The music of Israel is a combination of Jewish and non-Jewish music traditions that have come together over the course of a century to create a distinctive musical culture. For almost 150 years, musicians have sought original stylistic elements that would define the emerging national spirit. In addition to creating an Israeli style and sound, Israel's musicians have made significant contributions to classical, jazz, pop rock and other international music genres. Since the 1970s, there has been a flowering of musical diversity, with Israeli rock, folk and jazz musicians creating and performing extensively, both locally and abroad. Many of the world's top classical musicians are Israelis or Israeli expatriates. The works of Israeli classical composers have been performed by leading orchestras worldwide.
Stelios Kazantzidis was one of the most prominent Greek singers. He was of Pontian and Asia Minor roots. A leading singer of Greek popular music, or Laïkó, he collaborated with many of Greece's foremost composers.
Manos Loïzos was one of the most important Greek music composers of the 20th century.
Kyriaki Papadopoulou, known by her stage name Marinella, is a Greek singer whose career has spanned several decades. Since the beginning of her professional singing career in 1957, she has released 66 solo albums, and has also been featured on many albums by other musicians. She is well regarded due to her impressive vocal range.
Rebetiko, plural rebetika, occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek music which in the 1930s went through a process of musical syncretism and developed into a more distinctive musical genre. Rebetiko briefly can be described as the urban popular song of the Greeks, especially the poorest, from the late 19th century to the 1950s, and served as the basis for further developments in popular Greek music. The music, which was partly forgotten, was rediscoved during the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early 1970s onwards.
George Dalaras is a Greek singer and musician. He is one of the most prominent figures of Greek musical culture. In October 2006, he was selected as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency.
Mizrahi music refers to a music genre in Israel that combines elements from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa; and is mostly performed by Israelis of Mizrahi Jewish descent. It is usually sung in Modern Hebrew, or literary Hebrew.
Yehuda Leon Poliker is an Israeli singer, songwriter, musician. Poliker first became known in the 1980s as the lead vocalist for the band Benzene. In 1985, after Benzene broke up, he began a solo career that blended rock, pop, and traditional Greek music.
Haris Alexiou is a Greek singer. She is one of the most popular singers in Greece and has been commercially successful since the 1970s. She has worked with important Greek songwriters and composers, has performed at top musical theatres all over the world, and has received several awards. She has recorded over thirty albums and has been featured on albums of other musicians. On 14 March 2010 Alpha TV ranked Alexiou as the first top-certified female artist in Greece in the phonographic era, Chart Show: Your Countdown and the Number 3 overall ranking with regards to the sale of the personal albums certified Gold or Platinum in Greek discography since 1970, behind the male singers George Dalaras and Yiannis Parios. Eight of her personal albums released between 1977 and 2003 have surpassed 1.5 million sales, the only Greek female singer to do so.
Glykeria is a Greek singer active in Greece and Cyprus, while also gaining fame in Israel, France, Turkey, Spain, and England. Her career has spanned over 30 years and is marked by several multi-platinum releases. On 14 March 2010, Alpha TV ranked Glykeria the third top-certified female artist in the nation's phonographic era.
Manolis Angelopoulos was a Greek singer of Gypsy origin.
Greece–Israel relations are the bilateral relationship between the Hellenic Republic and the State of Israel. Relations between the two countries were strained during the late 20th century, as Greece supported and maintained strong relations with Palestine. The Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs defines this as evident of the "longstanding and consistent position of our country on the Palestinian Issue. However, since 2008 relations with Israel have thawed, and have been among the strongest in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Lefteris Hapsiadis was a Greek contemporary songwriter, poet, and writer of novels. His literary work included a plethora of poems, three novels, as well as lyrics for 525 songs in the contemporary Greek rebetika, laïka and elafra genres. He had collaborated with various music composers and had occasionally worked as a record producer. Among those, he had often worked with Christos Nikolopoulos with whom he had had a number of popular records. Together they also created and produced a CD with 12 songs, for which they were able to assemble together 11 popular Greek performers, including Giorgos Dalaras, Haris Alexiou, Stratos Dionysiou, Giannis Parios, and Manolis Mitsias. Nikolopoulos performed one of the songs in the CD as well, his first public singing performance ever. The CD was launched as "Τραγούδια για τους φίλους μου" - Songs for my friends. Other quite well known performers of Hapsiadis pop songs were Stelios Kazantzidis, Glykeria and Manolis Aggelopoulos.
Haralambos (Babis) Tsertos is a Greek musician. His sister is the singer Nadia Karagianni and his father was also a musician who played the mandolin. At the age of 17, he settled permanently in Athens and in 1974, he entered the Faculty of Physics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Vangelis Trigas is a Greek virtuoso soloist and master of the bouzouki.
Aris San was a Greek-Israeli singer and nightclub owner who popularized Greek music in Israel in the late 1950s and 1960s.
"Nea Ionia" is a song performed by Greek singer Stelios Kazantzidis. The lyrics are by Pythagoras and the music is by Christos Nikolopoulos.
Ta tragoudia tis Amerikis is a double studio album by popular Greek singers Stelios Kazantzidis and Marinella. It was released in 1991 by MBI in Greece and it contains 28 rare recordings that were recorded by Stelios Kazantzidis and Marinella in 1959 and some of those were released on 7" rpm vinyl records in United States, by NINA Records.
Giorgos Mitsakis was a Greek composer and lyricist of numerous rebetika and folk songs, as well as a skillful bouzouki player. He was also known by the nickname the teacher.
