Legendary Greek Singer Kaiti Grey Passes at 100
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Kaiti Grey, one of the greatest Greek singers passed away on Sunday at age 100, after going through a prolonged period of ill health.
The great laiko singer had been facing serious health problems in recent years and after a long period of hospitalization following a severe stroke, she had returned to her home in October where she died.
“She faces serious problems and anything can happen at any time… God only knows,” her granddaughter, Angeliki Iliadi, had said at the time. Her funeral will be held on Wednesday in Nea Smyrni.
Born in May 1924 on Samos island, Kaiti Gray was adopted by a family in Piraeus, getting the foster family name, Angeliki Kalai. She married and divorced at a young age. She was engaged to another legend of Greek laiko, Stelios Kazantzidis, for five years, and then to actor Andreas Barkoulis. She also had an affair with the shipowner Nikos Laimos, as well as with the actor Kostas Karras.
She was married twice: to Nikos Iliadis, with whom she had two sons, Philippos (1947) and Vasilis (1950–2021), and to the goldsmith Michalis Papanastasopoulos. She lived most of her life in the Athens suburb of Nea Smyrni.
In the 1960s, she was the highest-paid Greek singer, earning a daily wage of more than 8,000 drachmas, an exorbitant amount at the time.
She recorded more than 1,500 songs, until 1996, when she retired from recording and performing.
In 1995, Kostas Ferris signed a contract with ANT1 television to bring her legendary life to the small screen. However, this was not to be fully achieved since the budget did not cover all 26 episodes that the contract had been signed for. The filming took place in Greece, Turkey and Egypt, while the title song “I beat you, life” performed by Yiannis Parios was never released.
In 2006, her autobiography entitled “This is How I lived” was released. She appeared in 19 films as an actress and singer.
The legendary Greek singer started her career as an actress in the company of Rita Tsakonas and later sang light songs with Yannis Vellas as well as other artists of the genre. Her role model was singer Tzimis Makoulis. She made her first recording in 1952, a Giorgos Mitsakis song, “To marazi”. After the success she achieved, she managed to have her name on the marquee of the biggest nightclubs in the city, making her name synonymous with success.
She spent a long time in the largest nightclubs of the United States, Australia, Canada and Germany, meeting luminaries like Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Rita Hayworth, Maria Callas, Stavros Niarchos and Aristotle Onassis.
With her authentic laiko voice and inimitable temperament, Katie Gray marked an entire era. Her unique interpretations of timeless hits, such as “To marazi”, “To vouno”, “Pira tin strata kai erchomai”, “Messa stis zois ta monopatia”, “’Anoixe, anoixe”, “Kale mana den boro”, “Aggelokamomeni mou”, “Thelo na einai Kyriaki”, “Ta xena heria”, “To pes kai to ‘kanes”, “’Anapse to tsigaro”, “Vathia sti thalassa tha pesso”, left their indelible mark on Greek song.
The iconic Greek singer sang the first recordings of songs by composers such as: Markos Vamvakaris, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Yiannis Papaioannou, Giorgos Mitsakis, Christos Kolokotronis, Eftychia Papagiannopoulou, Kostas Virvos, Thodoros Derveniotis, Babis Bakalis, Giorgos Zambetas and Panos Tzavellas.
