Marika Ninou

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Marika Ninou (Greek: Μαρίκα Νίνου) was a Greek rembetiko and laiko singer, born Evangelia Nikolaidou (Greek: Ευαγγελία Νικολαΐδου) in the Caucasus, 1918.

Ninou emigrated to Athens from the Caucasus in 1947 and performed acrobatic feats with her troupe known as "the Ninou duo-and-a-half" that consisted of Ninou herself, her husband and their child.

In October, 1948, Stelakis Perpiniadis (Greek: Στελλάκης Περπινιάδης) brought her under his wing as a singer at the Florinda.

By 1949, Ninou began working with Vassilis Tsitsanis at Fat Jimmy's, a place that would serve to play a decisive role in both their lives. Ninou was a legendary post-rembetiko singer with a great influence on Tsitsanis, with the Tsitsanis-Ninou pairing coming to possess a very special place in the history of the laiko music of Greece.

In October, 1951, Ninou performed with Tsitsanis in Constantinople, but after this trip, they suddenly decided to go their separate ways. For Ninou, that meant heading to the USA where she performed with Kostas Kaplani (Greek: Κώστα Καπλάνη) for two years.

Before heading off to the USA, she underwent a cancer operation in Athens. Nonetheless, her cancer spread rapidly in the USA and she returned to Greece where she worked under great pain for a short while before succumbing to her illness at 38 years of age, on Sunday the 23rd of February, 1957.

Ninou possessed a high-pitced voice of substantial body and volume and impeccable tonality, and sang with emotional intensity.