Biography

Σωκράτης Μάλαμας {Sokratis Malamas} (b. 1957) is a Greek musician and singer.

Malamas was born on 29th September 1957 in Sykia in Chalkidiki, Greece. His family moved to Stuttgart, Germany for a few years; he later moved to Thessaloniki. There, he sang bouzouki songs and learnt about music from his father. At the age of thirteen, he bought his first guitar and took lessons at school; when he was seventeen, he continued his guitar studies at the Macedonian Conservatory of Thessaloniki (Μακεδονικό Ωδείο Θεσσαλονίκης). He returned to Germany after leaving school ,and later went to the Stuttgart Odeon. In one difficult period of his life, he returned to Greece and attended the National Conservatory of Athens (Εθνικό Ωδείο Αθηνών). He was taught by Vangelis Assimakopoulos and Νότης Μαυρουδής (Notis Mavroudis). At twenty-three he began his professional career, working as a guitar teacher and a singer in some public shops.

Eventually Nikos Papazoglou made him enter the studio and begin his first album, Ασπρόμαυρες Ιστορίες (Black & White Stories) in 1989. Malamas wrote songs for the theatre, and performed at the conservatory.

He has performed with many famous musicians, including Μανώλης Ρασούλης (Manolis Rasoulis), composers including Νίκος Ξυδάκης (Nikos Xydakis), Μελίνα Κανά (Melina Kana) and more composers including Giannis Tsatsopoulos, Giorgos Athanassopoulos, Alkis Alkaiou, Fotini Lambridis, Thodoros Gonis, Michalis Gkanas, Odysseas Ioannou and Θανάσης Παπακωνσταντίνου (Thanasis Papakonstantinou).