Search - Mihalis Hatzigiannis :: Filoi Kai Ehthroi

Greece's brightest pop star in search of the big bucks

giovanni | Greece | 08/27/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Mihalis Hatzigiannis caused quitte a sensation when he first appeared back in 1998 into the music scene with the discreet , enigmatic "Paraxeni Giorti " . Here was a young , handsome singer with a melodic voice who penned his own material and was gutsy enough to grab a guitar and perfom his songs live on the various tv shows he was asked to participate.



A lot has changed since then and today Hatzigiannis is by far the most popular popstar in Greece .The radio is playing big chunks of his new album 24/7 , his sold-out concerts take place in huge stadiums and big names like Dallaras are asking him to write them songs for their comeback LPs . Yet what was once fresh and promising is now tirering and formulaic .



New album " Filoi Ke Ehtroi " contains a series of simple , uplifting pop songs played with the same 2 or 3 chords and lyrics about how , when you have the girl you love on your side, you can reach the sky , do anything you want , climb that mountain . Although there's nothing wrong with that , the problem is that it doesn't ring true . There's a feeling that Hatzigiannis sat and wrote the next semester's top hit singles and not songs to express him being in love ( or heartbroken on a few occasions) .



The pop tracks work a little better than the suprisingly weak ballads ( " Esy " , " Epetios " ) although you can guess the refrains of " Omorfi Mera ", " Heria Psila " and " Ola I Tipota " before actually hearing them for the first time . The album will appeal to teens and people who buy a couple of cds every year to listen as they ride their car but will leave cold anybody searching for an artist to connect to .



Overall , Hatzigiannis is gifted with talent but lately seems rather bored to use it and challenge himself and his fanbase in anyway . If there's a foreign equivalent of him in the pop world that must be Eros Ramazzotti . You would never call a Ramazzotti song anything but nice but you know you have heard the same song a million times before from other artists and from the particular one as well.



Who would have guessed that so soon in his career , a Hatzigiannis record would sell so much and mean absolutely nothing ...."