Rita Sakellariou
| Rita Sakellariou Ρίτα Σακελλαρίου | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Born |
22 October 1934 Sitia, Crete, Greece |
| Died |
6 August 1999 (aged 64) Athens, Greece |
| Genres | Laika |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1950s-1998 |
Rita Sakellariou (Greek: Ρίτα Σακελλαρίου) (born 22 October 1934, Sitia, Crete, Greece – died 6 August 1999, Athens, Greece) was a famous Greek singer.
Her mother originated in Kalymnos and her father in Izmir. As a child, her father, a Partisan was killed in the 1946-49 civil war on Crete where she had been born and bred. Her mother moved with her three children to the port of Piraeus to try to make ends meet.
At 12, she left school to help earn a living for her family selling bread and lemons in a cart she pushed around Piraeus'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 1960s, she met her second husband, a wrestler who fell for her as she mesmerized an audience in Salonika. The couple married within a year and Sakellariou settled down to bring up three more sons.[1]
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). She remained popular, though her efforts to follow music trends through the 1980s and 1990s failed to match her earlier success. She had numerous hits, including "Istoria Mou, Amartia Mou", "An Kano Atakti Zoi", "Aftos O Anthropos", "Paranomi Mou Agapi" and "Ena Tragoudi". On 14 March 2010, Alpha TV ranked Sakellariou the 17th top-certified female artist in the nation's phonographic era (since 1960).[2]
Death
On 1998 Rita and her longtime friend Lakis Kores made a short vacation to Epidaurus. There she felt bad, crouching in bathroom from a terrible pain[3] On Yegia Hospital (Greek: νοσοκομείο υγεια) medical checks confirmed she was suffering from lung cancer which metastasized to the bone. The doctors had given her one year to live. She immediately received chemotherapy. Around January, Rita began to take courage and feel better. So then he said one day suddenly: "Do you have an appetite to work?". Whereupon the proposal made for concerts in Australia. According to Lakis, although the situation was aggravated she felt good. Wearing a wig, they made one stop in Singapore for not getting tired, then continued journey. In this last concert the accompanying Thanasis Komninos and Giannis Dounias. Rita appeared in 4 of the 5 concerts. They came back to Greece only for two or three days and again within the hospital where medical checks showed the cancer spread to vocal cords.
Sakellariou died on 6 August 1999, aged 64,[4] after spending 40 days at Ygeia Hospital in Athens after returning from treatment at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
According to a Lakis, her last words were, "Oh Lakis, and I had so much yet to do!"[5] She was survived by four sons and a daughter, two children from her first marriage, and three children from the second. She was buried on 9 August in the First Cemetery of Athens.[6][7]
Popular culture
- In the 1973 blockbuster The Exorcist, Jason Miller starred as Greek American Father Damien Karras, one of the priests who exorcised young Regan. In one scene, Karras’ mother, played by Greek actress Vasiliki Maliaros, is listening to a Greek radio station broadcasting the song Istoria mou, amartia mou.
References
- 1 2 Obituary, theguardian.com, 16 August 1999; accessed 16 August 2015.
- ↑ Chart Show: Your Countdown (14 March 2010), Alpha TV.
- ↑ υγκλονιστικές αποκαλύψεις για τις τελευταίες μέρες της ζωής της Ρίτας Σακελλαρίου
- ↑ Death of Rita Sakellariou, rizospastis.gr; accessed 16 August 2015.
- ↑ "Η ζωή της ντίβας στο σανίδι", newsnow.gr; accessed 16 August 2015.(Greek)
- ↑ "Το τέλος μιας "ιστορίας", rizospastis.gr; accessed 16 August 2015.(Greek)
- ↑ "Μία παράσταση ιστορίας, αμαρτίας (και άτακτης ζωής)", nemeapress.blogspot.co.il; accessed 16 August 2015.(Greek)
External links
- Rita Sakellariou biography, sansimera.com
- Sakellariou profile, musicpedia.gr