In less than a month, Alkistis Protopsalti will be performing in Australia’s two biggest cities Sydney and Melbourne.
Audiences will have the opportunity to see her as the headlining act at the Greek Festival of Sydney and Melbourne’s Antipodes Festival.
One of Greece’s most significant contemporary vocalists, Protopsalti attracts big crowds wherever she performs in Greece and abroad. Ahead of her upcoming Australian concerts, Neos Kosmos reached out to the artist for an interview.
At the end of your last interview with Neos Kosmos, you had made a point about not letting ourselves get overwhelmed with the pandemic situation, and expressed the hope we would eventually once again pick up ‘the thread of life’ from where we left off. Now, we are soon to be given the opportunity to see you performing at the Sydney Greek Festival and the Antipodes Festival. Tell us what this means to you.
Life! What a wonderful word. Amazing things happened this past summer, we experienced magical moments through many concerts and special projects (all the things that didn’t happen during the coronavirus period happened during summer and continue on…). We felt spiritual upliftment, we made trips, met new people, were able to communicate with audiences… I was thinking that I live a concentrated life that I diluted with strong ingredients – music and contact with the public. I am very happy to be back in Australia and will be participating in the two festivals in Sydney and Melbourne. We are all looking forward to it; the musicians, the technicians, the production team! All together we will join our voices and especially our feelings… with songs that have created memories.
Do you think that such festivals contribute to the promotion and preservation of Greek culture abroad?
I believe in festivals because they promote and preserve Greek culture in every country. The organising of a large-scale festival promotes the strength of Greeks abroad, it is an amazing creative moment for modern culture and the image of the country. I believe that similar events should be held throughout the year and in addition to music, things like visual arts, fashion and literature should also be included. Festivals are a way of peaceful “diplomacy” for communication with enormous resonance and power.
What do you remember most about your last visit to Australia?
It was a Greek welcoming all the way. What a wonderful spirit of hospitality! What an audience, what an immense love. I can state with great confidence that here in Australia, wherever I’ve been, I feel the heart of Greece beating strong, with passion. I visited Sydney in 2017 for an event organised by the ‘Hellenic Initiative’. They are doing some amazing work.
What are your expectations and wishes for the new year?
I wish for peace, health, prosperity for the new year and for our hearts to be filled with optimism and dreams. I wish for society to be flooded with joy and kindness, that we make bigger dreams and increase our prospects for a better present and future. I wish that feelings of melancholy and fatigue both physical and mental go away so that we all find our sense of balance and get back on track.
What is your message for everyone who will be seeing you on stage at the two festivals?
Music offers the best ‘antibodies’ to the soul. Come along and let’s all become ‘one’ through songs, travel to Greece with our minds and fill our hearts and souls with strong emotions.