Rita Abatzi

Who was Rita Abatzi?

Rita Abatzi was a Greek rebetiko musician who began her career in the first part of the 1930s.

She was born in Smyrna, in the Aidin Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. Some sources have given her year of birth as 1903. A versatile singer of rebetiko, Smyrneika and other music, she was a popular performer on gramophone records in the 1930s. During that decade, the only female singer of rebetiko who rivalled her in popularity, and in the number of her recordings, was Roza Eskenazi.

Abatzi performed with many of the most famous musicians including Panayiotis Toundas, Vangelis Papazoglou, Kostas Skarvelis, Iakovos Montanaris, Spyros Peristeris, Dimitrios Semsis, I. Ogdontaki up to Markos Vamvakaris and Vassilis Tsitsanis. Her career ended after World War II. She died in Egaleo, Greece.

Her sister, Sofia Karivali, was also a notable singer of rebetiko.