Olympiacos, the Olympic Association of Piraeus Fans, the Legend of Greek football and Greek sport, acquired flesh and blood on March 10, 1925, in Miras’s taverna in Piraeus. It set about establishing its domination right away. Six years on from that fateful night, it won its first championship, laying the foundations for its subsequent dominance. Needless to say, Olympiacos’ achievements were put into music and song, and the anthems written for the Club would be sung by its millions of fans at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium and beyond.
Hymns, songs, and the bugle calls of legendary Atilio (after his death on November 11, 1994, his bugle was handed down to Nikos Stylianensis, who now performs the honors), have always and will always accompany Olympiacos’ every triumph.
‘Clear the way, clear the way, Olympiacos is coming to play’
The first Olympiacos anthem was written in 1931 by Mimis Vasiliadis and set to music by Yiangos Laoutaris. (Much) older fans, and those with a love for history, will recall that the Olympiacos anthem became known as «Clear the way…» and that legend has it the same lyricist came up with the immortal «One goal, two goals, three goals four. The fans go wild! Let’s have some more!», which commemorates the 1930-1931 season when Olympiacos beat many of its opponents by a three-goal margin.
Laoutaris dedicated the anthem to Giorgos Andrianopoulos. The hymn was written in 2/4 march time in the key C major.
Legend of the stadiums
Half a century later, in 1980, by which time Olympiacos has earned its «Legend» status, the anthem that’s still used today was written by Spyros Valsamakis & Konstantinos Kilimantzos and performed by Christos Voliotis.
Is there an Olympiacos fan anywhere who’s never sung, or at least hummed «Olympiacos, Legend of the Stadiums, / Laurel-crowned, great and strong». The modern anthem refers to Olympiacos by its nickname, “Legend”, which was bestowed on the team in the 1950s when the Club was the first in Greek football history to win six consecutive Greek Championships (1954-1959). Then there is a reference to the resilience of the Olympiacos fans, who support their team through thick and thin, and to the team’s victory in a friendly against Santos—and Pele! — in the summer of 1961 (2-1 the score).
From the 1931 anthem to Mimis Vasiliadis, which was set to music by Yiangos Laoutaris, to the rebetika of Pagioumtzis and Perpiniadis: the love for the red-and-white became inspiration and song.
Pagioumtzis, Perpiniadis: the legends of rebetiko who sang of the red and whites
There’s a link, too, between Olympiacos and one of its port home’s most legendary musical groups, the “Celebrated Piraeus Quartet”, though the songs one its members, Stratos Pagioumtzis, sang of its greatness. After the team’s legendary victory over Santos, Stratos Pagioumtzis (a die-hard Olympiacos fan, he was actually responsible for bringing another famous rebetis, Markos Vamvakaris, into the Olympiacos fold) sang «Olympiacos the great, Olympiacos the dream» («Who beat Santos, which is Pele’s team!»), to music by another composer from the port city, Gabriel Marinos or Marinakis. It was released as a single by Philips, code 7750/332 050. The record was a great commercial success and contributed to Pagioumtzis’ come-back, which wouldn’t have been possible without Giorgos Zambetas’ decisive support.
Perpiniadis’ «Olympiacos», which sold over 350,000 records, is another anthem with close links to Olympiacos. The song was written in 1965 to mark Olympiacos’ victory over Levski Sofia, which won them the Balkan Cup in 1963. When the Olympiacos team returned from Istanbul on September 19-20, thousands of red and white fans were waiting at the Ellinikon airport to cheer their idols.
It’s estimated, too, that at least 5,000 fans accompanied the team back to Piraeus on foot, celebrating together all the way. They included the popular singer Stratos Dionysiou and his friend Takis Lazopoulos.
When Rebetiko met the Legend. Stratos Pagioumtzis (above) and Vangelis Perpiniadis hymned Olympiacos in their songs, leaving the Club with a musical legacy.
Matsas here we come
When the party was finally over, they visited their friend Vangelis Perpiniadis in the Haidari district, where he lived. There, they started to discuss and recall Olympiacos’ triumphs over major teams, like the Club’s victory over Pele’s Santos… The singer-songwriter picked up his bouzouki and came up with the first lines of a song on the spot: «Olympic-Olympic-Olympiacos/ you beat Flamengo and Levski, Santos and Zagłębie». When the song was finished, he recorded it on a tape recorder.
In the morning, he called Minos Matsas at Minos EMI and played it for him over the phone line—two hours later, he was in the studio recording it with his band. What followed is another of the stories that fed into the legend.
Spyros Zagoraios and ‘Bukovi’s Olympiacos’
Perpiniadis loved football and had even composed an anthem for Panathinaikos, which was sung by Spyros Zagoraios, and for AEK, which he sang himself. But neither was anywhere near as successful as the anthem he wrote for Olympiacos.
And the local singer from Nikea would write another in praise of Olympiacos. The song was «Bukovi’s Olympiacos», and it was first heard at the «Faliraki» club during the celebrations for the Club’s victory in the 1966 championship—before it was released as a single. “Balkan Champions / Champions of Greece, you never give up / the Greek Cup’s been yours for many a year / And your name in Europe, too, strikes fear.” The team looked to four great players at the time: Giorgos Sideris, Nikos Gioutsos, Vasilis Botinos and Kostas Polychroniou.
The history of Olympiacos will continue to echo round the stands at Karaiskakis and wherever else the Club’s fans follow it, from Greece to the ends of the earth, through the hymns and songs that have been written to commemorate its greatest triumphs, Anyway, everywhere is Karaiskakis, and as Christakis Voliotis sang in 1972’s «Olympiacos Soul»: «Let’s go to Karaiskakis this Sunday too / to enjoy the party and the Olympiacos’ Soul».
