Stelios Kazantzidis sings Dyo portes ehei i zoi, a Greek song which translates to “life has two doors” in English.
Dyo portes ehei i zoi is also known as “To teleftaio vrady mou”, and is composed by Stelios Kazantzidis on lyrics written by Eftychia Papagiannopoulou.
There are two theories on how this song was written: Eftychia Papagiannopoulou lost her first daughter suddenly one day, and according to one theory, she wrote the lyrics of the song on the same night of her daughter’s funeral.
According to a second theory, her second daughter brought her some meat to cook for her, just a few days after the funeral. Papagiannopoulou grabbed the paper cover of the meat and wrote the lyrics of the song just like that, in a few minutes. Later on, she called Kazantzidis and told him that she has a song for him that would probably be a great success. And indeed it was, although not right away as most people would think.
The album in which the song was included, had the song Mantoubala on the first side. This song was the biggest success of the time, one of the most popular songs by Kazantzidis, somewhat stealing the glory of all other songs .
It was some years later that Dyo portes ehei i zoi gained the fame and recognition it deserved. It is indeed a great song about life and its ups and downs. After all, Papagiannopoulou was the lyric writer of life facts and pains.