Arleta (Αρλέτα)

Today's entry, Arleta (Αρλέτα) will sound much more familiar to the ears of my Western friends. When she's serious, she has the confessional quality of Joni Mitchell and Janis Ian. When she's playful, she reminds me of Carly Simon's more relaxed moments.

Arleta was born Argyro Nicoleta Tsapra (Αργυρώ-Νικολέτα Τσάπρα) in downtown Athens, 1945, to a father who was a doctor and a mother who was a housewife who always saw to the comfort of the less fortunate: every day she would have enough bread to feed an army - and sure enough poor people would stop by and get their share of bread. This is one of Arleta's earliest childhood memories.

She studied at the School Of Fine Arts to be a painter. There she met George Papastefanou (Γιώργος Παπαστεφάνου), a gay lyricist who would later become a famous DJ. He introduced her to Yiannis Spanos (Γιάννης Σπανός), a gay composer, who had successfully worked in Paris for years (he had written songs for a lot of famous French artists, from Juliette Gréco to Brigitte Bardot). He was living through the movement called Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) in France, which was the equivalent of the singer-songwriter era in the US, spearheaded by Bob Dylan. Spanos, along with a few others, brought the Nouvelle Vague in Greece, where it became very popular during the 60s. It was called Neo Kyma (Νέο Κύμα).

Spanos, Papastefanou and Arleta recorded one of the seminal records of Neo Kyma, in 1966. The biggest hit off this record was I Remember Once... (Μιά Φορά Θυμάμαι):

In 1969, Arleta collaborated with Greece's most famous gay composer, Manos Hadjidakis (Μάνος Χατζιδάκις), who has been already given a day to himself in GayCultureLand. One of the songs from this collaboration was You Were A Child Like Jesus (Ήσουν Παιδί Σαν Τον Χριστό):

Georges Moustaki, the famous Greek-Italian who was born in Egypt and lived his adult life in France, composer and lover to Edith Piaf (he wrote Milord for her), was impressed with Arleta and invited her to sing in the Bobino Parisian theatre. She froze when it was her time to get on stage, but the stage manager gave her a kick in the seat of her pants and so she "defrosted". She was a hit.

In 1975, back in Greece, she worked once more with Spanos. The Fog Enters The House From All Sides (Η Ομίχλη Μπαίνει Από Παντού Στο Σπίτι) was the most popular track of the album:

In 1978 she collaborated with another one of the great Greek composers, Mikis Theodorakis (Μίκης Θεοδωράκης), who has composed the soundtrack for Zorba The Greek, Serpico and Z among numerous other soundtracks and hundreds of songs. From this collaboration, here's My Love (Αγάπη Μου), the song made famous in the movie Phaedra (1962) by another Greek monstre sacré, Melina Merkouri (Μελίνα Μερκούρη):

In the mid 80s, she made two very successful albums with composer Lakis Papadopoulos (Λάκης Παπαδόπουλος) and lyricist Marianina Kriezi (Μαριανίνα Κριεζή). From the first one, in 1984, came Serenade (Σερενάτα):

From the second one, in 1985, here's Batida De Coco:

In 1987, she made a record comprising of old Greek hits from the 30s, 40s and 50s. Here are two songs from this record. First, If You Could Only Come For A While (Ας Ερχόσουν Για Λίγο):

Also, here's Two Green Eyes (Δυό Πράσινα Μάτια):

Arleta also sung songs in English and in French. From 1988, here's the Beatles' Let It Be:

In 1991 she recorded yet another popular album. This time the songs were written by her. Here's the opening track, Baby (Μπέμπα):

And here's the album's most famous song, called A Bar Called "Shipwreck" (Μπαρ Το Ναυάγιο):

In 2008, just before a concert, she suffered a massive stroke, which almost took her life. For a while she was paralysed, but she fought hard and after a year of treatment, speech and physical therapy, she was as good as new once more. In fact, in 2009 she released a new album. It contained the French classic Plaisir D'Amour (written in 1784):

Arleta was a low-key lesbian. She had a number of long term relationships, but her love life never made the press. I guess this was one of those tacit agreements, which were quite frequent in the older days, between the artist and the press that stated "if you don't cause any scandals, we'll be discreet". In this case, it worked.