"Sotiria's songs" in Amorgos!
On Saturday, April 6th, the musical performance "Sotiria's songs" dedicated to the highness of the rebetiko Sotiria Bellou, took place with great success in the multipurpose Hall of "Anna Synodinos" Primary School in Aegiali.
We sincerely thank Χριστίνα Μαξούρη/Christina Maxouri the musicians Evgenio Halil, Strato Gritzali, Dimitris Kousta and Dimitris Triantafyllidis and Dimitris Chaliotis for offering us such a quality journey into the life and songs of Sotiria Bellou.
We thank all of you, who attended, for the warm response to our invitation as well as the Municipality of Amorgos for granting the hall.
Finally, we thank the owners of rooms and rental cars for their offer and those who dedicated precious hours to the artistic curation of the scenery and the poster!
A few words about the concert:
«Sotiria's songs» go beyond the boundaries of the stage and move between the theatrical performance and the musical concert. In an almost overwhelming atmosphere, Christina Maxouri, an actress and performer herself, introduces us to the world of Sotiria Bellou with her characteristic, doric voice. She performs favorite songs that Bellou stamped with her voice and between them she tells us short stories and short incidents from the life of the unsurpassed performer. Songs of Tsitsanis, Papaioannou, Mitsakis, Kaldaras, Savvopoulos, Moutsis, Andriopoulos and Lagios are intertwined with testimonies about Bellou's life, through her own words and those of people who knew her. And yet the performance does not have the character or the purpose of biography, but the disposition to create an atmosphere of celebration. A shared experience where we all share stories and songs and come closer.
The musical performance began its course in the summer of 2021 as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival with four sold out nights at the "Stecki tou Ilias" in Thisio. Since then it has been presented with similar success at the Hamam music stage in Petralona (November 2021) and for ten sold out performances at the special PLYFA venue in Votanikos (February – April 2023). He has also traveled to various Festivals outside Athens: Tinos Festival 2021, Mykonos Festival 2023, Routes to Paros Festival 2023, Cultural Heritage Recording Festival (Apollo Theatre, Syros 2023), Agia Paraskevi Municipal Library Festival (2023).
In Athens, after last year's successful cycle of performances, it is presented again this time with repeated sold outs in the special space of PLYFA in Botanikos.