Roza Eskenazy

Born

1897-01-01

Died

1980-12-02

Birthplace

Constantinople Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey)

Biography

Roza Eskenazi (Greek: Ρόζα Εσκενάζυ; c. 1895 – 2 December 1980) was a Constantinople-born Greek dancer and singer of rebetiko, Greek folk music, Kanto and Turkish folk music. She was known as the "Queen of Rebetiko". She made her first recordings in 1929 and achieved instant success and is credited with bringing rebetiko to a mainstream audience. She recorded over 500 songs over the next decade and was one of few Greek artists to be flown to the United States, where she recorded material under Columbia Records. She sang in Greek, Turkish, Armenian, Arabic, Yiddish, Ladino and Italian. As she was born to Sephardic Jewish parents, she faced deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. Most of the Greek Jewish community perished in Auschwitz. Eskenazi was jailed for three months in Greece, only narrowly escaping deportation. She clandestinely housed British agents and members of the resistance in her Athens home and saved the lives of many from the Jewish community. In the 1950s, she toured the United States twice, with one visit lasting 9 months. She also returned to Turkey to perform. Her career later declined, but there was a revival of interest in her music in the 1970s. In this period, she appeared more frequently on Greek television and gave live performances, giving a final concert in 1977. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease in her final years, and died in 1980. In 1991, Greek writer, Dinos Christianopoulos wrote a short story about her, titled "Roza Eskenazi". In 2011, Israeli filmmaker, Roy Sher released a documentary about Eskenazi, My Sweet Canary. The film premiered at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and has since been screened at several Greek film festivals around the world.