On the day of his hundredth birthday, the Ministry of Culture declares 2026 as a year dedicated to Manos Hadjidaki.

An infinitesimal tribute to the leading composer who, after the war, dared to combine words with tradition in exquisite music, bringing popular music to the fore.

The decision of the Ministry of Culture is the just recognition of the rich work of the penetrating creator, who served Greece and Culture with dedication, social distinction and sensitivity. Teaching with his free spirit, his sincere exhortations, his selfless political interventions, he opposed vulgar populism, his profound education, his faith in freedom and human ideals.

His work, already three decades after his death, continues to fertilize modern music production, enjoying a unique resonance.

The Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni, referring to the declaration of the year 2026, as a tribute to Manos Hadjidaki, said:

“Manos Hadjidakis, as a creator but also as an intellectual, managed to impose his own rules of production in his music creation, but also in the dissemination of his liberal ideas, through written and public interventions, sometimes deviating, consciously, from the dominant trends of his time. Implementing his original ideas with multi-faceted and multi-level actions, he overcame the ideological anchors of his time, exceeding, many times, the rules, which he ultimately influenced drastically.

He deservedly represented the Greek culture internationally, which he tried – and succeeded – to expand, enrich and, in the end, give a new meaning, essentially, freeing it from the old ethnography. He emerged as a Catholic intellectual who, selectively, intervened with groundbreaking views in the public sphere, keeping a critical distance from state power.

For 2026, the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with its supervised organizations, intends to set up a solid program of actions for the revival of the project and the reassessment of the cultural contribution of Manos Hadjidakis. Manos and his influential creative path to be reintroduced to the younger generations, who were not lucky enough to accompany him. To experience the unfolding of his catalytic intervention in Art and in the orientations of modern Hellenism”, concludes Lina Mendoni.