In a confessional mood, he talks about his childhood and the difficulties, about the people who "gave him everything", about today's Greece, today's song, his current dreams.

There are artists who belong to the stage and others who belong to history. Giorgos Dalaras possesses both of these dimensions. More than half a century after his first steps in singing, he remains one of the most dedicated and restless performers, having charted a course that sealed the public sentiment with his interpretations, continuing to search for the essence in song. In his hands he holds a new album titled Kati Ellades , with music by Nikos Mertzanos and lyrics by Nikos Moraitis. Every Thursday and Friday, he sweeps the Vox stage, accompanied by Vasilis Papakonstantinou and Odysseas Ioannou, through songs that reflect the heavy heritage of Greek song, the formation of which he was an eyewitness. At the same time, he is preparing to present a tribute to Stavros Kougioumtzis at the Christmas Theater together with Yannis Kotsiras, as well as a retrospective of the gems of rebetiko at the Athens Concert Hall.

His voice, unchanging. His passion, unchanging. George Dalaras is unmoved. I meet him in the studio, ready for action. His energy, serene and thoughtful. As if he has touched that moment where time, with its power, grants awareness and distancing from the turmoil of the past.

Seeing you at Vox this year, I noticed something different from the previous times I've seen you on stage. An unpretentious liveliness, an almost childlike freedom in your performance. Was it a conscious expression or just a moment of spontaneity that carried you away?

You're not wrong. Deep down I'm a silly kid. Are you saying it's my grandchildren's fault? I spend a lot of time with them. We laugh, we play, we talk nonsense. I don't have any strictness anymore. I'm, perhaps, a little more spontaneous than I used to be. Now, at 75, I feel a little more like a child, I'm regaining my childhood, because at 20, let's say, I already felt "old."

I grew up with many difficulties. From a young age I had to do a lot of jobs to survive. My brother was sent to a school abroad, in Pestalozzi in Switzerland, for needy and orphaned children, and I was left behind with my mother. My father, a folk singer, was always absent. This is a trauma that still accompanies me. I took on many responsibilities at a very young age. As if I had to grow up suddenly. At the same time, starting singing at a young age, I had to endure the bad atmosphere of work, the bad bosses, the traps of the night. So, indeed, maybe now I am becoming that little dreamy boy again, somewhere in Exarchia, ready to create problems for himself again. Do you know how I feel now?

"My father, a folk singer, was always absent. This is a trauma that still accompanies me. I took on a lot of responsibilities at a very young age. As if I had to grow up suddenly."

I feel like I always get a little monotonous in interviews, in the sense that I repeat the same things over and over again. But I do it for a specific reason. Because I haven't forgotten.

Where did I start? It is important that a person never forgets their starting point. Isn't it absurd for a five-year-old child to know thousands of songs by heart? Music enchanted me. I surrendered to it. The radio was my solace in the difficulties and darkness of my childhood. A song is a very strange thing. It has incredible power. It tells the most lies and the most truths at the same time. Through this contradiction, an art form is created that can protect man. Music protected me.

From that little George who found protection in music, how did we get to Dalaras, the great capital of Greek music?

Let me tell you what I truly feel? A deep gratitude or rather a deep obligation towards the world that loved me. Every time I go on stage or release a new album, my only thought is to honor the world that made Giorgos the Dalaras he is today. The world gave me everything. It paved the way for a man who started from nothing. It gave me the opportunity to have a house, to have hot water, a place to sleep safely. Let it not sound corny, but every time I go on stage, these things come to my mind.

What you say is very nice, it has a meaning. Dalaras was based on Giorgos. Giorgos created Dalaras. To the extent that many times he can say: "Come on, boy, with this Dalaras anymore!" Dalaras is a very well-known artist. He is not a great intellect or someone who could become an intellectual. There was no such infrastructure. Giorgos, on the other hand, was a persistent child, who, when he felt that he could create a singer who would leave something important behind him, did it. Giorgos did not sing like Dalaras at first. He was not that good. But he was regular. A sponge for knowledge. Others do not sing well, and yet have great careers. Giorgos never wanted Dalaras to dabble in trivial things, in things that were short-lived. I may have been conservative, which is considered an insult today. Or rather, I was not conservative. I was probably deeply subversive. I don't know how to answer. Certainly, George didn't follow fashions, and so did Dalaras. He sought out the great composers, the great lyricists. And he learned a lot from them. I always mention the five who shaped me. Manos Loizos, Lefteris Papadopoulos, Apostolos Kaldaras, Manos Eleftheriou and of course Stavros Kougioumtzis, my dear friend. And of course, always Mikis Theodorakis. Dalaras, at George's behest, once said: "If you want to be timeless, you must seek out good songs."