Georgia Grammatikou was born in Melbourne to Greek immigrant parents. She studied law and economics and took voice lessons. She followed various professional paths, was involved in law, music, and theatre and now teaches Introduction to Epistemology and Economics at an IB school in Athens. She has collaborated with great names in the Greek artistic scene, such as Aliki Vougiouklaki, Giorgos Marinos, Eleni Vitali, Yiannis Miliokas and Christos Nikolopoulos. Currently, in her free time, she writes lyrics and plays music, for the performance she is preparing to present in Athens and Melbourne or, as she herself calls them, her two “parents”.
From law to music
Her love for music was natural. She was on an artistic quest that ultimately motivated her to take vocal lessons at the Melba Music School, alongside her studies in Law and Economics.
“I wanted to study music well, meaning I wanted to have a foundation for what I would learn, which is why I went to the conservatory. I did not make a clear distinction between academic, artistic, and professional life. I followed my interest and my love of learning. I loved law, music and theatre.”
However, she did not practice law for long, as she felt that the legal profession in practice did not align with her ambitions and the social contribution she envisioned.
“It was very easy for me to fall into the arms of music, which loves us all, regardless of our social status or our social identity.”
The need for music composition at her roots
In Melbourne, Grammatikou connected with the Greek language through the music she played at artistic events of the Greek community.
“We sang and played the music we loved in Melbourne, but this was done more out of a need to connect with the Greek language and homeland, rather than out of our need to relate to this particular music”.
She decided to move to Greece to get closer to Greek education and Greek art.
“So, I came here to “communicate” with Greek composers more closely and deeply and not from this distance.”
In Greece, she felt the need to engage professionally in music and deepen her musical studies.
“In Greece my desire to get closer to music as a musician was born. It led to a composition where my ideas were transformed into lyrics. The knowledge of music I had acquired was transformed into compositions. Ultimately, my experience through singing folk music, rebetiko and the works of great composers I sang, while I was still in Australia, allowed me to express my feelings”.
Exploring her musical identity
She collaborated with great names of the Greek artistic scene, each of whom brought her closer to her own tastes and preferences.
“Every artistic collaboration has its value, because you have the opportunity to get to know yourself better. Some collaborations helped me get to know myself better, due to the fact they were not a good fit, musically or lyrically. Every acquaintance, every relationship can also become a relationship of self-awareness.”
The above experiences motivated her to start writing her own lyrics to express her art in her own personal way.
“Writing lyrics was probably my need to become a follower of poetry. Because the musician, whether we are talking about a singer, a pianist, or a composer, is a poet.”
Grammatikou wanted to be social and convey messages through her music. For this reason, she loved folk songs, as they allowed her to communicate fundamental messages due to the importance of their social role.
“Folk poetry is so powerful that as oral literature continues to be sung for centuries in this place. Even if we all know what this song is, it is not the song we know, it is the story behind this song.”
Her two solo albums
In 1998, she released her first album “The Black Sheep”, featuring her own lyrics and music, in which, among many artists, musician Eleni Vitali participated in the duet “Our Songs”.
“In an environment that was inhospitable to female songwriters at the time, I envisioned making a complete work, with music and lyrics that I had created. I needed to communicate some things that I couldn’t say any other way.”
However, she realized that she did not want to be exclusively a professional songwriter, as she felt that she would have to follow a standardized music production process that would copy the pattern of her first album. For this reason, she chose to take a break. Eight years later, in 2006, she released her second album, “Lalistati”, consisting of 6 songs, in collaboration with Achilleas Persidis, who was responsible for the arrangements. For her, it was a source of great artistic satisfaction, as she was given the freedom to express herself in her own way.
“Lalistati, the second CD, is truly a work of art. The orchestration and the whole atmosphere of the recording made it feel more like a performance than just a few scattered songs on a playlist. I dreamed of being able to do complete work freely and that happened.”
“Rock” is not the electric guitar
In 1997, she represented Greece at the European Rock Song Contest in Germany and took second place with the song “Loving you was lonely”. The song was in the lead with only one country left to vote, Greece. However, because it was Easter Sunday and there was no one with her in the studio apart from an ERT journalist, the points that the Greek committee had decided two months earlier were automatically sent. Greece gave the three decisive points to Portugal, awarding it the first place.
“In football, you know what it’s called? Scoring your own goal. So, what is the feeling there for a person? For a musician? Does the idea that some people were moved by what you created fulfil you? Or that your homeland is not there to support you, and you live in a state that simply doesn’t care? The first feeling is what always wins me over.”
For this reason, “rock” for Grammatikou is a revolutionary attitude towards life and its difficulties. It is related neither to the way someone chooses to dress, nor to the music they listen to.
“You can listen to music that talks about revolutions and go home and be a tyrant to your family. It’s not about the electric guitar. It’s not the instrument that makes you revolutionary; it’s about being pushed down by life, hardship or bitterness, the cycles of bitterness, being knocked down and getting back up. That’s being a revolutionary. Not taking a sledgehammer and smashing shop windows.”
The course of her professional journey
In addition to her involvement with music, Grammatikou now works at an IB school, where she teaches Introduction to Epistemology and Economics and in the past, she had also been involved in theater.
“I believe that if you let yourself go and start a journey without calculating the destination, as in Cavafy’s poem, the journey gives you another dimension of yourself. I truly believe that all of us could live this way, if there was no career stress and everything that limits us from discovering what we truly could be.”
Her feelings about Greece and Australia and her next artistic steps
Greece and Australia are her two “parents”. Speaking about the two countries, she expressed that they are parts of herself that coexist in her artistic identity, without knowing exactly how these stimuli have affected her musical choices.
“I am the kind of person who will listen to AC/DC in the car and after a while, Tsitsanis.”
Currently, in her free time, she is writing lyrics for the performance, she is preparing to present in Athens and Melbourne with folk songs from all over Greece.
“During the hours I don’t work, I write lyrics, play music at home and always prepare a complete performance. The performance will feature folk songs from all the regions of Greece, songs that we all know and will be able to sing together in a large hall, because I truly believe in the therapeutic effect of singing next to someone else”.
