The Most Famous

MUSICIANS from Greece

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This page contains a list of the greatest Greek Musicians. The pantheon dataset contains 3,175 Musicians, 9 of which were born in Greece. This makes Greece the birth place of the 32nd most number of Musicians behind Switzerland, and Israel.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Greek Musicians of all time. This list of famous Greek Musicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Greek Musicians.

Photo of Yanni

1. Yanni (b. 1954)

With an HPI of 59.44, Yanni is the most famous Greek Musician.  His biography has been translated into 44 different languages on wikipedia.

Yiannis Chryssomallis (Greek: Γιάννης Χρυσομάλλης; born November 14, 1954), known professionally as Yanni ( YAH-nee), is a Greek composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer. Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand that he developed as a child, blending jazz, classical, soft rock, and world music to create predominantly instrumental works. Although this genre of music was not well suited for commercial pop radio and music television, Yanni received international recognition by producing concerts at historic monuments and by producing videos that were broadcast on public television. His breakthrough concert, Live at the Acropolis, yielded the second best-selling music concert video of all time. Additional historic sites for Yanni's concerts have included India's Taj Mahal, China's Forbidden City, the United Arab Emirates' Burj Khalifa, Russia's Kremlin, Puerto Rico's El Morro castle, Lebanon's ancient city of Byblos, Tunisia's Roman Theatre of Carthage, India's Laxmi Vilas Palace, the Egyptian pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza, and the Amman Citadel. At least sixteen of Yanni's albums have peaked at No. 1 in Billboard's "Top New Age Album" category, and two albums (Dare to Dream and In My Time) received Grammy Award nominations. Yanni has performed in more than 30 countries on five continents, and through late 2015 had performed live in concert before more than 5 million people and had accumulated more than 40 platinum and gold albums globally, with sales totaling over 25 million copies. A longtime fundraiser for public television, Yanni's compositions have been used on commercial television programs, especially for sporting events. He has written film scores and the music for an award-winning British Airways television commercial. Yanni popularized the combination of electronic music synthesizers with a full symphony orchestra. He has employed musicians of various nationalities and has incorporated a variety of exotic instruments to create music that has been called an eclectic fusion of ethnic sounds. Influenced by his encounters with cultures around the world, Yanni has been called a "true global artist" and his music is said to reflect his "one world, one people" philosophy.

Photo of Terpander

2. Terpander (-712 - -645)

With an HPI of 59.33, Terpander is the 2nd most famous Greek Musician.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Terpander (‹See Tfd›Greek: Τέρπανδρος Terpandros), of Antissa in Lesbos, was a Greek poet and citharede who lived about the first half of the 7th century BC. He was the father of Greek music and through it, of lyric poetry, although his own poetical compositions were few and in extremely simple rhythms. He simplified rules of the modes of singing of other neighboring countries and islands and formed, out of these syncopated variants, a conceptual system. Though endowed with an inventive mind, and the commencer of a new era of music, he attempted no more than to systematize the musical styles that existed in the music of Greece and Anatolia. Terpander is perhaps the earliest historically certain figure in the music of Ancient Greece.

Photo of Tommy Lee

3. Tommy Lee (b. 1962)

With an HPI of 54.96, Tommy Lee is the 3rd most famous Greek Musician.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Thomas Lee (born Thomas Lee Bass; October 3, 1962) is an American musician who co-founded and plays drums for the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. He also founded rap metal band Methods of Mayhem and has pursued solo musical projects.

Photo of Gina Bachauer

4. Gina Bachauer (1913 - 1976)

With an HPI of 50.72, Gina Bachauer is the 4th most famous Greek Musician.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Gina Bachauer (Greek: Τζίνα Μπαχάουερ; May 21, 1913, Athens – August 22, 1976, Athens) was a Greek classical pianist who toured extensively in the United States and Europe. Interested in piano at a young age, Bachauer graduated from the Athens Conservatory and studied under Alfred Cortot and Sergei Rachmaninoff. She is best known for playing Romantic piano concertos. She played hundreds of concerts for the Allied troops in the Middle East during World War II while she lived in Egypt. She spent a lot of time touring the United States and Europe, giving over 100 concerts each year. Bachauer also recorded extensively, both as a soloist and with orchestras. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Utah. During her career she was called the "queen of pianists". The Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation was named in honor of her contributions to the musical world. In her personal life, Bachauer married music conductor Alec Sherman, who became her manager. She died at the age of 63 at the Athens Festival.

Photo of Markos Vamvakaris

5. Markos Vamvakaris (1905 - 1972)

With an HPI of 49.98, Markos Vamvakaris is the 5th most famous Greek Musician.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Markos Vamvakaris (Greek: Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης; 10 May 1905 – 8 February 1972), was a Greek Catholic musician of rebetiko, universally referred to by rebetiko writers and fans simply by his first name, Markos. The great significance of Vamvakaris for the rebetiko is also reflected by his nickname: the "patriarch of the rebetiko".

Photo of Nikos Xilouris

6. Nikos Xilouris (1936 - 1980)

With an HPI of 47.92, Nikos Xilouris is the 6th most famous Greek Musician.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Nikos Xylouris (Greek: Νίκος Ξυλούρης, 7 July 1936 – 8 February 1980), Cretan nickname: Psaronikos (Ψαρονίκος), was a Greek singer, Cretan Lyra player and composer. Xylouris' music encompassed both rural traditional and urban orchestral music, and he has been referred to by the honorific moniker Archangel of Crete.

Photo of Leonidas Kavakos

7. Leonidas Kavakos (b. 1967)

With an HPI of 45.05, Leonidas Kavakos is the 7th most famous Greek Musician.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Leonidas Kavakos (Greek: Λεωνίδας Καβάκος; born 30 October 1967) is a Greek violinist and conductor. He has won several international violin competition prizes, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and Indianapolis competitions. He is an Onassis Foundation scholar. He has also recorded for record labels such as Sony/BMG and BIS. As a conductor, he was an artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg and has been a guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Photo of Steve Angello

8. Steve Angello (b. 1982)

With an HPI of 41.21, Steve Angello is the 8th most famous Greek Musician.  His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Steven Patrik Josefsson Fragogiannis (Greek: Στέφεν Πάτρικ Γιόζεφσον Φραγκόγιαννης; born 22 November 1982), better known by his stage name Steve Angello, is a Greek–Swedish DJ, record producer, remixer and record label owner. He is a member of Swedish House Mafia, together with Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso.

Photo of Savina Yannatou

9. Savina Yannatou (b. 1959)

With an HPI of 39.48, Savina Yannatou is the 9th most famous Greek Musician.  Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Savina Yannatou (Greek: Σαβίνα Γιαννάτου, Savína Yannátou; born 16 March 1959) is a Greek singer.

Photo of Creed Taylor

10. Creed Taylor (1929 - 2022)

With an HPI of 39.36, Creed Taylor is the 10th most famous Greek Musician.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Creed Bane Taylor V (May 13, 1929 – August 22, 2022) was an American record producer, best known for his work with CTI Records, which he founded in 1967. His career also included periods at Bethlehem Records, ABC-Paramount Records (including its jazz label, Impulse!), Verve, and A&M Records. In the 1960s, he signed bossa nova artists from Brazil to record in the US including Antonio Carlos Jobim, Eumir Deodato, João Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, and Airto Moreira.

People

Pantheon has 12 people classified as Greek musicians born between 712 BC and 1982. Of these 12, 6 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Greek musicians include Yanni, Tommy Lee, and Leonidas Kavakos. The most famous deceased Greek musicians include Terpander, Gina Bachauer, and Markos Vamvakaris. As of April 2024, 3 new Greek musicians have been added to Pantheon including Savina Yannatou, Creed Taylor, and Pavlos Fyssas.

Living Greek Musicians

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Deceased Greek Musicians

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Newly Added Greek Musicians (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Musicians were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Musicians since 1700.