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Marika Ninou

Marika Ninou was a Rebetiko songstress.

Ninou was born Evangelia Atamian. The date and place of her birth are uncertain. She was likely born between 1918 and 1923. Some sources list Constantinople as her place of birth, others the Caucasus area, others Smyrna and yet others claim she was born on a ship that transported her family from Smyrna to Piraeus.

Ninou grew up in Kokkinia, Piraeus. She first married a fellow Armenian named Mesropian and had a son named Ovanes. Later, she married an acrobat named Ninos Nikolaidis whose mother gave her the nickname Marika after the famous actress Marika Kotopouli.

Ninou sang with her husband and her son as a family act. Later, she sang with well-known rebetiko singer Stellakis Perpiniadis at different Athens night clubs.

In 1949 she was discovered by composer Vasilis Tsitsanis who took her under his wing and wrote most of the songs that were to make her famous. Their partnership would last her entire lifetime except for her tour of the United States in the mid-1950s.

She died on February 23, 1957 of cancer.

Famous songs

  • Τα καβουράκια - (originally sung by Sotiria Bellou)
  • Γεννήθηκα για να πονώ
  • Κι αν πάθεις και καμμιά ζημιά
  • Τι σήμερα, τι αύριο, τι τώρα;
  • Σεράχ
  • Τα διαλεκτά παιδιά