Greece's Most Famous Singers
Click here to see information of Rose Eskenazi
Click here to see Marika Ninou
Click here to see information on Apostolos Nikolaidis
Click here to see information on Arvanitaki Eleftheria
Click here to see information of Notis Sfakianakis
Rosa, whose real name was Sarah Skinazi, was born into a family of Sephardic Jews in Constantinople. Much about her early life, including her exact birthdate, is unknown. Her career took off in the late 1920s, when a record producer discovered her at an open-air taverna in Piraeus.
Eskenazi went on to become the highest-paid and most prolific artist of her time, specializing in Smyrnaic and Demotic songs as well as Rebetika. She was multilingual, singing in Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Italian, Armenian, and probably also Djudezmo, the language of Sephardic Greek and Turkish Jews. She continued performing until a few years before her death in 1980. Despite her fame, Rosa Eskenazi was buried in an unmarked grave near the Gulf of Corinth.
Marika ws born in the Causasus in 1918. in the end of 1947 she came to Athens, where she appeared as part of a nightspot act, doing aerobatics turns with her husband small son. In In October 1948 Stellakis Perpiniadis engaged her to sing with him at the Florida on Leoforos Alexandras.She next appeared with Vasilis Tsitsanis at Fat Jimmy's. Her singing career continued as she made 78 r.p.m. recordings with composers including Tsitsanis, Manolis Hiotis, Yannis Papaioanou,Yorgos Mitsakis, Apostolas Kaldaras and others. Her partnership with Tsitsanis was the most enduring and produced some of her most memorable songs.
In 1955 she went to the USA to appear with Kostas Kaplanis. She returned to Athens, already suffering from cancer, and died at the young age of 38 in 1956.
Apostolos Nikolaidis was born on June 30, 1938.
He was born in Drama, a city in the province of Macedonia in northern Greece but grew up in Kato Touba in relative poverty.Music was always in Apostolos' blood. As a young child, he would sing the popular elafra tragoudia he heard on the radio and whatever songs his mother, a seamstress, taught him.
Although his great affinity for singing was obvious from a very young age, upon completing grade school in 1951, he went to work with his father in construction. While doing his part by picking up nails or carrying cement on construction sites, he would sing songs to himself and for anyone who would listen. When he first heard Stelios Kazantzidis did he realized his calling for singing.
After finishing his compulsory military service in 1962, Apostolos took his musical ambitions and set off for Athens and Columbia Records. Columbia was the pre-eminent Greek record company at the time, and most of the country's big performing artists were signed with the label. After introducing himself to the label management, he was able to get an appointment for an audition later in the week at the historic studios in Rizoupoli. Upon his arrival, Apostolos discovered that Kazantzidis himself was in for a recording session. He nervously waited for his idol to finish recording; then, he sang one of Kazantzidis' hits, "Duo portes ehi i zoi," with Kazantzidis still in the studio. Both Kazantzidis and Columbia were impressed and Apostolos was invited to sign a three-year contract with the label.
While on the Columbia Records artist roster, Apostolos recorded songs by many of the music industry's top composers at the time, including Manolis Hiotis (a close friend who guided and taught him), Giorgos Lafkas and Apostolos Kaldaras. The first song he recorded, 1962's "Esi me pligoses varia," was written by Lafkas. Other songs Apostolos recorded at the time included Karabesinis' "Maures ipopsies," "Den se thelo gia gineka" by Kaldaras, "Esena eho ki'afto me ftani" by Hiotis, Klouvatos' "Krata to heri mou sfihta" in 1964 and the self-penned "To ematha-to ematha." Concurrently, he performed at now-historic venues such as Anemona alongside Lafkas and Kaldaras, Kouinta, To Hriso Vareli, and at Koulourioti's alongside Kazantzidis and Marinella, where he first became widely-known to the public. In 1967 he signed on with Vendetta, a small record company formed by singing greats Panos Gavalas and Poli Panou (both also formerly signed on the Columbia label). His big hit on Vendetta was 1968's "Asimorfoti."
Eventually disillusioned with the Greek recording industry and in search of greener pastures, Apostolos set out for North America in 1968. He worked with esteemed bouzouki player Haris Lemonopoulos in Canada for a couple of years; working his way down to the U.S., Apostolos performed in clubs in Chicago and New York. Apostolos recorded his first long-play album, "O Gialinos Kosmos," with Lemonopoulos on bouzouki in 1971 and continued to perform in supper clubs while contemplating a new album. The custom at the time was for Greek overseas acts to record albums containing covers of current Greek hits � but Apostolos had other plans.
Eleftheria is a star in Greece, and her concerts are very successful and turn always into a true explosion of enthusiasm.
She started her career in the Opisthodromiki Company at the beginning of the 80�s . She is the most known voice of all Rebetic music done in Greece, She can be considered the promoter of this kind of music unknown and not very spread until she arrived. Rebetic music, together with the smyrneika, contains songs that go back to the folklore of Asian refugees .
After leaving the group, Eleftheria starts a career on her own, she is soon considered the most promising female voice of her country. The political and social events of her nation give her voice the leading role in the expression of new feelings and ideals.
Her personality, warm but strong, her voice, her ambition to create a bridge between Greek and new urban music, from the best composers, make her work to be considered a classic in Greek music.
Nowadays, Eleftheria collaborates with the North American with Armenian origins, Ara Dinkjan, which without no doubt gives an astonishing result. In life performances, Eleftheria is simply overwhelming: she is successful wherever she goes.
Notis was born on 2 November, 1959, on the island of Crete in Greece. At the age of six Notis left his home town of Irakleio with his family, and migrated to the island of Kos, where he spent most of his younger years.
In his early years of employment he worked as a plumber, an electrician, a builder, a petrol-station attendant and a waiter before becoming involved in music as a disk jockey. In 1985 Notis Sfakianakis decided to try his luck in singing professionally and thus he created his own band, playing mostly English rock music in a club in Kos. After a very unsuccessful year the band broke up and Notis moved back to his home island of Crete to try singing on his own in clubs this time however flirting with Greek Music. In 1987 he sanged at a small club in Athens.
In 1990, Sfakiankis met with Sony's General Manager, who was to play an increasingly important role in his singing career. The following year, Notis was to record his first album with SONY. Sfakianakis was on his way to stardom and confirmation came that year with his first hit, titled "Proti-Fora" coming out from his first recorded album of the same title. This album climbed to the top 10 of the charts, and he was immediately engaged to appear alongside the number one Greek singers of that time, Lefteris Pantazis and Angela Dimitriou.
By 1994, Notis career had gone from strength to strength and finally he had achieved the status of the number one singer in Greece. Singing at the clubs "Asteria_Glyfades", his huge demand by audiences all over Greece was evident, as Sfakianakis was bringing in on a regular basis, crowds of more than 3000 people every night. In this same year, Notis decided to release his forth album "Notio-anatolika tou Kosmou" (1994 MINOS-EMI) which became the biggest selling album of his recording career thus far reaching number one in the charts and enjoying the record breaking feat of selling over 150,000 copies in Greece alone. The song "O Aetos" from that same album, has become one of the most popular Greek songs of all time. The unstoppable success of Sfakianaki continued throughout 1995, when Notis and Notis and friends performed at "Gazi" in Athens, breaking every attendance record. His concerts and club appearances were guaranteed sell-outs. 1997, Sfakiankis released a special LP titles "Empirion Silektis" (MINOS-EMI 1997), which contains songs that where important to Noti throughout his life and contains songs which talk about social issues only. It is clear that Notis is taking a serious approach to his music and every song has an important message to deliver.
November 1997 saw the release of a new Sfakiankis single titled "Pro-Dia-Thimin", featuring 4 brand new tracks including "Giftisa Mera", "Siganes Psixales", "Siko Kai Fige" and "Thelo Na Se Ksanado". These tracks will be featured on the new album and gives us an indication that Notis is back with songs that will capture the hearts of thousands around the world. The year of 1999 saw Sfakianakis release a double live album that would break every sales record in Greek music history. This album featured all of Sfak's big hits and many other classic hits from other legendary artists. The album "Enthymion" went an amazing 7 times platinum, proving once again that Sfakianakis was a very popular singer not only in Greece but world wide.
The year 2000 saw Sfakianakis tour Australia and gather inspiration for his next release "Polixroma & Entona". This release was a different direction from what we have come to expect from Sfakianaki. It is a much more mature album and an album that introducers some new talent to the roster, in terms of writers and producers. "Polixroma & Entona" went 3 times platinum.
In 2001 Noti released his third CD single titled "Telos...Dixos Telos". A single featuring 5 brand new tracks that had everyone talking. 'Oi Skies' a very catchy zeimbekia did very well and with songs like 'Fos Mou' and 'Karntasis' It's no wonder this release went 4 times platinum.
2002 has been a very interesting year for Sfakianakis and all those that are interested in him. It has seen Sfak leave Minos EMI and join Universal Records (Mercury). With this move we saw the current release of 'Anoixis' hit the music stores and has been selling very well to date. This single has 5 fantastic new songs that remind me of Sfakianakis back in his 5 BHMA days.
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