Greek singer Themis Adamantidis interrupted his own performance at a nightclub to pay an emotional tribute to fellow singer Giorgos Mazonakis, only hours after Mazonakis was buried following his death at the age of 54. Adamantidis is himself a well-established performer on the Athens nightclub circuit, known for his own live shows in the city's bouzoukia venues, the clubs that host many of Greece's top laiko singers.
Speaking to the audience from the stage, Adamantidis said that a young man had left them, a singer who had changed the way Greeks who loved him went out and enjoyed themselves at night. He said Mazonakis had left far too soon, adding that when love is missing, everything gets turned upside down. He dedicated the moment to Mazonakis's memory.
Mazonakis was a well-known name in Greek laiko, or popular, music, a genre built around the bouzouki that has produced many of the country's best-known singers. He had spent decades performing in the nightclubs and live music venues that make up the nightlife of Athens. His death at 54 plunged the Greek entertainment world, and thousands of fans who grew up listening to his songs, into mourning.
A visit to Agia Triada
Adamantidis's words carried extra weight because, only hours earlier, he had traveled to the Church of Agia Triada in Nikaia, a municipality that lies just outside Piraeus, the port city that serves as Athens's main harbor, to say goodbye to Mazonakis in person, the man with whom he had shared for decades the same world of laiko song and Athenian nightlife.
Adamantidis was among the artists who arrived at Agia Triada during the public wake, which continued through the night from Sunday into Monday. Friends and colleagues of Mazonakis kept arriving even after 1am. Also present that night were fellow performers Nikos Vourliotis, Andromachi, Giorgos Livanis, Elli Kokkinou, Panos Mouzourakis and Haris Akritidis.
A shared stage in 2018
Adamantidis and Mazonakis did not simply have parallel careers on the club circuit; there were also moments when they shared a stage. In 2018, for example, the two singers performed together at the venue YTON during the finale of a show by fellow singer Nikos Vertis, with all three singing together for the crowd. Guest appearances of this kind have long been common in Greece's laiko nightclub scene, where singers frequently join each other on stage.
That history is why Adamantidis's description of Mazonakis as someone who changed the way Greeks partied was more than a routine farewell from one colleague to another. It came from an artist who had witnessed firsthand the changes in Greek nightlife, and who watched Mazonakis move from laiko dance floors into wider pop culture without ever abandoning his laiko identity.
More than 20,000 pay their respects
The farewell to Mazonakis turned into an unprecedented public gathering in Nikaia. According to Greek public broadcaster ERT, more than 20,000 people passed through the Church of Agia Triada between Sunday afternoon and Monday's funeral. The crowd included teenagers and young people as well as mourners aged 85 and 90, many of them carrying a single flower.
The choice of Agia Triada carried its own symbolism. It was the church where Mazonakis had been baptized, in the city where he was born and raised and which he referred to with particular pride throughout his career.
Songs, dancing and applause
Mazonakis's songs could be heard playing from the balconies of buildings around the church as mourners gathered below. People sang in the streets, and some danced the zeibekiko, a traditional solo Greek dance rooted in the rebetiko music tradition that is often performed as an expression of deep personal emotion, in his honor. As his coffin was carried out of the church, the silence gave way to a prolonged round of applause, and people threw flowers and roses.
Artists who attended
The Greek entertainment world turned out in force to say goodbye. Singers Anna Vissi, Antza Dimitriou, Stelios Gonidis and Nino attended the overnight wake, alongside Adamantidis, Elli Kokkinou, Panos Mouzourakis and Nikos Vourliotis.
On Monday, mourners at the church included the singers Paola, Natasa Theodoridou, Nikos Vertis, Nikos Oikonomopoulos, Takis Zaharatos, Markos Seferlis, Nikos Kourkoulis and Thanos Petrelis, along with Ilias Psinakis, Marianna Latsi and many other figures from Greek entertainment and public life.
Vertis said Mazonakis was someone everyone had loved, and described him as an innovative artist. Oikonomopoulos kept his remarks brief, saying only that he wished Mazonakis a safe journey. Latsi said Mazonakis would continue to be among them through his songs.
