London, Thursday 6th June 2024 at The Cypriot Community Centre. Organized by the Rebetiko Carnival

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Could we imagine that the songs we have been singing for years, celebrating, and dancing to, and which have eventually become features of our collective identities, are songs that played the exact same roles elsewhere on the planet? Studying the historical discography over the last five years, that is, music recorded on cylinders and records in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we understand that not only are the circulation, interactions, and appropriations of this type not just isolated and transient phenomena, but on the contrary, they are the norm. Indeed, the joint research developed with the Kounadis Archive Virtual Museum in Greece and Leonard Kounadis, resulted in the creation of a virtual room dedicated to “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”. In my lecture, I will present an illustrative case from this collected material, which is considered one of the most emblematic and timelessly favourite songs from the Greek rebetiko repertoire.