Sapounidis founded his multicultural band "Ouzo Power"[3] in 1988, giving a new spin to Greek music on the Canadian scene, bringing in jazz elements and translating the songs of the likes of Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin into Greek for audiences at folk and multicultural music festivals, as well as CBC Television and CBC Radio producing two albums, including a successful CD of international folk songs.
Ever since the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Canada invited Sapounidis to perform at an international folk festival in Shanghai in the fall of 2000, he has seen consistent popularity in the country.
He has been invited back some 30 times since then – beginning with the Nanning International Arts Festival of Folksongs the same year, a Beijing tour in May 2002 and again, four months later in September 2002.
His folk songs express the universality of human emotion – the Greek in a passionate extroverted style, the Chinese in a poetic ethereal and far more introverted manner.
These events were recorded in the documentary, EyeSteelFilm's "Chairman George," chronicling the singer's unrelenting pursuit of his dream to perform at the closing ceremonies.
Director Daniel Cross and his crew followed Sapounidis across three continents as he tracked down and lobbied Canadian, Greek and Chinese officials,[4] dogging them even onto the Great Wall.
Armed only with his bouzouki, guitar and cellular phone, he becomes a star in China (with both the critics and the ladies) singing Greek songs in Chinese.
With his band — bassist Stuart Watkins, guitarist Fred Guignion and drummer/producer Ross Murray — Sapounidis revived the Ouzo Power project, to create an album of rocked-up Greek folk songs.
A full-length album of Sapounidis — now billed as Chairman George, in deference to the documentary — and his band's unique mash of Greek and Chinese influences is to be released internationally in October 2014, to coincide with a 10-city tour of China.