In 2020 Giannis Poulopoulos and Kostas Voutsas died. In 2021 Mikis Theodorakis and Tolis Voskopoulos. In 2022 Vangelis Papathanasiou, Stamatis Kokotas, Irene Papas, Kostas Kazakos. In 2023 Giannis Markopoulos, Vassilis Karas, Mary Chronopoulou, Nikos Xanthopoulos. In 2024 Mimis Plessas and the Municipality of Moutsis, in 2025 Manolis Lidakis and Kate Grey, in 2026 Marinella, George Marinos, Mary Linda, Maro Kontou, Angelos Antonopoulos. It's a rough list.
Compare sizes. Not to remove something from the thrill caused by the sudden death of George Mazonakis, but to obtain the special weight he deserves. Because what we're living these days is not public mourning, it's national mazonacism. It's an avalanche that we've never experienced before. Avalanche social, artistic, social media, television, journalism, politics, medicine. For basta or patriots.
All these great ones who have left us time over the last five years have not been – another much less – idols? Didn't they offer culture and art? Weren't they loved by millions of Greeks? Didn't they sing at parties, shops, stadiums, squares? They didn't sell millions of records, didn't they carve two and three generations? They didn't start «from the low» And they did, they didn't help people who needed it or did they not? «Good boys.»Like the Mazona?
This exaggeration, which always results in social division. Now, the enemy was declared Antonis Remos, with the heartache «George is dumb and you're doing a concert?». With defendants who were up in the church yard, they were mass-lifting their cell phone to pull what? To say «Was I there?»Where? Go, as a society we have lost every measure, every ballast.
Because at the end of the day, some of the other great ones who left offered not only with their artistic creation, but also with their way of life, with their personal example offered to society. Something that Mazonakis delayed in, don't go crazy about. But my point is not the wrongful dead. He was loved by many and well done, who am I to judge who everyone will love?
My point is, we're not just mourning anymore. We post what we mourn. We're not just moved. We make sure we seem moved. The grief became content too and, like any content, needs a vivid picture, intensity, exaggeration, camps.
The Mazonakis is not to blame for this. Exaggeration is ours. But the most honest goodbye to a beloved artist is to leave him the size he really had. No smaller, no bigger. Because when we make everything huge, we can't tell anything.
