I completely agree with Babis. Both as regards the names mentioned and the reasons given. But if you put me on the spot and made me choose just one name, from all genres of Greek music, I would only mumble FLERY…
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From an objective point of view, it might be Demis Roussos, Maria Callas or Melina Mercouri (with “The Children of Piraeus”), as they have a more global profile.
Subjectively, I’m closer to Babis’s opinion and tastes.
You forgot Vicky Leandros.
Millions of records…
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Once, in Kalymnos, I was sitting in the car of a local friend, and an old, handwritten cassette from some friends’ feast was playing. A man and a woman were exchanging mantinades over the fiddles, with the rest of the group repeating them.
The man was good, but the woman was something extraordinary. Nearly 25 years have passed, and I still remember her voice and get goosebumps. She really could move mountains with her timbre, her metallic ring, her interpretation, the way she recreated the melody and made it her own — everything.
-Christ and Lord, I said, who is that?
-That’s Katerina when she was young.
I had first got to know the sweetest Auntie Katerina Makarouna, now deceased, through some recordings of hers that had been released on a record when she was already elderly, and later I met her in person too. She also sang on a few programmes. All right, a sweet, warm voice, still technically sound even in her old age, and a real lover of the tradition herself, but undeniably a cracked bell. Yet all the people of Kalymnos spoke of her as if she were Maria Callas, and I couldn’t understand why. After hearing that cassette, I understood.
I don’t mean that Katerina Makarouna would have claimed a place in our pantheon. But there are also the completely unknown ones, heard only by those who happened to be physically present nearby. People who, even if they had become known, would still have left no significant mark, because they sang a repertoire of limited reach (Kalymnian songs are not popular — popular with everyone — but songs mainly for Kalymnians).
How many such unknown Katerinas might be hiding right next door to each of us!
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And Nana Mouskouri
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We’re Greek, I tell you! 
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