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- Songwriter Vassilis Tsitsanis (Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης), 1915
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Vassilis Tsitsanis (Greek: Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης 18 January 1915 – 18 January 1984) was a Greek songwriter and bouzouki player. He became one of the leading Greek composers of his time and is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Rebetika. Tsitsanis wrote more than 500 songs and is still remembered as an extraordinary bouzouki player.
Tsitsanis was born in Trikala. From a young age, Tsitsanis was interested in music and learned to play the bouzouki, violin and the mandolin which were the mainstay of so many of his songs. In 1936 he came to Athens to study Law, and by 1937, had made his first musical recording.
In 1937 he moved to Thessaloniki, where he served his military service, and stayed there for about ten years, during the German occupation of Greece. There he became famous and wrote many of his best songs that were later recorded after the end of the War. By the shut down of the record companies by the German occupation Forces in 1941, he had already recorded about 100 of his own songs and played on many recordings of other composers.
In 1946, Tsitsanis returned to Athens and began recording many of his own compositions that made famous many of the singers that worked with him, such as Sotiria Bellou (Σωτηρία Μπέλου), Marika Ninou (Μαρίκα Νίνου) and Prodromos Tsaousakis (Πρόδρομος Τσαουσάκης).
Vassilis Tsitsanis was a close friend with Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of the country. Tsitsanis died at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London following a lung operation, on his sixty - ninth birthday. He was mourned across Greece, where his music is still enjoyed to this day and he is regarded as a legend of rebetiko music.