Stella Haskil

Stella Haskil was a Greek rebetiko singer of the early post-WW II era.

Haskil was born in 1918, in Thessaloniki, to a Jewish couple, Chaym and Perla Gaegos. During the occupation of Greece by the Axis powers, the Gaegos family moved to Athens to escape arrest and deportation. There, Stella married Jacob Yehaskel.

After liberation, in 1946, Haskil started recording mostly rebetiko songs, some of which, such as "Νύχτωσε χωρίς φεγγάρι", (The Night fell moonless) and "Κάποια μάνα αναστενάζει", (A Mother is sighing), were censored due to the political climate arising from the Greek Civil War.

Haskil sang some of the best-known songs of composers Vasilis Tsitsanis and Apostolos Kaldaras.

Among her best known songs are:

• Αράπικο Λουλούδι (Arabian flower)
• Ντερμπερντέρισσα
• Κάποια μάνα αναστενάζει (A mother is sighing)
• Πάλιωσε το σακκάκι μου (My jacket got old)
• Ακρογυαλιές και Δειλινά (Beaches and Dusks)
• Για τα μάτια που αγαπώ (For the eyes I love)
• Γκιουλμπαχάρ (Gulbahar)
• Μπιρ Αλλάχ (Bir Allah - One God)
• Το Κατινάκι ξέχασες (You forgot little Kate)

Haskil died of cancer on February 28, 1954 barely 36 years old.