Greek actor Stavros Nikolaidis has publicly criticized singer Afroditi Manou for saying she did not know the late singer Giorgos Mazonakis or his work, and for questioning how the public chose to honor him after his death.
Nikolaidis made his remarks in an Instagram post on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, arguing that numerous performers of entechno music, a Greek genre of literary, composer-driven song, had praised Mazonakis in their own way, and asking which generation of artists Manou was speaking for.
Addressing Manou directly, Nikolaidis said he respected and appreciated her musically and artistically, but added that if the dreams of the generation of artists she meant really were so far removed from the public's preference, love and acceptance, then more than a nail should be driven into that coffin, it should be buried deeper than Mazonakis himself.
He asked on whose behalf exactly she was speaking, noting that Giorgos Dalaras, Stavros Xarhakos, Dimitra Galani, Alkistis Protopsalti, Stamatis Kraounakis, Vasilis Charoulis, Delivorias, Giannis Kotsiras, Karapataki and many others from what he called the "wrongly termed" entechno scene had all spoken about Mazonakis in glowing terms and dedicated songs to him. He said these artists spanned careers and ages both older and younger than Manou, and asked which generation of artists exactly she belonged to.
Mazonakis's Funeral and the Public Wake
Mazonakis, who died at the age of 54, was buried on Monday, September 14, after a public wake was held for him the night before, a customary way in Greece for fans to pay their respects to well known public figures before a funeral.
Manou first raised her objections in a post published that same Monday, the day of the funeral, writing that she did not understand why the public wake had taken place.
She said she had nothing against Mazonakis personally and did not know him or his work, but described the public wake for the singer as the last nail in the coffin of the dreams of a generation of artists who had imagined things differently. She ended the post by wishing her followers goodnight.
Backlash From Fans and Colleagues
The post triggered a wave of reactions, with fans of the singer replying directly beneath it. Beyond Nikolaidis, entertainment figures including Sotiris Tsafoulias, Giannis Aivazis and Giorgos Tsalikis also spoke out publicly against Manou.
Manou Responds to the Criticism
The backlash prompted a further post from Manou, in which she accused those who had reacted of "illiteracy and envy."
She said her upbringing, character and sensitivity would never have allowed her to attack a man who had died in such an unbelievable way just two days earlier, and repeated that, as she had made clear in her original brief post, she had not known him or his work and that he had only just been buried. She insisted she had nothing against Mazonakis, but said functional illiteracy, envy, decline, fanaticism, ideological blindness and long-standing hostility on the part of some people had led them to read something else into her words. She said Mazonakis would be the last person she would blame for the decline of the country's cultural life, adding that other "enlisted" and prominent figures, active from soon after the fall of the military junta onward, had managed to bring that decline about successfully.
Manou said her only personal experience of attending a public wake had been twice, during the dictatorship, at the funerals of the poet Giorgos Seferis and former prime minister Georgios Papandreou, and that this was the standard by which she formed her opinion. The photograph she shared was from Seferis's funeral on September 22, 1971, where she said she had also stood among the crowd.
She closed the post by wishing the late singer a good journey and offering condolences to his family, and thanked friends who had called and messaged her in support amid what she described as a renewed flood of insults directed at her. She said she felt it was her duty, to friends and important people she had lost in recent years, to write the post.
