Do you feel favored by luck?
What I know about me is that I have been working very hard and still do. Do you know how many hours of sleep I get every day? Four hours.

 

Do you feel that you have many experiences?
I am still young but I have been through many different phases.

 

Have you travelled a lot?
Yes I have travelled a lot all over Europe.

 

Have you ever done something radical?
I would say no. It is just that, since I was a child, I used to say that I wanted to leave. Since I was 6-7 years old, I knew it, there was no way I would stay and live in the village. I also knew the job I would do!...

 

How did you decide to become a hairdresser?
Well I needed the money. I’ve been working since I was a child and I had always had my own money, I did not expect anything from anyone.

 

What is the meaning of money in your life?
I had never had too much money… people say I have 52 cars and 32 homes… well nothing is true!

 

How do you live now, where do you stay?
I rent a house in Glyfada. I am planning to buy one these days. I don’t know where yet.

 

Do you like fast cars?
I am crazy about them. I have three: a Mercedes jeep, a convertible Audi and an A class.

 

Do you have a motorcycle too?
Not any more!

 

Your kids forbid that?
No I don’t want too. There is no such word as “forbid” in our family, if you knew me better you would not say that! If I do not allow myself something there is no

way I would do it. If I don’t want something this will never happen.

 

When you finish your job each night which is the first thing that gets into your mind? And do not tell me it’s the family!
Well it’s OK. It’s not exactly like that. I go back to my dressing room and I want to have some peace of mind. I like talking with the guys who work for the club, this might take me one-one and a half hour to “pull me out” of stage. Then I go home, have a shower and go to sleep.

 

If you ever stopped singing, what would you do?
The truth is a have not thought about it a lot… Probably I would paint (he shows me a big painting hanging up in his dressing room). The theme is a bird in brown shades. “Do you like it?” he cannot stand not asking me. “I made it”, he says to me, as if I would not believe him. On the left side I notice his signature under the name Kakosaios, his real last name). I feel very relaxed when drawing. And I would say that I am a winter type of man… I would be fond of a wooden house up on the mountains.

 

Do you love life in the village, as since you were a boy, or eventually you became fond of the city?
I have grown up feeling the earth under my bare feet. How could I ever be very fond of the city?

 

You might have not wanted to see that in your life again!
No way, how could this happen? I have been leaving for many years walking with bare feet!

 

Name me one of your flaws…
Usually I am not a good listener and this is something that irritates others. I have my own world in my mind and I live in it…

 

And what do you think when you are in there?
Oh a lot of things. From what I ate last night, up to what is going on in Yugoslavia.

 

What soccer team, are you fan of?
Mmmm, I have to be diplomatic on that… Well I am fan of the National Greek Team!

 

OK I will rephrase… If you were a soccer player, who would you be?
Well I really know nothing about the issue. I have to admit that!

 

Why do you always wear a white suit on stage? Is this a fetish?
I’ve been told I look good with that. (He laughs, then becomes serious and thinks for a moment). Well I am an ordinary guy, a kid who used to sing since I was a child. I fought for this because I loved what I did, and I reached the point that I am today after a long struggle. I could probably not have reached that level, because others fight and struggle and get nowhere. I have never in my life been in PR for myself, and I am straight forward to that. I have been working very hard for everything. In the beginning for the everyday amount of money, then for a better life, for a better position as for the singing, then trying for a hit, and after the first hit just trying to make it a “bit bigger”… And you know what? This success you are talking about I am the only one who does not understands that.

 

This can’t be the case… Of course you understand the success.
I mean you see it in others eyes. I am trying to tell you something else, that I am not making any abuse of that thing… I mean fame. I experience all that as if it means nothing to me. I am honest about that.

 

How do your parents and friends are with you, same as before?
Of course, how else could it be?

 

When you look yourself in the mirror what do you think?
I wish to continue being as I am, down to earth. This is crucial, because I see things in a whole lot of different things beyond this entire celebrity thing. I feel like being a pioneer as for the improvement of Greek singing. I feel like making a whole new path right through this mess that has been “in” for a long time, at least with regard to the lyrics. I would really love popular song to have its own value again. When simple people talked with no more than 5 words and miraculously said everything.

 

Do you believe that what you do is art?
I believe it is honesty…

 

It was 1 o’clock, he has to cross his fingers and get on stage. The door of his dressing room is slightly pushed and two police officers come in to say hi to him. I see respect in their eyes; they sit right at the edge of the couch! I feel an inner smile, yes Yiannis has gotten somewhere. My ears hear the crowd’s voice seeking desperately for their star to come on stage. I can see the smoke effect and the headlights of the stage, the night is still young and I wish to be on the party out there: “Thank you for not asking me all the stuff all others ask me”, he says to me as a bye bye closure sentence.

 

The interview was taken by Aggeliki Birbili