Building your Greek vocabulary with a Greek song, while listening to Greek music, is fun.
Below you can read the lyrics and listen to a very nice and popular Greek song by Rena Morfi.
The Greek singer Rena Morfi
Rena Morfi is a much-loved Greek singer and performer, whose songs bring together different music genres, creating a musical bridge between East and West. Here we’re introducing you to her hit Όταν Σου Χορεύω (When I Dance for You). We hope that it will turn you into her fans, too!
Since November 2020 Rena Morfi became very known in Greece, since she has also been presenting the music show of ERT1 Music Box with Nikos Portokaloglou. In the show, singers, musicians and composers from different music venues meet in a studio-house and reveal moments of their life and career, performing favorite songs.
Her beginnings
Rena Morfi was born and raised in Volos, in Central Greece. She studied history & archaeology at the University of Athens and started her career, surprisingly, backstage as an assistant to the well-known singer and songwriter Fivos Delivorias, with whom she still works today from time to time.
Then, she went to become the front woman for the Greek band Imam Baildi. The type of music that they create is quite unique, if not tricky to describe! Since their creation in 2007, they have been experimenting with remixes of Greek songs from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, combining them with folk, electro and hip hop elements. Rena toured with them for many years both in Greece and abroad as the band’s popularity gradually increased.
Solo career
In 2016, Morfi took her first steps as a solo artist and recorded her first album with the title “Souli Anatoli” (Σούλη Ανατολή). This is both the name of her alter ego on stage, where Morfi takes the role of a glamorous diva, and the artistic stage name that her grandmother used as a singer back in the 50s.
Once again, her songs and music are hard to define; they don’t fit into a box or easily fall under a specific music genre. They present a series of music experimentations that combine Latin references with traditional folk Greek music and rembetiko elements. The album itself includes both new songs and covers of old ones, taking the listener on a journey between the past and the present.
Greek Song; When I Dance For You
Όταν σου χορεύω (When I dance for you) was the first song to stand out from the album, becoming quickly popular and making her more well-known to mainstream audiences in Greece through its fun video clip.
You can click here to listen to the song on YouTube while you read the lyrics below:
Even since this breakthrough, Rena Morfi has been working on many projects: from doing dubbing voice-overs for children’s movies for Disney and Mattel, to appearances on Greek TV shows like Το σόι σου (Your folks), where she appeared as her alter ego Souli Anatoli, and the movie Φαντασία (Imagination) in 2019. She also sang a duet with Markos Koumaris, the founder and front man of the Greek band Locomondo, with the title Θα Ανέβω να σε Βρω ( I’ll Come Get You).
During the Omilo summer courses, we regularly teach Greek songs. It’s a fun way to unwind after a day of lessons while continuing practising y listening and comprehension skills. Of course also this song was on the Omilo-list 🙂
| Όταν Σου Χορεύω
Όταν σε κοιτάζω, σύννεφα και μπόρα Όταν σ‘ αγκαλιάζω, σταματάει η ώρα Κι όταν σου χορεύω, απ ‚τις άλλες κλέβω
Όταν σου χορεύω, απ‘ τις άλλες κλέβω
Ταμ ντιρι ρι ραμ, ταμ ντιρι ρι ραμ
Κόσμος δεν υπάρχει , μοναχά οι δυο μας Είναι καλοκαίρι απ‘ τον πυρετό μας
Κι όταν σου χορεύω, απ‘ τις άλλες κλέβω Όταν σου χορεύω, απ‘ τις άλλες κλέβω
Ταμ ντιρι ρι ραμ, ταμ ντιρι ρι ραμ
Όταν λες θα φύγεις ,καίγονται τα δάση Ποιός θα με ξοδέψει , ποιός θα με χορτάσει
Όταν σου χορεύω, απ‘ τις άλλες κλέβω Όταν σου χορεύω, απ‘ τις άλλες κλέβω
|
When I Dance For You
When I look at you, it feels like a storm is about to break out; when I embrace you it’s as if time stops And when I dance for you [it’s like] I’m stealing something away from the other women And when I dance for you [it’s like] I’m stealing something away from the other women Tam diri ri ram, tam diri ri ram There is no one else [in the world], only the two of us [Our love] is feverish, making us feel warm as if it was summer And when I dance for you [it’s like] I’m stealing something away from the other women And when I dance for you [it’s like] I’m stealing something away from the other women
Tam diri ri ram, tam diri ri ram When you say that you want to leave [me], it feels like you set me on fire [note: here it reads “the forests are on fire” to magnify the pain and the desperation of the singer] Who else’s love is going to consume me? who else’s love is going to nurture me?** And when I dance for you [it’s like] I’m stealing something away from the other women And when I dance for you [it’s like] I’m stealing something away from the other women Tam diri ri ram, tam diri ri ram |
*The songwriter/singer here is using the verb “ξοδεύω”, which when translated literally means “to spend”. Here she is referring to an all-consuming love, to which she is devoting, i.e. spending all her time and energy, hence the choice of the verb. It exaggerates for a more dramatic effect, like all Greek songs who respect themselves. 😉 The same thing applies for the verb “χορταίνω” here, which means “to feel full”, and it used to suggest that she is hungry for love.
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Are you interested to learn more about Greek music, including;
information about the music genre,
composers, singers,
Greek songs with English translations,
and extra Greek exercises to improve your Greek?
Then take a look at the following eBooks;
