International Greek Singer Yiannis Kotsiras turns 48

CAIRO – 5 October 2017: Thursday marks the birthday of the international Greek singer Yiannis Kotsiras. To celebrate the legendary musician, Egypt Today prepared a profile on him.

Yiannis Kotsiras is one of the most popular and successful Greek singers, who managed to enhance his international fame by performing all over the world.

Kotsiras sang for peace in the Olympic Games in Athens 2004.

He was born in Athens, Greece in 1969. He started his music career in 1990 by singing traditional folk Greek music such as rebetika and laika.

In 1996, he started to release his personal albums, starting with "Athoos Enochos” [Innocent Guilt]; followed by two of his most favored and successful albums, “Mono Enafili” [Just a kiss] in 1997, and “Filakas Aggelos” (Guardian Angel) in 1999.


Yiannis Kotsiras official Facebook page

He released his first live album in two CDs in 2002.

He was awarded Best Selling Greek Artist within the framework of the World Music Awards held every year in Monaco.

Celebrating the hosting of the Olympic games in 2004 in his homeland, Kotsiras released “Pass the Flame” CD after the ceremony of lighting the flame. The CD carried three versions of “Pass the Flame:” one in English, Greek and an instrumental one.

“Pass the Flame” was written by Trevor Horn, a Grammy-awarded composer and producer who has connected his name with great artists internationally, and in collaboration with LolCreme.



In 2007, Kotsiras celebrated his tenth time of performing live with a number of popular artists. The concert gained huge success and was sold out.

He started cooperating with the worldwide artist Yasmin Levi in 2010.

The music of “Penelope Delta,” which took place in the period of 2014-2015 at the “Daily Theater” was written by Kotsiras in 2015.
Kotsiras released his latest album “Pseftis Keros” [Lying Weather] in 2016, and finally in 2017, he released two singles that were collaborations.

Releasing more than 14 personal albums, he cooperated with many popular and international singers, such as Haris Alexiou, Dimitris Mitropanos, Giorgos Dalaras, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Vasilis Papakonstantinou, and Lavrentis Machairitsas.

More than one million copies of his albums have sold internationally.

Kotsiras performed more than 1,000 concerts all over the world and in Greece.

He filmed a good number of music videos for his most popular songs such as "Efta Potiria"[Seven Glasses], "Kathe Fora"[Every Time], "To Tsigaro"[The Cigarette], "Se Erotevome"[I Am Falling in Love with You], and "Se Thimame"[I Remember You].

"Filakas Aggelos"[Guardian Angel] and "Anathema Se"[Curse You] are considered two of his most popular songs.


Yiannis Kotsiras MAIN

Expressing his love to Egypt and Alexandria, Kotsiras filmed one of his music videos “Kapou Tha Vrethoume” [We Will Meet Each Other Somewhere] in Alexandria; where he captured many parts of the video himself.



Singing to Alexandria, Kotsiras released a song entitled “Alexandria” where he repeated the Arabic word “Ya Salam” in the song.



The unique combination in Kotsiras' music makes him one of the most loved Greek artists internationally and nationally.

He has a huge fanbase in the Middle East, especially after showing sympathy with the Syrian refugees in Greece, while meeting some of them in one of his concerts.

Love, purity, childhood, and peace are the main themes of Kotsiras' songs.

Mixing classic symphonic tunes, with prominent unique Mediterranean Greek sounds enriches his music. He also manages to combine rock/jazz rhythms with remarkable oriental melodies.