Rena Stamou (born Irini Sevdali, in 1930 in Chania, Crete), was one of the Greek performers whose career blossomed in the aftermath of World War II and the Greek civil war. Stamou recorded some late rebetiko and then became a favourite of the major composers as the music became more popular and evolved into laiko.
She was known as a “second” singer: the female voice that accompanied such male singers as Prodromos Tsaousakis and Stelios Kazantzidis. Through the 1950s, she was featured on a string of hit recordings. While her childhood was tough — she reportedly never knew her father and spent her first 12 years in a Cretan orphanage — she thrived after her first recordings in 1948 and was still performing and recording in the 1990s. The website Greek Discrography lists almost 150 recordings she performed on.
Stamou died in London, where her daughter lived, at the age of 92 in 2002. Tonight You Left Me was recorded in 1950 and may be her best-known song. It was written by Stelios Chrysinis, with lyrics by Haralambos Vasiliseiadis
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