Manolis Angelopoulos was born on April 8, 1939 in Kavala (or in Drama according to other statements) but spent his childhood in Agia Varvara of Egaleo.

The first child of Erasmia’s mother who gave birth to him at the age of 20, and his father, Iliakos Angelopoulos. He had a younger brother, Lefteris. As a child, he traveled all over Greece in a caravan. His parents were Gypsies. Little Manolis sang in the car loudspeaker selling the wares, because his parents were street vendors. Due to the loss of his father, at the age of 13, he tried to help his family by working in various nightclubs near the area of ​​Agia Varvara and Petralona, ​​where he lived with his family.

At the urging of his cousin Anestos Athanasios, who played the bouzouki in the orchestra of Stelios Kazantzidis and the encouragement of the popular composer Theodoros Derveniotis, he decided at the age of 17 to pursue his career professionally. At the end of 1956, he started appearing in a popular center of Chaidari, next to Stratos Pagioumtzis and Sotiria Bellou. At the same time he recorded his first album with the song of Tolis Esdras “Run in the bags mother”, which went almost unnoticed. The first recording followed in 1957. At the beginning of 1958 came the first great success, which paved the way for him to reach the top. It was the song of Stratos Attalidis “Magala”, which exceeded 100,000 pieces in sales and was the rival awe of “Mantoumbala” by Stelios Kazantzidis.

During the 60’s he became widely known as he sang songs about refugee Hellenism and exotic places. His music has influences from Greek folk and Arabic music, while he was mainly an exponent of tsifteteli.

He collaborated with many important creators of folk song, such as Manolis Chiotis, Vassilis Tsitsanis, George Mitsakis and others and released many albums that were a great success. Among his greatest hits are the songs “Your black eyes”, “As long as you deserve”, “Good luck”, “The two-faced”, “Kalamaria caught fire”, “Your kisses are fire”, “I am afraid to laugh” “,” There is no separation for us “,” My soul is tired of it “,” Pencil “,” Throw medicine in the glass “,” Go up to my table “,” Mangala “,” With what heart “.

He has made dozens of appearances in movies and reviews, while he has given many concerts abroad, where there were Greek immigrants: America, Canada, Australia, West Germany and Belgium. On June 19 and 20, 1983, he became famous with his two concerts at the Lycabettus Theater, where the inseparable was created. The concert and the broadcast of his concert by ERT also received critical comments about the genre of music, but also Angelopoulos himself because of his origin.

Manolis Angelopoulos died suddenly on April 2, 1989 in a London hospital, a week before he turned 50, due to complications from heart surgery (triple bypass), which he underwent on January 14. Enough people gathered at his funeral to say goodbye to the so-called gypsy king. He was married to the singer Konstantina, while from his first marriage, which lasted ten years, with the also singer Annoula Vassiliou he had three children, Maria (christening of Stelios Kazantzidis), Elias and Stathis Angelopoulos, well-known folk singer .