NIKOS XILOYRIS
Anogia is an isolated mountain village with very strong traditions and a strong culture. Part of that tradition is signing and dancing. The best singers and dancers come from this area. Xilouris is one of the best known of the local singers, partly because he was "discovered" by Markopoulos and became a big star in the rest of Greece. For Anogians he was god. He was an ambassador for the village, which flourished with tourism. What made Xilouris a huge name and a hero to all Greeks was something that happened in 1973. At that time Greece was under a dictatorship led by Papadopoulos. Greek University students were protesting at the polytechnic university. The tanks were ordered in and there was a stand off. Xilouris put himself in much danger when one evening during the stand-off he climbed to the top of the wall surrounding the polytechnic played his lyra and sang "pote tha kani xasteria" (when will we have a starlit sky) a traditional Cretan revolutionary song. The next day or so the tanks rolled through the gates and killed a number of students. This was the beginning of the end of the Hounta. He was a loving man and obviously had incredible talent. He was a self-taught entertainer with more charisma then you could ever dream of. His music still goes on as if he was still alive. He was born and raised in Anogia, a beautiful little village on the foothills of the mountains, with more heroes than any other place on the Island of Crete. He was a hero in so many ways. His love for his Country came before his personal safety. He was a man that never forgot his roots, and fame never got to his head. He was as common in the peak of his career as he was when he was on Crete, singing and playing at local weddings and baptisms. His voice was music and it always felt as if angels came from the sky to guide his orchestra His wife, Mrs Ourania, owns and operates a music store in Athens and his music is still as popular many years after his death as when he was alive. f you ever have the opportunity to visit Anogia, you will find that every home nearly has a picture of him on their wall. He was everyone�s friend, everyone�s loving and proud son. They just don't make them like Niko anymore. No one will ever replace his loving smile, his loving heart and those memories that will live for His legacy will live forever and God took him away from us way too soon. But it was His will and we shall honour it, no matter how painful it still is. His legacy will live forever. When illness came up on him somewhat suddenly, it hit Greece and Crete as if he was the son of the Country. He made great contributions to Cretan and to Greek music. He got cancer in his mid forties and died in the States receiving treatment, on the 6th of April 1980.
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