Sophia Karivali was the younger sister of rebetiko star Rita Abatzi. While Sophia never achieved the same fame as did Rita, between 1936 and 1948 she recorded at least two dozen songs, several of them with Markos Vamvakaris.
Vamvakaris also invited her to be the first woman to sing with The Famous Quartet of Piraeus (Vamvakaris, Delias, Batis and Payioumtzis) when he opened his own music hall.
Other composers whose works she recorded included Skarvelis, Tsitsanis and Delias.
Karivali quit performing in 1948 at the insistence of her husband, and lived quietly in Athens until her death in 1995.
This video is sweet: it starts with the first verse of her 1940 recording of You Seduced Me, Bohemian Woman (written by Vamvakaris), and then cuts to 1988, with 72-year-old Sophia singing two verses of the song accompanied by George Dalaras on guitar and quietly singing harmony.
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