitious because it is not an astrological sign that can guarantee the concept of "love and unity ...". The song is one long plea for these two universal concepts “Remember that road / there was me and you / and the people running / and cried with us / all I want, I thought, only love and unit for us / we deserve another life / more just and free if you want / love run, run do not be afraid.”

After the De Gregori incident Venditti decided to dedicate two songs to his musical friend. ‘Francesco’ is obvious but also ‘Bomba o non bomba’ refers to De Gregori with incorporating several lines from his songs. Two girls get a song on the album, ‘Giulia’ and ‘Sara’. Especially the last one caused a storm with the Italian feminist movement. Here Venditti describes a girl, pregnant, but almost passive in front of her boyfriend who, apparently was full of solicitude for her, but in fact conceals a nearly cynical behavior: "I have to graduate, but perhaps one day I'll marry you, the child is your child and not ours”

Closing track ‘L’uomo falco’ describes one of the many gray-haired men secretly governing the political and economic situation of the country, exploiting the similarity of prey that cast upon every good business opportunity and power. Probably inspired by a real person, the text provides no hints to be able to identify this with certainty. One song ‘Italy’ went even further but was at the last moment not included on the album (in 1982 it would get published on ‘Sotto il pioggia’). The album cover, by Mario Convertino, is white, designed with two fish, one blue and one orange in the first edition there were also marked in relief all twelve signs of the zodiac. The album was released on the singer's birthday, March 8, and would become against Venditti's intention the soundtrack of a dark period in Italian history (only 8 days later, on March 16 Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades). After the somewhat disappointing sales of the previous album, Venditti was back to the top with the single of the title song. The follow up ‘Bomba o non bomba’ never charted however.  

Click here tot visit Antonello's page on europopmusic.eu...

Jacques Higelin (France)

Mid sixties, Paris, the café-théâtre made an uplift. Parisian nightlife already knew the café-chantant since many decades and chansoniers like Piaf, Brassens, Trenet and Patachou performed there in a small room situated in a café or a cabaret, or even the café or cabaret amidst the clientelle. In 1966 this artform was upgraded to theatrical presentations to singing tours, and even improvisational theatre. One of the first café-théâtre in Paris was created at the Royal Café, boulevard Raspail, by writer and actor Bernard Da Costa.

It was these small venues that gave a stage to a rebellious singer named Jacques Higelin. . As a member of the theatre troupe of Marc'O he became friends with actors like Bulle Ogier and Jean-Pierre Kalfon and entered the café-theatre,. Half musical cabaret half comedy, cafe-theatre allowed Higelin to express himself fully on stage. He accompanied Georges Moustaki and sang Boris Vian at the Trois Baudets.

Then, at the end of 64, at the Vieille Grille, he took part in the extraordinary ‘Mélancaustique’ and ‘Maman j'ai peur’ shows with actor Rufus and, above all, with the whimsical and unpredictable Brigitte Fontaine. Both as crazy as each other, they became friends and began a fertile artistic collaboration. In 1965, the audacious artistic director and producer, Jacques Canetti, spotted the duo and gave them the opportunity to make two albums, one straight after the other: ‘Douze Chansons d'avant le deluge’ and then ‘Quinze chansons d'avant le deluge’, both collections of revisited Boris Vian songs. Without giving up the theatre or the cinema, Higelin turned more and more towards his singing. A rebellious idealist, he launched into more political songs with Catherine Ribeiro and François Béranger. The student uprising and the general strike in May, 1968 gave him a new-found freedom with which to renew his inspiration. He refused to do interviews with the official media and became the idol of the students. Ever ready to rebel against institutions and the system, he established his image as a liberty-loving personality. In the late Sixties there were numerous creative initiatives. At the Vieux Colombier theatre, Higelin often took part in "happening" concerts. He also improvised with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and with the Wild Angels and the Pretty Things, and acted in the play ‘Niok’ with Areski and Fontaine at the Petit Théâtre du Lucernaire.

Extremely active in the artistic underground in Paris at that time, Higelin threw himself passionately into a variety of performing arts. The concerts organized sometimes took chaotic turn. His concerts at the Ranelagh theatre, which, sometimes finished in the street outside. For that matter, his current performances still can turn into marathon shows as we ourselves witnessed in Lille in 2007 during a three and half hour show! From 71 to 73 he travelled and lived in communities in the Alps and the Luberon area in the South of France. As said Higelin also was  social and political militant. In May 1971, he sung a version of the Internationale at the celebration of the centenary of the Commune, the violent Nineteen century working class revolt in Paris. Much to the frustration of the establishment. In return the media hardly played his albums. But Higelin's nightly triumphs in the small venues delivered him a huge cult following at the end of the seventies.

His rebellious and exploring nature never left Higelin. Sometimes this even went to far for the main public who couldn’t swallow his African fuelled project ‘Ai’ in 1985 when he introduced Senegalese Youssou N'Dour and the Guinean Mory Kanté to the world for the first time. At an enormous pace Higelin kept releasing albums. In 1997 however the machine grinded to a halt when Higelin released his 22nd (!) album, entitled ‘Paradis Païen’ (Pagan Paradise). Following the machine grinded to a halt and for eight years he encountered an artistic blockade. For inspiration he started to travel the world and was away from France for many years. It was his memories to the old café-théâtre and the death of one of the café legends, Trenet, that gave him new ‘esprit’. From 23 March 2005 to 3 April 2005, the singer performed his show for two weeks running at the Trianon in Paris, while at the same time he released his box set "Entre deux gares", retracing 33 years of success and an overall career of almost 40 years. A live album, ‘Higelin enchante Trenet’, was released in September 2005. Eight years after his last studio album, ‘Paradis païen’, Higelin finally turned his attention to composing once again. Much to the delight of fans, a new Higelin album, ‘Amor doloroso’, hit record stores in November 2006. The Trenet experience had given Higelin a certain distance from his own work and encouraged him to sort through dozens of songs he had written over the years. And now, four years later, Higelin came up with a new album. One that reminds somehow of his breakthrough album form 1979. Again, a mix of cabaret, chanson and blues. Somehow, after all his travels, Higelin never left the spirit he found at the old café-théâtre.

Click here to visit Higelin's page on europopmusic.eu or read the review of the new album 'Coup de foudre'

Mari Trini (Spain)
¿Quién? (Who)- ♪♪♪♪♪

Spanish singer Mari Trini already made a name for herself at the start of the seventies as a girl folksinger. But at the age of 27 it was time to take music to a next level. Or at least we guess that’s what she must have thought. She already tried to become a more serious songwriter with ‘Ventanas’ that would become her most well-known album internationally but didn’t convince the local market. Familiar with French chanson since the sixties (she even lived there during the student revolts of 68) she turned to her favourite songwriters for inspiration. She left again for Paris. Early in compiling songs for the album she decided to cover Brel’s ‘Ne me quitte pas’. The eternal city by the Seine gave her enough inspiration to come up with a collection of songs about longing and lost love. Returned to Spain she started working with Waldo de los Rios and Juan Marquez as arrangers. The first song was the cover of Brel’s classic account of misunderstood love. But somehow the team was not satisfied with the result, adding orchestral layers over one another. After three attempts they decided to strip the arrangements back to the simple basics, which in the end was the version making the album. It was this back-to-basics method that would colour the whole album.

An album filled with songs about questions, memories and insecurities about love. Nacho Artime interviewed Trini at the time and confronted her with the remark that album sounded rather pessimistic. Trini responded: “I do not see anything pessimistic about it but it may be so for some. Depends on when you hear depends on the feelings that you cause. I know from experience that my records help many people to better withstand loneliness. So I do not think songs are pessimistic. Let's say it’s a realistic album”. For ¿Quién? dipped deep into her own emotions. The title track accounts of a young girl reminiscing about her lonely life and things to come "What if death treads my garden / Who will risk to knock on my door?". ‘Al fin y al cabo’ also looks at her frantic artistic career while she sings “"I just wanted to look at the sun and lie in the earth.". It was not to be. ‘Mi tercer amor’ (My third love) is another autobiographical song written during a car-trip in the area of Extremadura. Released as a single it would become one of Trini’s signature songs. Closing track ‘Mirar hacia atras’ (looking back) is maybe the most riddlesome when Trini sings "To say the truth without fear of punishment". Does she look back at her own short live or is she referring to life under the dictatorial regime of Franco? Trini was not the person to mix political comments in her lyrics but one wanders. And so did the Spanish public. Critics dubbed the album a masterpiece at the time and would become one of her best selling albums. ‘¿Quién?’ established Trini’s name as a serious songwriter in her own country.

Click here tot visit Mari trini's page on europopmusic.eu...

Nilüfer (Turkey)

At the start of  sixties youth culture in Western Europe got it’s own musical score largely thanks to the availability of the reasonably priced singles and a technical innovation. Before the sixties buying records has been a pricy business and the formats and material differed highly. The vinyl single (also called the 45 derived from its play speed (45 rpm)) had a standard diameter of 7″ (18 cm). But next to pricing one of the biggest pushes for the success the single was the development of little portable gramophones. This made it possible for youngsters to play their own music not only in their own room but also on the street, in the pub, wherever. The single format became so popular that even pharmacies stocked 45 rpm records at their front counters. In Turkey it took awhile before this trend was picked up, also due to the fact that the social political climate wasn’t to keen on rock ‘n roll before the end of the sixties. But by 1970 it was inevitable. By 1974 you’ll probably could have seen youngsters in Gülhane park or Belgrade forest in Istanbul gathered in groups, some with a portable record player decorated like little kitch bags. This culture was graving for singles from local talents.

Enter Nilüfer, a young girl that in 1970 won first place she at the Golden Record Voice Competition.  Record company Odeon signed her and released a first single ‘Kalbim Bir Pusula’ in 1972. However, she achieved her essential impact with her 45 rpm titled ‘Dünya Dönüyor’ (The world turns) in 1973 which became a massive 7” hit. Her words “That we are not old we are young, Those days are past these days we are, Maybe this night will not have a morning” had a great appeal to the young Turkish generation.

And it was universal enough to also appeal to an older generation who was (of course) sceptical about some other pop and rockbands that were much more outspoken and controversial. Nilüfer turned out to be the perfect combination. A string of hits followed amongst which ‘Göreceksin Kendini’, ‘Kalbim bir Pusula’, ‘Selam Söyle’, ‘Aldanırım Sana’ and ‘Başıma Gelenler’ gaining her the title ‘Queen of the 45’s’. By 1975 she was so popular that CBS (of which Odeon was a part) dared to take the next step and consider an international career for Nilüfer. A first for a Turkish popstar. She was linked to a German producer Dani Grünberg and they started working on the ‘Miss Nilüfer’ project.

First single was ‘Bau mir ein Paradies’ followed by ‘Ali’ and ‘Bilder in meinem herzen’. But the European market appeared more tough to crack then expected. Still CBS was very serious in their attempts and ‘Ali’ also got an Italian version. A further Italian single (a translation of ‘Baştan Anlat’ and a cover of Mina’s ‘Ancora’) and a French single (a translation of ‘Selam Söyle’) were other attempts. Without much result although ‘Miss Nilüfer’ did bring her to the Parisian Olympia for a sold out show. Mind you, this was a year before other Turkish star Adja Pekkan would move to France and triumphing in the same theater with Enrico Macias.

Meanwhile in Turkey her status of Queen was unprecedented with hits like ‘Oh Ya’, ‘Aman Aman’ and ‘Kim Arar Seni’. In 1978, together with the group Nazar, she would return to Paris to enter in the Eurovision Song Contests on behalf of TRT. In the same year her albums ‘Nilüfer Müzik’ and ‘Nilüfer 15 Şarkı’, looking back at the past decade were sell out successes. By the Eighties however competition became much harder as the musical genres took a turn to international rock influences. Nilüfer took up other disciplines as acting and appearing in a photocartoon (remember those?). And in 1986 she joined the International Mediterranean Song Contest organized in Antalya (Spain) . Her song ‘Geceler’ won the first prize pushing sales of her album with the same title. Although Nilüfer continued to make good albums in the continuing years it were her single releases that always catch the most attention, thus living up to her status. Like the single ‘Seni seviyorum’ from her 1989 ‘Esmer Günler’ album that got elected Europe’s Valentine’s hit this month on our webpoll. Although the single is currently a format in demise Nilüfer keeps up the good work this year with the release of her new hit ‘Zalimin Kararı’.

Listen to her breakthrough hit 'Dünya Dönüyor’

Thank you to Naim Dilmener for essential background info and pictures. For those of you interested in the glory days of Nilüfer in the seventies RCA released an excellent boxset in 2004 under the title ‘1970 & 1980 Odeon Years’ featuring her hits, her international singles and rarities. Click here to visit Nilüfer's page on europopmusic.eu...

Marek Grechuta (Poland)
Korowód (Procession) - ♪♪♪♪♪

We said it before and we’ll probably say it again but Poland delivered some great and original popmusic over the years. Even in a time when the authorities weren’t supporting ‘Western deviations’. This month we pay homage to a Polish classic from 1971 by the hand of Marek Grechuta and his group Anawa. Korowód (Procession) is an eclectic record mixing influences from classical, folk and jazz under a progressive rock-umbrella.  In the center of all this musical mayhem is the steady peron of Grechuta. With a strong voice he recites the poetic lyrics (written by himself or others) giving bitter comment on live in Communist Poland (or so it seems). But how else can a track like ‘Kantata’ be read?

I’ve dreamed about birds without the sky…
I’ve dreamed about horses without the land…
There is no other season here, only winter,
Here is the place heavy like a stone and confusing like a labyrinth,
Here a wall meets a wall, both are alien to each other,
And a fair flower of the sky dies on a stalk of a yard.

Originally an architect Grechuta turned to singing in the sixties when he met the composer Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz, with whom he founded the student cabaret Anawa in 1967. In that same year he was awarded second place in the VI National Contest of Student Musicians (VI Ogólnopolski Konkurs Piosenkarzy Studenckich) and also received an award for Tango Anawa, with lyrics written by him and music by Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz. Beginning in 1968 he would win several awards at the Festival of Polish Music in Opole. In 1969 he played a minor role in Andrzej Wajda's film Polowanie na muchy (Hunting Flies). After a first self titled album ‘Korowód’ took things much further artistically. This already becomes evident on opener ‘Widzieć więcej’, an acoustic instrumental, loaded with psychedelic echoes. And a grand orchestral piece like "Nowy radosny dzień" ("New happy day") definitely needed a bigger budget to make. Although the title of this song suggests otherwise it is a again a bitter song. As the funeral drums in the intro fade in slowly the crowd starts to roar slowly turning the song into a soundtrack for a passing army. Grechuta himself is dreaming of better world. Or should we say pleaing, begging for a better world. On Swiecie nasz (Our world) the choir repeats after him:

Our world -- Give us a number of clear days!
Our world -- Let us wait in the bright day!
Our world -- Give to extinguish the fire bad!
Our world -- Give us joy, which we seek!
Our world -- Give us the flame, steel and sound!
Our world -- Give all the heavy gates open!
Our world -- Give to overcome any fear!
Our world -- Give us a variety of light and joy!

But the absolute keytrack on the album is the title track. A ten minutes long jazzed up, spaced out, folk-rock fury. The song is one big complaint against discrimination, violence, unequal human rights and greed. The lyrics much have had quite and impact in Poland at the time.

Who first attacked each other?
Who appointed the first blow?
Who is the first of us to recognize?
Who are enemies? Who are friends
Who was the first fame and all his pain was for nothing?
And who is not able to sleep not able to cross borders?

Who in the first night devised a great army?
Who was a hero? Who lived and died poorly?
Who was the first lord? Who first became king?
Who had to get up early, and who could sleep too long?

Korowód was the last album Grechuta and Anawad made together. Just after it’s release he left Anawa and founded the band WIEM. However, the songs from the album stayed on his repertoire throughout his career. Building ‘Korowód’ to exercises of 20 to 30 minute long improvisations. He died in 2006.

Click here tot visit Grechuta' page on europopmusic.eu...

Ewa Demarczyk (Poland)

January, the dark month following Christmas. Whom better to accompany this time of year then Polish singer Ewa Demarczyk. Nicknamed the Black Angel of polish song she wipped the stages of Poland in the sixties. We close our eyes and imagine what her performance was like in those days.

We have to go back to Krakow. An ancient city dominated by the robust Castle Wawel, filled with traditional houses, churches and Europe’s biggest market square. One of the palaces on the square is the Palace of the Rams (Pałac pod Baranami). In the cellar the Cabaret Under the Rams had been giving performances since 1956. In 1962, when the cold wind blows over the square to audience gather for the debut of a young singer. An astounding discovery by composer Zygmunt Konieczny rumours say, only 22 years old. Around ten the lights dim, a dramatic piano is struck and a girl, completely in black, with blackraven hair and dramatic eye makeup enters the stage. She glances around the dimlighted room. The audience sits breathless. She begins ‘Ballada o cudownych narodzinach Bolesława Krzywoustego’ (The Ballad of the miraculous birth of Boleslaw Boleslaw) with a thunderous voice. In one evening Ewa Demarczyk changes the face of Polish song, incorporates elements from French and German cabaret but diminishes all the light from these genres. The world is a dark, dark place. Only two decades ago the Nazi’s turned over the land and commanced their attrocities just south of the city in Oswiecim. Then came Stalin which did not make things better. This was the bitter universe Ewa was born in in 1941, and that bitterness finally found a way out. On stage, almost spatting the words into the room.

The public was amazed. A year later she performed at the National Song Festival in Opole singing ‘Karuzelę z madonnami’ (Carousel with Madonnami) (lyrics: Miron Bialoszewski) ‘Taki pejzaż ‘ (This landscape) (lyrics: Andrzej Szmidt) and the song that would get her her nickname ‘Czarne anioły’ (Black Angels) (lyrics: Wieslaw Dymny). She aroused the enthusiasm of critics and audiences. In 1964 at the International Song Festival in Sopot she won second prize for Grande Valse Brillante (lyrics: Julian Tuwim).

In 1966 she started working with fellow-cabaret composer Andrzej Zarycki. Together they delivered one of Polands most haunting sixties albums ‘Spiewa Piosenki Zygmunta Koniecznego’. A tribute to her discoverer. But Ewa’s bitterness had a price. Although she was medalled with  the Polish Order of Merit in 1971 the authorities became gradually nervous of the anti-communist undertone in her performances. Eventually this nervousness reached a point when Ewa was actually no longer allowed to perform in the Soviet Union in 1976. She did get the Knight's Cross Order of the Restoration Polish in 1979, which is a big thing in Poland but I guess that was just to keep her quiet. In 1982, some old recordings were dug up for a live album but that was actually it for the recording career of Ewa.

In 1985, she established ‘Eve Demarczyk Theater’ in Cracow, a ‘National Theater of music and poetry’. After the fall of the iron curtain, the institute, which was paid for by the city of Cracow, was cause for a lot of debate. Some considered the funding of this institution as an expression of public patronage and support of an artist of the former era, that was not acceptable in modern days with free market. Latest information that we could found on this subject, was that the theatre had huge financial problems and had a legal issue regarding the unpaid rent for the past four years. And so ends our partly imaginative journey about the Polish Black Angel.

Click here to visit Ewa's page on europopmusic.eu...

Vasilis Papakonstantinou (Greece)
Φοβάμαι (Fear) - ♪♪♪♪♪

The recent riots in Athens (a year after the riots of 2008) made me grab Vasilis Papakonstantinou’s classic album ‘Fear’ again. Although the cause is quit different the central theme (anger about the system, fear for the state and the police) is almost the same. Although released in 1982 it is very clear the album gets its inspiration from the Polytechnic riots from 1973. At the time the students from the university, calling themselves the "Free Besieged" (Greek: Ελεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι, a reference to a poem by Greek national poet Dionysios Solomos inspired by the Ottoman siege of Mesolonghi), barricaded themselves in and constructed a radio station (using laboratory equipment) that repeatedly broadcast across Athens: "Here is Polytechneion! People of Greece, the Polytechneion is the flag bearer of our struggle and your struggle, our common struggle against the dictatorship and for democracy”.

Dramatic opening track ‘Κουρσάρος’ clearly makes its point: “From friends surrounded / and their fear, not love / And lives go unreported/ You worry, afraid to sleep / and the journey is resumed”. Because the fear of which the whole album reports must have been great. Eventually the regime stumbled thanks to the protest but the students couldn’t have possible known that before they barricaded the university buildings. “The first of May from the Bastille / begins in the hearts of students / one thousand flags, red, black / Federico, Catherine and Simone”. Three days the students held out. As Vasilis reports on ‘Θα φύγεις μοναχή’ (we go numb): “The night, blurred / and the conversation, freezes / Your cheeks, fiery / by drops of water”. They probably sought comfort for the night while the Junta figured out how to knock down this protest. “Filled squares with houses and bars / and the city gets dark like movies / And I say GO Stella, come in my arms to sleep / It is a great day, like a stray bullet and get lost”.

Eventually, in the early hours of November 17, 1973, the transitional government, in panic, send a tank crashing through the gates of the Athens Polytechnic. Prior to the crackdown, the city lights had been shut down, and the area was only lit by the campus lights, powered by the university generators. On a clandestine video, just before the attack, a young man's voice can be heard desperately asking the soldiers (whom he calls 'brothers in arms') surrounding the building complex to disobey the military orders and not to fight 'brothers protesting'. The voice carries on to an emotional outbreak, reciting the lyrics of the Greek National Anthem, until the tank enters the yard, at which time transmission ceases. Total recorded casualties amount to 24 civilians killed outside Athens Polytechnic campus. These include 19-year old Michael Mirogiannis, reportedly shot to death by officer G. Dertilis, high-school student Diomedes Komnenos, and a five-year old boy caught in the crossfire in the suburb of Zografou. The records of the trials held following the collapse of the Junta document the circumstances of the deaths of many civilians during the uprising, and although the number of deaths has not been contested by historical research, it remains a subject of political controversy. In addition, hundreds of civilians were left injured during the events. Symbolically closing track ‘Φοβάμαι’ (Fear) opens with the sound of sirens and mayhem. “my body bruised / amid the cold like a mistake / do not admit to any, / flipped to the warmth of your request / I'm afraid all that will be for me is without me ... “

In 2008 history sort of repeated itself when on 6 December 2008 Alexandros Grigoropoulos (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Γρηγορόπουλος), a 15-year-old student, was fatally shot by Epaminondas Korkoneas, a police officer. The shooting occurred after an altercation between a police patrol and a small group of youths in the Exarcheia district of central Athens. The death of Grigoropoulos resulted in large protests and demonstrations, which escalated to widespread rioting, with hundreds of rioters damaging property and engaging riot police with Molotov cocktails, stones and other objects. While the unrest was triggered by the shooting incident, the reactions expressed much deeper causes, especially a widespread feeling of frustration in the younger generation about specific economic problems of the country (partly as a result of the global economic crisis), a rising unemployment rate among the young generation and a perception of general inefficiency and corruption in Greek state institutions. And last month (2009), a year after the initial riots, shit again hit the fan. Making Papakonstantinou’s album still very relevant even after 28 years.

Click here tot visit Vasilis' page on europopmusic.eu...