| Rita Sakellariou Ρίτα Σακελλαρίου |
|
|---|---|
| Born | October 22, 1934 |
| Origin | Greece |
| Died | August 6, 1999 (aged 64) |
| Genres | Laika |
| Occupations | Singer |
Rita Sakellariou (Greek: Ρίτα Σακελλαρίου) (born in Crete, died of cancer in Athens) was a famous Greek singer.
As a child, her partisan father was killed in the 1946-49 civil war on Crete where she had been born and bred. Her mother moved with her three childen to the port of Pireaus to try and make ends meet. At 12, Sakellariou left school to help earn a living for her family selling bread and lemons in a cart she pushed around Pireaus's desolate streets. Later, in the poverty-stricken 50s, she worked in factories; and when the going got really tough - after her first marriage foundered - she gathered garbage at the slums' rubbish dump.[1]
In the late 60s, she met her second husband, a wrestler who fell for her as she mesmerised an audience in Salonika. The couple married within a year and Sakellariou settled down to bring up three more sons.[2]
Throughout these years she continued to sing in the Queen Ann, a nightclub her husband had established on the National Road out of Athens. The 70s saw a series of hits, including Kathe Iliovasilema (Every Sunset) and Oi Andres kai oi Handres (Men and Beads).
Amongst her fans were Andreas Papandreou, Melina Mercouris, Aristotle Onasis, Anthony Quinn and others. She worked with some of the greater Greek musicians like Vassilis Tsitsanis and Giannis Papaioannou. She had numerous hits, some of them are "Istoria Mou, Amartia Mou", "An Kano Atakti Zoi", "Aftos O Anthropos", "Paranomi Mou Agapi", "Ena Tragoudi". On 14 March 2010, Alpha TV ranked Sakellariou the 17th top-certified female artist in the nation's phonographic era (since 1960).[3] Sakellariou died On August 6, 1999 at 19:00[4] after a yearlong battle with lung cancer. She had spent 40 days at the private Ygeia Hospital in Athens after returning from treatment in the United States[5]
She is regarded as one of the most prominent singers of the 'laika' music genre. She is survived by four sons and a daughter.