Marika Ninou
Encyclopedia
Marika Ninou (1918 – 23 February 1957), was an Armenian-Greek rebetiko
Rebetiko
Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek folk music which have come to be grouped together since the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early...

 singer, born Evangelia Atamian (Greek: Ευαγγελία Αταμιάν).

Biography

When she was seven years old, Ninou started going to the Armenian school "Zavarian". There she learned the mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

 and joined the school orchestra. Meanwhile, because of her voice qualities, she chanted at the Armenian Church of St. Hagop in Kokkinia.

In 1939 she married her first husband, and in 1940 gave birth to their son Ovanes. In 1947 Soviet ships came to Greece to take the Armenians who would want to leave and go to Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

. Half the Armenic population of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

 and Athens left. Among them was Ninou's husband who left his wife and son behind.

She met the acrobat Nikos Nikolaides "Nino" in 1944 and married him. They began to perform together as "The Duo Nino". When her son joined the act they became "the Two-and-a-half Nino".

In a performance of the Ninos, the artist Petros Kyriakos heard her singing and recommended her to Manolis Chiotis
Manolis Chiotis
Manolis Chiotis was a Greek Rebetiko composer, singer and bouzouki player. He was born on March 21, 1920 in Thessaloniki and died in 1970.- See also :* Bouzouki* Rebetes* Rebetiko* Laiko* Greek nightclubs* Greek music...

. Chiotis recorded two songs with her in 1948.
In October, 1948, Stelakis Perpiniadis (Greek: Στελλάκης Περπινιάδης) brought her under his wing as a singer at the Florida club.

By 1949, Ninou had begun working with Vassilis Tsitsanis
Vassilis Tsitsanis
Vassilis Tsitsanis was a Greek songwriter and bouzouki player. He became one of the leading Greek composers of his time and is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Rebetika. Tsitsanis wrote more than 500 songs and is still remembered as an extraordinary bouzouki...

 at Fat Jimmy's, a place that would come to play a decisive role in both their lives, with the Tsitsanis-Ninou pairing coming to possess a very special place in the history of the music of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

.

In October, 1951, Ninou performed with Tsitsanis in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, but after this trip, they decided to go their separate ways.

Before heading off to the USA in 1954, she underwent a cancer operation in Athens. Nonetheless, her cancer spread rapidly in the USA and she returned to Greece where she worked under great pain for a short while before succumbing to her illness at 39 years of age.

Legacy

Ninou possessed a high-pitched voice of substantial body and volume and impeccable tonality, and sang with emotional intensity. She recorded a total of 174 songs, of which 119 as lead singer.

The movie Rembetiko by Costas Ferris is based on her life.
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