Maria Dimitriadi | |
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Born | 1950 Athens, Greece |
Died | January 6, 2009 Athens, Greece |
Occupation(s) | Singer |
Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 1969—2001 |
Associated acts | Aphrodite Manou, Stavros Xarhakos, Mikis Theodorakis, Kostas Grigoréas, Thanos Mikroutsikos, Giannis Markopoulos, Manos Hadjidakis |
Maria Dimitriadi (Greek: Μαρία Δημητριάδη) (1950 – January 6, 2009), was a Greek singer. She was considered a "total voice" and one of the most renowned performers of the songs of Mikis Theodorakis and Thanos Mikroutsikos. Dimitiradi primarily connected with political left-wing songs during the Junta and Metapolitefsi era in Greece, but she also experimented with other styles and genres, of a more lyrical tone.
Maria Dimitriadi was born in 1950 in the Athenian municipality of Tavros, where later she became a member of the municipal council. She was the older sister of the acclaimed Greek singer Aphrodite Manou.
Her career was connected with some of the greatest Greek composers, such as Stavros Xarhakos, with whom she recorded her debut single, "Ένα πρωινό", Mikis Theodorakis, Thanos Mikroutsikos, Kostas Grigoréas, Madra Mandicencio, and later on, Giannis Markopoulos and Manos Hadjidakis.
In the early 1970s, during the military dictatorship in Greece, she was in Europe and toured with Theodorakis for four years. She continued to work with him until the early 1990s. In 1974, Dimitriadi returned to Greece and, in the following years, she started working almost exclusively with Mikroutsikos. In these years she became a member of the Revolutionary Communist Movement of Greece (EKKE) and she was elected counsellor to serve on the Municipal Council of Tavros, a suburb in the south-western part of Athens in Greece.
In 1980, she signed for CBS Records and started her solo career. From 1991 to 1993, Dimitiradi lived and worked in former Yugoslavia and strongly opposed the embargo on Yugoslavia.