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E.Tsiliopoulos

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Legendary singer Katie Gray breathed her last at the age of 100

 

Katie Gray was a Greek singer of light and popular music. Gray was born in the village of Mytilinioi in Samos and has three siblings. She was adopted by the Kalaitzis family and grew up in Piraeus.

She initially became an actress in Rita Tsakonas's roaming theater group and later sang with Yannis Vellas as well as other artists of the light music genre. Her role model was Tzimis Makoulis. She recorded her first song in 1952 and it was the creation of George Mitsakis "To marazi". After the success she achieved, she managed to become the first name in the biggest centers of the era and also to record all the great composers of her time.

She 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 Zambetas and Panos Tzavellas.

She collaborated with well-known artists such as: Rosa Eskenazi, Stratos Pagioumtzis, Stelios Kazantzidis, Grigoris Bithikotsis, Poly Panou, Mary Linda, Giota Lydia, Antonis Repanis, Stratos Dionysiou, Rita Sakellariou, Spyros Zagoraios, Panos Gavalas, George Dalaras, Eleni Vitali, Glykeria, Charoula Alexiou, Konstantina, Alkistis Protopsalti, Dimitra Galani, Antonis Vardis, Stefanos Korkolis, Christos Dantes, among others.

For a long time she performed at the biggest cities of America, Australia, Canada and Germany, meeting 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 salary that was than twice most monthly salaries. This was also recognized by the Greek courts in a legal battle that existed with the owner of a nightclub of the time.

She recorded more than 1,500 songs, until 1996, when she retired from discography and performing. In 1995, Kostas Ferris signed a contract with ANT1 to transfer her legendary life to the small screen. However, this was not to be fully achieved since the budget cost did not allow the 26 episodes that the contract had been signed for. The filming took place in Greece, Turkey and Egypt while the title song "I won your life" performed by Yiannis Parios was never released. In 2006, her autobiography was released, titled As I lived it.

She played in 19 films as an actress and singer.