Konstantinos (Kostas) Roukounas () ( Principality of Samos, 1903 –

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, 11 March 1984) was a

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singer. His repertoire included both "traditional" (''δημοτικά'') and "popular" songs (''λαϊκά''). Most notable is his contribution to the genre of ''

rebetiko Rebetiko (, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used to designate previously disparate kinds of urban Greek music which in the 1930s went through a process of musical syncretism and develope ...

'' (ρεμπέτικο). Roukounas is generally known as a singer, however he was also a songwriter.

Life

Roukounas came from a poor family and thus had to start working from the age of eight, initially at a cigarette manufacturing business and later as a carpenter. He began his artistic career in the mid-1920s as a singer at a

taverna A taverna (; ) is a small Greek restaurant that serves Greek cuisine. The taverna is an integral part of Greek culture and has become familiar to people from other countries who visit Greece, as well as through the establishment of tavernes ...

. Young Roukounas soon became famous among his fellow islanders of Samos for his fine voice, specialising in ''Smyrneika'' (songs originating from the nearby coast of

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). Shortly thereafter he moved to Athens (in 1927 or 1928). There he sang professionally on various festive occasions until he was discovered by Panagiotis Toundas, a leading composer and recording industry executive. Tountas got Roukounas to make his first recordings on 78

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records. With his versatile voice he excelled in virtually all subgenres of traditional and rembetic music. Deserving particular mention are his renditions of the most demanding technically and semi-improvisational '' manedes''. Roukounas collaborated with many composers throughout his long career, particularly Panagiotis Tountas, Spyros Peristeris, Kostas Skarvelis, and Grigoris Asikis. He married the singer Anna Pagana who died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

in 1943. Roukounas married his second wife, lyricist Alexandra Kyriazi, in 1948. They lived together in a suburb of Athens until his death in 1984.

Notes

# Then autonomous, subject to the

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Roukounas, Kostas 1903 births 1984 deaths People from Samos Greek male songwriters 20th-century Greek male singers Greek rebetiko singers