Biography
Konstantinos Kordalis (May 1, 1944 - July 2, 2019), known professionally as Costa Cordalis, was a Greek-German schlager singer. He became known in the 1970s with songs such as "Carolina, komm und steig' in das Boot heute nacht" and "Anna Lena". His greatest commercial success was the 1976 single "Anita".
Cordalis was born in central Greece and began playing guitar at the age of seven. At 16, he moved to Frankfurt am Main, where he learned German at the Goethe Institute. After completing secondary school, he studied philosophy and German studies but did not graduate.
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In 1965, he released his first record, "Du hast ja Tränen in den Augen", a German-language version of Elvis Presley's "Crying in the Chapel". He achieved wider success from 1971 onward with self-composed and self-produced songs including "Und die Sonne ist heiß", "Carolina, komm und steig' in das Boot heute nacht", and "Anna Lena". His best-known song, "Anita", was released at the end of 1976 and remained in the West German top ten for three months, reaching number three.
Cordalis also participated in cross-country skiing competitions. At the 1985 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld in Tirol, he competed for Greece. He was a two-time Greek national champion in cross-country skiing. He had intended to participate in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo but was not selected by the Greek Olympic Committee. He taught himself skiing in the Black Forest while preparing for the role of a ski instructor in the ZDF television series "Engadiner Bilderbogen".
In 2004, Cordalis participated in the RTL television programme "Ich bin ein Star - Holt mich hier raus!" and became the first winner of the show, known as the "Jungle King". He donated the prize money of 28,000 euros to a children's cancer charity. Following the programme, he released the song "Jungle Beat". He also took part several times in the charity cycling event "Tour der Hoffnung", raising money for children with cancer with his song "Das Feuer".
Cordalis was married to Ingrid Cordalis and had three children. His son Lucas Cordalis and daughter Angeliki Cordalis also worked in the entertainment industry. From the mid-1980s until 2016, he lived in Freudenstadt-Kniebis in the Black Forest. He later resided in Santa Ponça on the Spanish island of Mallorca. In March 2019, he was hospitalised after suffering a collapse. He died in July 2019 at the age of 75 from organ failure.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.