Arleta was a Greek musician, author and book illustrator. Born 3 March 1945, Athens, Greece - Died 8 August 2017, Athens, Greece.
According to some sources, her real name was either Αριάδνη-Νικολέτα Τσάπρα (Ariadne-Nikoleta Tsapra), or Αργυρώ-Νικολέτα Τσάμπρα (Argyro-Nikoleta Tsampra), or Αριάδνη-Νικολέτα Τσάμπρα (Ariadne-Nikoleta Tsampra).
She began her recording career in 1966 and became one of the leading figures of the Néo Kyma during the 1960s. She made her first live performance at the ’Κιβωτός’ boîte of Μίνως Αργυράκης. In 1971, she took over the ’Ταβάνια’ boîte, but was hounded by the junta of colonels, causing her to be out of song for about four years.
In 1997, she published a book, ’Από πού πάνε για την Άνοιξη’ (Which way to Spring), which was based on her songwriting and included her own illustrations.
On 11 February 2008, just a few minutes before a planned performance at Volos, she suffered a stroke, which left her in hospital for six months and partly paralysed her for a year. In January 2017, she suffered another stroke and remained in hospital, where she died.
Her stage name was a combination of the first syllable of her first Christian name and the last syllable of her second Christian name: Αργυρώ/ιάδνη-Νικολέτα.
After her death, Arleta’s relatives handed over her file to Γιώργης Χριστοδούλου (a close friend of hers since he was 11 years old and whom she considered as her ’borrowed’ son), thousands of pages of sketches, thoughts she wrote like automatic writing, drawings and ideas.