Marika Papagika
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marika Papagika (September 1, 1890 – August 2, 1943) was a popular Greek singer in the early 20th century and one of the first Greek women singers to be heard on sound recordings.
She was born on the island of Kos but her family moved to Egypt, probably Alexandria, when she was young. She began her career there, working in nightspots that catered to the large resident Greek community.
In 1913 she emigrated to the USA where she continued performing and, beginning in 1918, recording. By the mid-1920's she and her husband Kostas ['Gus'], a cymbalum player, had their own club in New York. Gus usually accompanied Marika on recordings, with other musicians including cellist Markos Sifneos, the fine violinist Athanasios Makedonas and the Epirot violinist Alexis Zoumbas. Marika's versatile repertory included folksongs and 'light', European-style songs, but she became a noted exponent of the Smyrnaic style of the rebetiko tragoudi.
She and her husband apparently lost the nightspot in the great financial crisis of 1929, and her recording career ended in that year as well, except for four sides recorded in 1937. Marika died in New York in 1943; it has been said that she died of disappointment.fi:Marika Papagika
