Yiorgos Papasideris

Yiogos (or Yorghos) Papasideris was born on September 14, 1902. He was the third of nine children of Christos and Ekaterini Papasiderio (or Papaisidrou). His father owned a store called "Pipeiries" (peppers) which was open only in the summer and in which a lot of artists appeared such as Mitsos Arapakis, Dimitris Atraidis, Roukounas, etc.

During the rest of the year the family worked as transporters of construction materials.

At age 14, Yiorgos Papasideris was working as a deck boy on the ship of Yorghos Mathessis.

His neighbor, Sideris Andrianos heard him sing and noticed his unusual voice. He had a meeting with Columbia records in Greece and began recording.

From 1928-1977 he recorded 1,850 songs including Folk, Smyrean, Arvanitic and Rebetika songs. In 1930 he married Afroditi Isidrou Tseva and they had one son, Christos Papisidrou who became a doctor.

Source: Liner notes from the [http://www.fmrecords.net FM Records] CD "Yorgos Papasideris sings rare folk songs (Greek and Arvanitic)"