Kostas Hatzis

Kostas Hatzis (Greek: Κώστας Χατζής) (born August 13, 1936) is a Greek singer-songwriter and musician of Gypsy origin.

Kostas Hatzis Κώστας Χατζής
Background information
Birth name	Kostas Hatzis
Born	(1936-08-13) August 13, 1936 Livadeia, Boeotia, Greece
Genres	Folk, Greek New Wave, Éntekhno
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer, songwriter
Years active	1961–present

Kostas Hatzis was born in Livadeia, a city in central Greece to a Hellenized-Gypsy family. He is considered one of the most significant composers and a pioneer in the Greek social song, popularising the "voice-guitar" style, making ballads with social messages heard.[1]

His grandfather was a great popular clarinetist and dulcimer player. It did not take Kostas Hatzis long to follow in his grandfather's footsteps. When he was sixteen years old, his father took him to weddings and christenings and any other event in which folk music was requested. After a five-year musical tour of the countryside, he moved to Athens in 1957, started recording in 1961, and became popular in the mid-1960s with the Greek New Wave movement in Greek music.[1]

His talent was quickly discovered by the great composers of that time (such as Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hadjidakis, Mimis Plessas, Stavros Xarchakos, Yannis Markopoulos among many others), with whom he has collaborated, performing their songs, adding to them his personal style and particular sensibility.

At the end of that decade, Kostas Hatzis, in one of his tours, visited United States for concerts to the expatriate Greeks. It is worth noting that his fame as a singer for peace had reached the White House when the then US President, Jimmy Carter invited him to meet him and congratulate him. He is one of the only Greek artists who has been invited and congratulated for their morality and their work by a U.S. President.[2]

Kostas Hatzis has sung about love as well as social issues in duets with well-known singers, such as Marinella. Kostas Hatzis married a German woman and together they have a son, Alexandros Hatzis, who is also a singer.[1]