Henry Denander for Stelios Kazantzidis

Henry Denander, who was born in Sweden in 1952, works in the music business, on the administrative side. Simultaneously, he is a poet and also a painter. In his collection “Weeks like this”, Henry Denander dedicated a poem to the famous Greek singer Stelios Kazantzidis. The Swedish artist answered to our message and explained us the reason why he wrote for Stelios…

Here you can see Henry Denander 's website

Hi!

Thanks for your email.

I have been a fan of Stelios Kazantzidis for many years.
I started to travel to Greece in 1985 and have been to Hydra almost
every year since then, 12 years ago we bought a small summer house there.

I have always been interested in music and for the last 25 years I have
been working in the music business, on the administrative side.

Early I became interested in Kazantzidis because his characteristic and very
personal voice, also because the songs he performed. Unfortunately I do not
know much Greek but I picked up a lot of traditional words from his songs and
understood that he was often singing about love, retsina, beer, fish, bread, etc etc.

I have during the years bought many of his CDs.
Later I realized how big a star he was in Greece and how much people loved him,
I read about his death in a newspaper and was sad, and I read about the mourning
among his fans.

I am a poet and artist and have been published in the USA mainly,
in my own books and in magazines and on the web. I have been writing
narrative poetry and picked up things from my daily life so when my
friend commented on Kazantzidis the way she did, I was upset. Of course,
for me, his characteristic voice was his instrument.

I am happy that you found this on the internet and I wish I could follow your blog.

Best wishes

---Henry Denander