Dimitris Mitropanos was perhaps the last great, true voice of Greek song. His song is simple, genuine, clean. At a time when he was highlighting the glittering "wrappers", he only needed one microphone.
His songs tell our story, our mistakes, our loves and our bitterness. But beyond his voice, he also stood out for his ethos, his integrity, his instincts.
It is enough to hear the first notes of the song "I Roza" to bring to your ears the voice of Dimitris Mitropanos and to your mind Thanos Mikroutsikos playing the piano.
"Why are you looking at me Rosa numb, forgive me for not understanding what computers and numbers say…", sang Dimitris Mitropanos and made one of the hymns that grew up and generations are growing up.
And yet, this great success that many sang and danced to, perhaps more than any other, was hidden and forgotten for years in a drawer.
But it seems that what they say applies to songs and to people. No good is lost…
In 1996, the Minos EMI company released the album "Stou Century the Shack", which also contained "The Rose".
Twenty years before the release of the song, in 1976, the poet Alkis Alkaios had sent his poem "The Rose" to Thanos Mikroutsikos to set it to music.
The famous composer was then living in an apartment in an apartment building in Athens. The inspiration came almost in a flash, but the time was up and therefore somewhat unsuitable for recording.
Thanos Mikroutsikos, not wanting to disturb the neighbors, pressed the piano trumpet (an accessory that adapts to the stringed instruments to "smother" the sound) and started recording the song.
The result of the recording was not the best possible and so Rosa remained ζή unclaimed for a long time.
Thanos Mikroutsikos had played Rosa, among others, in Haroula Alexiou, but the poor quality of the sound seems to have "tricked" the song and so the great singer passed it and did not want to interpret it. The years passed and Rosa remained in a drawer.
How Rosa ended up with Dimitris Mitropanos
Thanos Mikroutsikos meets Dimitris Mitropanos for the first time in 1996 on the album "Sto sedini tin paraga" with lyrics by Alkis Alkaios, Costas Laha, Lina Nikolakopoulou and George Kakoulidis.
Thanos Mikroutsikos's ministerial term in the Ministry of Culture with the government of Andreas Papandreou had just ended and the well-known composer was looking for a performer for his new album.
Usually, the compositions of the creators are adapted to the voice of the performers. In the case of Thanos Mikroutsikos and Dimitris Mitropanos, nothing like this applies, as these two elements complement each other.
The result of this collaboration is impressive. A magic record from those who make us not see the time to run to hear them again and again.
All of Greece sings "Roza", and other great hits that are included in the album such as "Panta gelastoi", "Gia mia Dolores" while Mitropanos usually throws a few turns when he sings it.
His collaboration with Dimitris Mitropanos was decided during an honorary celebration, organized by the company for the return of Mikroutsikos. At that time, the music producer Elias Benetos worked for the company. The experienced producer listened to the forgotten Rosa and "clicked" him.
Thanos Mikroutsikos in his autobiography "Thanos and Mikroutsikos" - edited by the journalist and lyricist Odysseas Ioannou - narrated the following about the hours of "Roza"'s recording:
"The recordings started in the summer of 1996." Rosa "taught us a lot in the studio. We could not find the way the drums would play. It was six o'clock and we were trying to find something that would satisfy me. Drummer was the great musician Nikos Kapilidis. I did not want the typical zeibek beats. At some point I ask Kapilidis to take off his shirt! "Are you serious?" asks me. "Absolutely" I answer him. He takes off his shirt and I ask if there is any sheepskin in the studio to wear! Of course we did not find a sheep, but I tell Kapilidis to think that he is a Viking and to play the song as a Viking would play the zeibek. He did it perfectly ", Mikroutsikos recalls, while he reveals that Mitropanos could not sing for two weeks due to a track.
"Rosa" became an immediate success, the album was one of the most commercial of the last 20 years and this particular zeibek made many men get up from their chairs and throw their turns.
As for who the Rosa of the song is, Alkis Alkaios never revealed if she was the emblematic revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg.
"He never wanted to, but never, no matter how many times I asked him to tell me, but personally I am one hundred percent sure that he is! Someone close to me had told me that there was once a Rose in his life but for me the song was undoubtedly written for Luxembourg. I think the shocking verse "how need becomes history / how history becomes silence" which summarizes the situation better than anyone else in the Greek language "is the answer of Thanos Mikroutsikos, in an interview (1/2/2014 - newspaper "Avgi" - Thanos Mantzanas), for the emblematic, now, "Rose" of the poet Alkis Alkaios.