(b Trikala, 1915; d Athens, 1984). Greek rebetika musician. He was the leading figure in postwar rebetika and his career spanned almost 50 years. He went to Athens in 1936 to study law but abandoned his studies to become a full-time musician and song writer. His first recording, made in 1936, was a song about hashish, although later he disassociated himself from the disreputable elements of the rebetika milieu. He wrote his first successful song, Arhondissa (‘Classy Lady’), in 1938. During the German occupation of Greece he moved to Thessaloniki where he opened his own bar and continued to write songs, including the most famous of his compositions Synnefiasmeni kiriaki (‘Cloudy Sunday’).
Returning to Athens in 1946, Tsitsanis resumed his recording career. His discovery of the singer sotira Bellou inspired a number of his finest songs. The partnership between them lasted until his death. He also collaborated for many years with the singer Marika Ninou. In the aftermath of World War II and the Greek Civil War, as the rebetika lost their popularity, Tsitsanis began to distance himself from the genre and described himself as a composer of laika (‘popular’) songs. Since there was never any clear distinction between these two genres his claim was no doubt a successful bid for survival as a songwriter. With the revival of rebetika in the 1970s he was hailed as the greatest of the rebetika composers.
For bibliography see Rebetika.
GAIL HOLST-WARHAFT