People
The news of the death of Kate Gray at the age of 100 has caused sadness in the artistic world of the country. According to information, the great singer passed away today at 10:00 am.
The beloved singer passed away, breathed her last at her home, after many health problems she had been dealing with lately.
Who was Katie Gray?
Kaiti Gray, her real name is Aggeliki Kalaitzi, was born on May 14, 1924. The great singer was born in the village of Mytilinioi in Samos and has three siblings. He was adopted by the Kalaitzis family and grew up in Piraeus.
Initially, he became an actor in Rita Tsakona's bands and later sang a light song with Yiannis Vellas as well as other artists of the genre. Her role model was Tzimis Makoulis. She recorded her first song in 1952 and it was the creation of Giorgos Mitsakis "To marazi". After the success she achieved, she managed to become the first name in the biggest centers of the time and also to sing all the great composers of her time.
He performed the first performances of songs by composers such as: Markos Vamvakaris, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Yiannis Papaioannou, George Mitsakis, Christos Kolokotronis, Eftychia Papagiannopoulou, Kostas Virvos, Thodoros Derveniotis, Babis Bakalis, George Zampetas and Panos Tzavellas.
He collaborated with well-known artists such as: Roza Eskenazi, Stratos Payoumtzis, Stelios Kazantzidis, Grigoris Bithikotsis, Poly Panou, Mary Linda, Iota Lydia, Antonis Repanis, Stratos Dionysiou, Rita Sakellariou, Spyros Zagoraios, Panos ValGaas, George Dalaras, Eleni Vitali, Glykeria, Haroula Alexiou, Konstantina, Alkistis Protopsalti, Dimitra Galani, Antonis Vardis, Stefanos Korkolis, Christos Dantes, He and He.
For a long time he was in the biggest centers of America, Australia, Canada and Germany knowing Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Rita Hayworth, Maria Callas, Stavros Niarchos and Aristotle Onassis.
In the 60's she was the highest paid singer with a daily salary that even exceeded 8,000 drachmas. This was also recognized by the Greek courts in a legal battle with a night club owner at the time. He recorded more than 1,500 songs, until 1996, when he retired from recording and nightclubs. In 1995, Kostas Ferris signed a contract with ANT1 to bring her legendary life to the small screen. However, this was not to be fully achieved as the budget cost did not reach the 26 episodes the contract had been signed for. Filming took place in Greece, Turkey and Egypt, while the title song "I defeated life" performed by Yiannis Pario was never released on the discography. In 2006, her autobiography was released, titled As I Lived It. She acted in 19 films as an actress and singer.
Personal life
He married and divorced at a young age. She was engaged for five years to Stelios Kazantzidis, and then to Andreas Barkoulis. He also had a relationship with the shipowner Nikos Laimos, but also with the actor Costas Karras.
She was married twice: to Nikos Iliadis, with whom she had two children, Filippos (1947) and Vassilis (1950–2021), and to the goldsmith Michalis Papanastasopoulos. Her granddaughter is the singer Angeliki Iliadis. He lived permanently in Nea Smyrni.
Source: protothema.gr
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