Demis Roussos

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1946-06-15

Deathday 2015-01-25 (68 years old)

Place of Birth Alexandria, Egypt

Also Known As Artémios Ventoúris Roússos

Demis Roussos

Biography

Artemios "Demis" Ventouris-Roussos (15 June 1946 – 25 January 2015) was a Greek singer, songwriter and musician. As a band member he is best remembered for his work in the progressive rock music act Aphrodite's Child, but as a vocal soloist, his repertoire included hit songs like "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye", "From Souvenirs to Souvenirs" and "Forever and Ever". Roussos sold over 60 million albums worldwide and became "an unlikely kaftan-wearing sex symbol". Roussos was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, in a Greek family. His father, George (Yorgos) Roussos, was a classical guitarist and an engineer, and his mother, Olga (1923–2019), participated with her husband in an amateur theatrical Greek group in Alexandria (there were three such groups in the Greek community); her family originally came from Greece. His maternal grandparents were from Chios and immigrated to Alexandria after the Asia Minor Catastrophe. His paternal grandparents were from Chania. His grandfather moved to Egypt in the early 1900s along with his future wife who was underaged. He changed his surname from Ventouris to Roussos to hide from her family. As a child, Roussos studied music and joined the Greek Church Byzantine choir in Alexandria. His formative years in the ancient port city's cosmopolitan atmosphere were influenced by jazz, but also traditional Arabic and Greek Orthodox music. His parents lost their possessions during the Suez Crisis in 1956 and consequently decided to move to Greece. After settling in Greece, Roussos participated in a series of musical groups beginning with the Idols when he was 17, where he met Evángelos Papathanassíou (later known as Vangelis) and Loukas Sideras, his future bandmates in Aphrodite's Child. After this, he joined the Athens-based band We Five, another cover band which had limited success in Greece. Roussos's operatic vocal style helped propel the band to international success, notably on their final album 666, based on passages from the Book of Revelation, which became a progressive rock cult classic. After Aphrodite's Child disbanded, Roussos continued to record sporadically with his former bandmate Vangelis. In 1970, the two released the film score album Sex Power (the album has also been credited to Aphrodite's Child), and later recorded the 1977 album Magic together. Their most successful collaboration was "Race to the End" (also sung in Spanish as "Tu Libertad"), a vocal adaptation of the musical theme from the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire (scored by Vangelis). Roussos also guested on Vangelis' soundtrack to Blade Runner (1982), on the tracks "Tales of the Future", "Damask Rose", "Taffey's Snake Pit Bar", and "On the Trail of Nexus 6" (several only available in non-bootleg form on the 29th Anniversary Limited Edition CD set released in 2011). ... Source: Article "Demis Roussos" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

Known For

Actor

2022
Il était une fois Champs-Élysées

as Self (archive footage)

1987
Na siehste!

as Self

1987
1987
1982
Wogan

as Self

1982
1981
Bananas

as Self

1977
Fan School

as Self

1975
Numéro un

as Self

1975
Numéro un

as Self - Host

1975
Système 2

as Self

1975
1972
Midi trente

as Self

1972
Ein Kessel Buntes

as Self - Musician

1971
1971
Disco

as Self

1971
Samedi soir

as Self

1969
1968
1968
Starparade

as Self

1966
1964
1961
1959
Discorama

as Self

Sound

1975
Late Night Trains

as Theme Song Performance