The famous Greek singer Katy Gray, who had been facing serious health problems in recent years, died at the age of 100.
HDN Newsroom
According to information, the great singer passed away today, Sunday morning, at 10:00 (local Greek time). The beloved singer breathed her last at home, after many health problems she had been facing lately.
In the '60s, Katie Gray was the most activist singer and recorded more than 1,500 songs.
Her real name was Angeliki Kalaitzi. He was born on May 14, 1924, in the village of Mytilinioi, Samos and has three siblings. Later, he was adopted by the Kalaitzis family and grew up in Piraeus.
She lived for many years, and until the end of her life, in Nea Smyrni.
Initially he became an actor in the bouloukia of Rita Tsakona and later he sang light singing with Yiannis Vella as well as other artists of the genre. Her role model was Jimmy Makoulis.
Her first song was recorded in 1952 and was the creation of George Mitsakis "To marazi". After her success, she managed to become the first name in the major centers of the time but also to line all the great composers of her time.
He performed the first performances of songs by composers such as: Markos Vamvakaris, Vasilis Tsitsanis, Yiannis Papaioannou, Giorgos Mitsakis, Christos Kolokotronis, Eftychia Papagiannopoulou, Kostas Virvos, Thodoros Derveniotis, Babis Bakalis, Giorgos Zampetas and Panos Tzavellas.
He collaborated with well-known artists such as: Rosa Eskenazi, Stratos Pagioumtzis, Stelios Kazantzides, Grigoris Bithikotsis, Poly Panou, Mary Linda, Yiota Lydia, Antonis Repanis, Stratos Dionysiou, Rita Sakellariou, Spyros Zagoraios, Panos Gavalas, Giorgos Dalaras, Eleni Vitali, Glykeria, Haroula Alexiou, Konstantina, Alkistis Protopsalti, Dimitra Galani, Antonis Vardis, Stefanos Korkolis, Christos Dantis, He and Him.
For a long time he was in the largest centers of America, Australia, Canada and Germany knowing Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Rita Hayworth, Maria Callas, Stavros Niarchos and Aristotle Onassis.
In the 60s she was the highest paid singer with a daily wage that exceeded 8,000 drachmas.
He recorded more than 1,500 songs until 1996, when he retired from discography and nightclubs.
In 1995, Costas Ferris signed a contract with ANT1 for the adaptation of her legendary life to the small screen. However, this was not to be fully achieved since the budget cost did not reach all 26 episodes that the contract was signed. Filming took place in Greece, Turkey and Egypt while the title song "I beat you life" performed by Yiannis Parios never came out in the discography.
In 2006 her autobiography was published, entitled As I Lived It. She acted in 19 films as an actress and singer.
For five years she was engaged to Stelios Kazantzides, and then to Andreas Barkoulis. He also had an affair with shipowner Nikos Lemos and actor Kostas Carras.
He was married twice. With Nikos Eliades, with whom she had two children, Filippos (1947) and Vasilis (1950–2021. And with goldsmith Michalis Papanastassopoulos. Her granddaughter is also singer Angeliki Eliadi.
