♪♪ [ Man singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Woman singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ It gets more power, more deep 'cause it's repeating all the time.

Yeah.

Like a cycle.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Here is the street where my video was shot.

Like, the other way in the street is here.

Fantastic.

I love it.

[ Conversations in foreign language ] You're the one?

He's the guy.

Yo!

That's so cool.

[ Laughs ] Greece, in general, you know, it's a... [Speaks Greek] we say.

A crossroad, you know?

Right, right.

The music is, you know, very different depending on where you go, so if you go to Crete, it sounds different.

If you go to Northern Greece, it sounds like the music from the Balkan, you know?

If you go to the islands on the other side, it shares more common elements with the Middle East and with Turkey.

Something that my teacher...said it's really to say about some tunes where they actually come from because this whole region, this whole area was like an empire...

Right.

...for many centuries and for many years, so the borders of the countries the way we know them now, like Greece and, I don't know, Serbia or Albania, all these borders are newer than the actual tradition, you know?

♪♪ ♪♪ How do you feel about this oriental, Byzantinic heritage, especially in the Greek music?

My father's from Sudan and my mother's from Greece.

I grew up listening to Arabic tunes or Greek tunes but not that I was like in love with this music as a young kid, you know?

I was afraid to be different.

I was hiding a little bit, this information of the Sudan heri-- Sudanese heritage.

Mm.

You know, when you're young, you're afraid, you want to fit in and you want to maybe like look like the kids around you.

But then at some point I went to the States and I studied music and then, you know, when I got to this multicultural environment, everybody was like, "Where are you from?

How does the music from your country sound?"

I was like, "Okay."

So that's when I started listening more the Greek music, the Arabic music, the Balkan music, the polyphonic singing, and I discovered that although I hadn't studied it from a young age, I -- it was inside of me in a way.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ My issue always in life was to discover my identity, to see how all these different elements are blending, you know?

Like, my father from Sudan, like a Muslim country, my mom is from Greece.

Like, my father during the '80s and actually '90s that he got to Greece, he was one of the first black people, colored people who came to Greece.

My grandmother in Crete had never seen a black person in her life live ever before than my father, you know?

We used to go to church when I was in Greece, but when we went to Sudan, like everybody around me was praying, you know?

And I was like, "Who am I?

How does all this stuff make sense?"

♪♪ ♪♪ I feel that, you know, each project has a very specific like core that it talks about, you know?

Right.

So like, the concept of what you're presenting, you know?

So for me, it's my story.

It's like the multicultural influences and not so much multicultural but the old and the new.

Like the traditional and the urban at the same time.

I understand why people are trying to protect this tradition, you know?

I understand that they want to have it travel into time as it is, and there are many people who do it that way.

♪♪ ♪♪ I like to take risks and I like to walk into paths that I don't know where they're going to take me.

I think it's interesting to try to discover new "recipes," new fusion, new ingredients.

I mean, I don't know if the ingredients can be new but the recipe can be new, you know?

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheering ] ♪♪ [ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Those Greeks who came from the territory of the Ottoman Empire, were they accepted in the Greek society?

[ Speaking native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Speaking native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I see you with the lute, a very special and remarkable instrument, which is so popular in the Middle East and in Arab countries.

Can you tell me a little bit about this mysteria with this instrument?

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ How does it feel if, nowadays, you are showing to your audience songs and stories, old stories from the past?

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ We listened to the song that you were playing for us, and you were using Greek lyrics, but also you said... [ Speaking foreign language ] "Yavrum" is Turkish.

"Yavrum" is like "my love."

This music is a very emotional music, mostly sad but also uplifting, but it attracts the emotion.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Laughs ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Have you ever climbed up?

Yeah, but, uh, I was a little bit soft as a kid, so this -- this high.

[ Singing in native language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Music used to play a very important role back then.

It served a very important -- it had this function, this social function, you know?

I think that today we kind of consume music in a more individual way, in a more lonely way, you know, but I think back at the time, it was a community thing, you know?

It had a different energy to it.

It's a lot different when many people have, you know, a common experience.

Every summer, we have this festival, you know, three days in a row, every night.

In the square of the village, there's this festival where everybody dances and eats and they play the clarinet and all the traditionals.

It's very strange because I used to hate this music, the traditional mountain music with the clarinet.

I think -- I used to think it's a very annoying instrument.

And when I left for my studies in London, it was the first time that I actually listened to traditional Greek music without all the filters that I had built around it.

I just listened to some music, and I allowed that music to, you know, create some chemical reactions inside me, and I was like, "Whoa!

That has soul in it."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Rooster crows ] The diaspora put you back to the motherland.

Yeah, yeah, it's very funny.

I think that distance helped a lot, right?

Because it's traditional.

You know, it comes from the stories of people, of communities also.

So it's not just the journey of one person.

There were a lot of people that contributed to the creation of that music, and I think that energy is in the core of that.

You know, it's a reflection of the experience of the people.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I had some people under my videos on YouTube and they were like, "Shame on you!"

and "You're disrespecting tradition," and I was like, "Honey, you are disrespecting tradition.

You're not embracing it to make it yours, to add a little bit of you in the tradition."

And this is why I have the debate with those people claiming that we should not touch traditional music...

Right.

...because this would be, you know, identity, guarded identity.

Why won't you let me, you know, maybe corrupt it a little bit?

[ Laughs ] What's the worst thing that can happen?

♪♪ So can we just stop this circle of judgment and just, you know, live and let live, you know?

Is it so hard?

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ What impressed me a lot is the fact that your students are very young.

You created a sort of formula to even bring a young and new generation closer to this tradition.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪