Marika Ninou
Armenian-Greek singer (1922–1957)
Marika Ninou (Greek: Μαρίκα Νίνου; born Evangelia Atamian (Ευαγγελία Αταμιάν); 1922 – 23 February 1957) was an Armenian-Greek rebetiko singer.
Biography
She was born in 1922 aboard the ship Evangelistria, which brought her mother, two sisters, and eight-year-old brother, Barkev Atamian, from Smyrna (present-day İzmir) to Piraeus. Because she was thought unlikely to survive at birth, she was taken to a warehouse after delivery. However, she survived, and the captain of the Evangelistria immediately baptized her, giving her the name Evangelia, meaning “she of the Gospel” or “bearer of good news” in Greek.
In Greece, her family settled in Kokkinia, at 50 Megara Street. At the age of seven, Ninou started attending the Armenian School of Blue Cross of Greece "Zavarian" in Kokkinia.
There she learned to play the mandolin and joined the school orchestra. Because of her vocal abilities, she also sang at the Armenian Church of St. Hagop in Kokkinia.
In 1939, she married her first husband Haig Mesrobian, who was a locksmith and had a shop in Kokkinia, and in 1940 gave birth to their son Ovanes.
“Marika Ninou” enters the record as armenian-Greek singer (1922–1957). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Marika, Ninou and Armenian-Greek can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Marika Ninou” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Marika, Ninou and Armenian-Greek provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6763416. VIAF identifies the subject as 46956989. The Library of Congress control number is no2023111391. 3 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1922, 1957, 1939 and 1940.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Marika Ninou”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Marika Ninou primary sources, Marika Ninou archive and Marika research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Marika Ninou”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Marika Ninou” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.