The “voice of the Cypriot countryside”, traditional singer Kyriakou Pelagia died on Saturday at the age of 86, her relatives announced on social media.

Known as Mastorissa, as her colleagues called her for her unique interpretation of Cypriot folk songs, Pelagia had given another dimension to the genre bringing youth closer to folk music.

Government officials, political parties as well as the general public expressed their condolences to the family while praising the Cypriot singer’s voice and character.

“Kyriakou Pelagia was the voice of tradition,” the office of the president-elect Nikos Christodoulides said in a statement.

“[She] was loved by the world like few other traditional singers because of her unique voice, her special interpretation, spontaneity, simplicity and ethics, inspiring and paving the way for younger performers to become involved in traditional Cypriot singing,” the statement added.

In his own tweet, the outgoing president Nicos Anastasiades said Pelagia’s death is a “great loss for the culture of our country”.

“With her voice and the Cypriot folk song she succeeded in teaching the Cypriot culture to our young people,” he added.

“The Cypriot tradition is poorer as of today,” the Green Party said earlier in the day.

Traditional song performer Michalis Hadjimichael also shared a small farewell poem on Facebook for his former collaborator, highlighting the great loss in the music world.

Born in Paralimni on July 8, 1936, Pelagia was the daughter of the traditional singer Damianos Kouzalis and Maria Koutsoluka who had an appreciation of traditional songs.

The singer is known for her major hits Ipa sou htenistou lion and Pertidji mou mitsostomo, the result of her collaboration with Hadjimichael in his musical group Mesogios.

Pelagia was excellent both in singing but also tsatisma and poetry. In 1987 she published the poetry collection Cypriot Verse.

She had two sons and a daughter with her husband Georgios.

Her funeral will take place at 3pm on Sunday at the Ayios Georgios church in Paralimni at the expense of the municipality. The entire municipal council will attend and the mayor will deliver a eulogy.