Nikos Portokaloglou
Νίκος Πορτοκάλογλου (Nikos Portokaloglou) is a greek musician.
He was born in Volos in 30 December 1957. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to Athens. In the second grade of junior high school in 1970 he acquires his first guitar and with the help of method of practical learning, plus a sudden personal passionate drive, he starts to study for hours playing songs from records by ear.
Around 1973 – 1974, with some of his friends from school they created a band and started performing covers of songs of that particular era. His first songs with Greek lyrics and issues – amongst them the later well known song “Άσωτος υιός” – were written while graduating from High School (1976).
In 1980 Portokaloglou (guitar, vocals), Tsakalos (drums) and Moustakis (keyboards) together with (Δημήτρης Καλατζής), also an old schoolmate (bass), form a new four-piece band with more of an electric sound than earlier, and drawing on ten songs by Portokaloglou, rehearse and prepare a demo, aiming to hit the record business. The name of the band came from the former youthful musical-theatrical group “Φατμέ”. In May 1981 the band started recording its first songs and the first album were released in early 1982 by the record company EMI, with producer Tasos Falireas. Soon after they began their live performances at small rock venues of the era.
The album “Ψέματα” (Lies) will follow in early ’83, but the band started to invoke the interest of a larger audience with its third album, “Ρίσκο” (Risk), which is included in the – not as widespread at the time – attempts to create a “blend” of popular and electric sound. However, the full acceptance of the band will come in ’86 with the band’s fourth album “Βγαίνουμε από το τούνελ” (We’re getting out of the tunnel), with the aid of songs such as “Καλοκαιράκι” and “Πες το κι έγινε”, that includes the appearance of singer Χάρις Αλεξίου.
However, along with the release of one more album of new songs (“Το ταξίδι”, 1988) and a live album of their last concerts as a whole (title: “Πάλκο”, March 1989) comes the end of the band’s existence.
Over the next period Nikos Portokaloglou began writing new songs in an effort to start his own personal career. With Γιώργος Αντρέου as his basic partner, a solely acoustic arranging and the cooperation of many folk musicians, the album “Φωνές” (Voices) was released in the beginning of ’90, thus marking a new beginning. December of 1990 sees the release of the album “Καιρός για δυο” with music written by Nikos Portokaloglou and lyrics and vocals by Αφροδίτη Μάνου. He slowly tried to form a new group of musicians for a more permanent cooperation. With this new group he recorded his second solo album “Σήκω χόρεψε ψυχή μου, σήκω χόρεψε”, which was be released in the end of ’92. The singer Δημήτρης Μητροπάνος participated on the album.
In autumn ’93, he began his collaboration with the record company “Polygram” (later Universal) with the album “Τα καράβια μου καίω”. In 1995 he collaborated with the director Pantelis Voulgaris for the movie AKROPOL. The popular song “Κλείσε τα μάτια σου” that he wrote and sang in the film becane a big hit in Greece.
In March 1996 a new album was released that was very successful and created a new basis for his relationship with his audience. It’s “Άσωτος Υιός” – the same title as his first very well known song – and on this album he worked on the idea of re-recording some of his older songs using other singers.
His next undertaking was the music and the songs for the film VALKANIZATER by Sotiris Goritsas, that will be released in the summer of ’97 and is entitled “Κρυφτό”. It was a new effort of blending acoustic and electric instruments and was recorded with the collaboration of his core group, plus many established musicians of the new generation. Having the same basic collaborators-musicians (Tsakalos, Mouratoglou, Arapis) he introduced his new solo project towards the end of 1999. It’s the album “Παιχνίδια με τον διάβολο”. It was a moment of maturity as far as the treatment of the clearly electric sound is concerned, by means of a basic four-piece band as the medium.
The music and the songs of one more film by Sotiris Goritsas is his most up-to-date work. During the end of 2001, as soon as the album with the music from the film BRAZILERO was released, the song “Θάλασσά μου σκοτεινή” became a huge hit in Greece. The song is continuously played on the radio-waves and the album sells in large volumes.
At the end of 2002, after 20 years in the music business, a selection of his earlier songs was released and became very popular (Title: Nikos Portokaloglou – FATME and Friends, “Υπάρχει λόγος σοβαρός”), while the full collection of the albums of that era was re-released with improvements in both sound and informational material.
The year 2003 finds him at the venue MEDOUSA where he performed a number of shows with his musical companions Odysseas Tsakalos, Adrianna Babali and Manos Pirovolakis. Their performances continue at MYLOS in Thessaloniki, while that summer he toured Greece with the same group.
In September 2003 Nikos Portokaloglou celebrated his 20 years in the music industry with a sold-out live concert Lycabettus Theatre. Many of his dearest friends appeared with him, including artists Ελευθερία Αρβανιτάκη, Χάρις Αλεξίου, Μανώλης Φάμελλος, Ελένη Τσαλιγοπούλου and Δημήτρης Μητροπάνος.
December 2003 saw the release of Nikos Portokaloglou’s work entitled “Δίψα” and in just one month of its release it surpassed the sales of 20.000 copies (gold), while at the same time he collaborated as a composer on Ελένη Τσαλιγοπούλου’s album.
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Portokaloglou is a lovely -if not brilliant- songwriter.
He combines rock, various types of greek music, and simple, yet touching lyrics, to produce music for the soul, the head, and -often- for the feet (dancing)
Nikos is a solo artist, but started with very well known greek group Fatme (Φατμέ). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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