Katie Gray, one of the most important representatives of folk singing, has passed away at the age of 100. The legendary singer, who breathed her last at home, had been facing many health problems in recent times, following the stroke she suffered last October.
With her authentic folk voice and inimitable temperament, Katie Gray sealed an entire era. Her unique interpretations of timeless hits, such as "To marazi", "To bovno", "Pira tin strata kai erchoma", "Messa stis zoys ta pittiia", "'Anoixe, anoixe", "Kale mana den pormo", "Aggelokamomeni mou", "Thelelo na eisi Kyriaki", "Ta xena rhey", "To pes kai to 'kanes", "'Anapse to tsigaro", "Mia gyona mono biaata", "Vathia sti thalassa tha pesso", left their indelible mark on Greek song.
She collaborated with the greatest composers and lyricists of the golden age of folk and light song, while her live performances became a point of reference. "I met Tsitsanis, Papaioannou, Keromytis, Hadjichristos, Markos Vamvakaris... the most beautiful music, the most beautiful songs that can be made, that will remain forever in history, these people wrote them, made them. They, without writing music, most of them illiterate, constantly brought out their soul from within. What they wrote, what they made, they felt," she had said in an interview with Sotiris Kakisis and the magazine "Difono" in January 1997.
Athanasia Gizili (as was her real name) was born in the village of Mytilinioi, Samos, on May 14, 1924. Her family - she had three other siblings - was so poor that she was forced to give her and one of her brothers up for adoption. In her first autobiography, "Katie Gray: This is my life" (published by Odos Panos, 1987, author Giorgos Chronas), she said about those difficult years: "I was born in Samos. When I was one year old, I was adopted by a couple, great people, in Tambouria, Piraeus, 14 Kaisareias. My real mother, not only gave me up for adoption, she also gave my brother, Giannis. She couldn't live with us. Such poverty in Samos. The consular service for this adoption was done by my stepmother's sister, who also lived in Samos. My new dad's name was Kostas and my mom's was Eurycleia."
Initially, she became an actress - in total, she would act in 19 films as an actress and singer. Her film debut was with a leading role in the film "The Song of Pain", alongside Daphne Skouras and Nikos Tzogias. After her success as an actress, she would get a job in Rita Tsakonas's band where she played "Golfo", while later she would sing light songs with Yannis Vella and other artists of the genre. Her role model was Tzimis Makoulis. However, she would win over the folk repertoire.
The first song she recorded was "To marazi" by Giorgos Mitsakis in 1952. She herself tells the Cypriot newspaper "Phileleftheros" in 2018 about how she got started in folk singing: "I had gone to "Attikon". Christakis and Akis Panou were there. Up until then, I had been singing European, but whatever folk there was, they would go and play it for me. When they put me on stage, they and the boss were thrilled. They looked at me in the eyes as if I were some phenomenon. When I started at Byron, at "Arapakia", the brands were Ninou, Bellou, Sevas Hanoum, Chrysafi. I remember them now. At "Stathmos" where I was, Loukas Daralas tells me: "You, my girl, have a very beautiful voice. Should I play you a song so you can sing it tonight?' I say: 'Play it for me, Mr. Darala.' It was 'The Mountain'."
The first album and success were not long in coming, as were collaborations with all the great composers and lyricists of the time. Markos Vamvakaris, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Yannis Papaioannou, George Mitsakis, Christos Kolokotronis, Eftychia Papagiannopoulou, Kostas Virvos, Thodoros Derveniotis, Babis Bakalis, George Zambetas and Panos Tzavellas, are some of the emblematic creators whose songs he performed for the first time. He also collaborated with the most famous names in the Greek pentagram, including Rosa Eskenazi, Stratos Pagioumtzis, Stelios Kazantzidis, Grigoris Bithikotsis, Poly Panou, Mary Linda, Giota Lydia, Antonis Repanis, Stratos Dionysiou, Rita Sakellariou, Spyros Zagoraios, Panos Gavalas and later George Dalaras, Eleni Vitali, Glykeria, Charoula Alexiou, Konstantina, Alkistis Protopsalti, Dimitra Galani, Antonis Vardis, Stefanos Korkolis, Christos Dantes, He and He.
For a long time she was in the largest centers abroad (America, Australia, Canada, Germany), where she met celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Rita Hayworth, Bette Davis and Rex Harrison. She also met Maria Callas, Stavros Niarchos and Aristotle Onassis. In the 60s she was the highest paid singer with a daily salary that even exceeded 8.000 drachmas. She recorded more than 1.500 songs until 1996, when she retired from discography and nightclubs.
Her life was a fictional one. From her difficult childhood and teenage years, her two marriages and two children, and her famous loves, the life of Katie Gray could very well have been made into a movie. And it almost was. In 1995, Kostas Ferris signed a contract with ANT1 to transfer her legendary life to the small screen. However, it was not completed, as the cost of the budget did not reach the 26 episodes that the contract had been signed for. The filming took place in Greece, Turkey and Egypt, while the title song "I won life over you", performed by Yannis Parios, was never released.
In her interview with "Difono" she had said about herself: "Katie Gray, this child, is a simple child who started out very poor, who fought very hard in his life, to get where he got. But even where he got, he remained simple, a simple child, always a simple person. It is no coincidence that the world has followed me for forty-five years. Because today artists have changed a lot... I am very attached to the world. I do not lock myself in dressing rooms to solve crosswords, to play cards, like singers do now. An artist without the world is nothing. This contact is everything."
Katie Gray married and divorced at a young age. She was engaged to Stelios Kazantzidis for five years and then to Andreas Barkoulis. She also had an affair with shipowner Nikos Laimos, as well as with actor Kostas Karras. She was married twice: to Nikos Iliadis, with whom she had two children, Philippos (1947) and Vasilis (1950-2021), and to goldsmith Michalis Papanastasopoulos. Her granddaughter is the singer Angeliki Iliadi.
Source: KYPE
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