Singer Dimitris Mitropanos died in an Athens hospital on Tuesday, the Athens-Macedonia News Agency reported, after suffering pulmonary edema caused by a heart attack.

He was 64.

Mitropanos was considered one of the foremost interpreters of Greek rebetika and popular folk music, known for his smooth vocals and dignified delivery.

He was born on April 2, 1948, in a village outside Trikala in Thessaly, and began working as a singer after moving to Athens in 1964.

He sang alongside rebetika masters Grigoris Bithikotsis and Giorgos Zampetas, and later worked with internationally acclaimed Greek artists such as Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hadjidakis and Stavros Xarchakos.

More recently, Mitropanos sang with a number of well-known younger acts, and continued to perform live to packed houses all over Greece.

In 2010 he did a tour of the United States, playing to a near-capacity crowd at the Radio City Music Hall in New York in July of that year.