Demis Roussos

Artemios "Demis" Ventouris Roussos (Greek: Αρτέμιος "Ντέμης" Βεντούρης Ρούσσος, June 15, 1946 – January 25, 2015) was a Greeksinger and performer who had international hit records as a solo performer in the 1970s after having been a member of Aphrodite's Child, a progressive rock group that also included Vangelis. He has sold over 60 million albums worldwide.

Roussos was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, in a family where his father George (engineer Yorgos Roussos) was Greek and mother Nelly Mazloum was Egyptian of Italian origin. His parents lost their possessions during the Suez Crisis 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 Evangelos Papathanassiou (later known as Vangelis) and Loukas Sideras, his future bandmates in Aphrodite's Child. After this he joined We Five (not the San Francisco, California folk-rock group), another cover band which had limited success in Greece.

Roussos came to a wider audience in 1967 when he joined progressive rockband Aphrodite's Child, with Vangelis and Sideras, initially as a singer but later also playing bass guitar, achieving commercial success in France and other parts of Europe from 1968 to 1972. They set off for London to break into the international music scene but as a result of bad weather, the plane landed them in Paris - and they decided to stay there signing a record deal with Philips S.A. His operatic vocal style helped propel the band to international success, notably on their final album 666, which became a progressive rock cult classic.

After Aphrodite's Child disbanded, Roussos continued to record sporadically with former bandmate Vangelis. In 1970 the two released Sex Power(although the album has also been disputably credited to Aphrodite's Child), also recording 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, while Roussos also guested on the soundtrack to Blade Runner (1982), with a song entitled "Tales Of The Future".

Solo career

Roussos also began a solo career with the song "We Shall Dance" in 1971. Initially unsuccessful, he toured around Europe and became a leading artist. His solo career peaked in the mid 1970s with several hit albums. His single "Forever And Ever" topped the charts in several countries in 1973 (1976 in U.K.). Other hits were "My Friend The Wind", "My Reason", "Velvet Mornings", "Goodbye My Love, Goodbye", "Someday Somewhere" and "Lovely Lady Of Arcadia". His first UK single to chart was in 1975: "Happy To Be On An Island In The Sun" written by an Englishman David Lewis with the record reaching No. 5 in the charts. His popularity in the rest of Europe, but not the UK, came to fascinate BBC-TV producer John King who made a documentary which he called 'The Roussos Phenomenon' in 1976. The programme was aired and Roussos' scored a number one chart selling E.P. record of the same title and with three back catalogue albums entering the charts.

Roussos was mentioned in the television play Abigail's Party (1977) and made one of his earliest appearances on English-speaking TV on the Basil Brush Show. Before appearing on the Basil Brush Show, he had appeared on the Nana Mouskouri TV show in the UK, singing a duet version of his hit single "Happy To Be On An Island In The Sun". In 1980, Roussos had a hit with a cover of Air Supply's "Lost In Love", sung as a duet with Florence Warner. His UK career was now being managed by ex-Phonogram promotion man, Don Percival.

He re-recorded his songs in a number of languages, including Japanese, whereas The Roussos Phenomenon EP was the first No.1 hit for an African-born artist in the history of the UK Singles Chart. He was equally successful across Europe and Latin America, although a gold disc for the LP Demis remains his only success in the United States.

For years Roussos struggled with his weight. In June 1980 he weighed 147 kg. He then began a diet in which he lost 50 kg in 10 months. In 1982 he co-authored the book A Question Of Weight with his close friend Veronique Skawinska, in which he dealt candidly with his struggles with obesity. Roussos suffered a fallow period during the 1980s in terms of hits and his output dried up as he battled clinical depression.

In June 1985, he was amongst the hostages during the hijacking of TWA Flight 847.

In 1989, he recorded the song "Young Love", a duet with German singer/songwriter Drafi Deutscher, which was released as a single in Germany and reached No.2 in the famous German music TV show ZDF Hitparade in October of the same year.

The 1990s saw even more substantial releases by Roussos. In 1993 he released Insight (also called Morning Has Broken) to general acclaim. After that he teamed up with BR Music in the Netherlands to produce Immortel, Serenade and In Holland, utilising a variety of ethnic and electronic styles..

Roussos continued to record and tour. The spring of 2002 saw him do a tour of England, whilst in recent years he has appeared in Russia and the United Arab Emirates. A committed follower of the Greek Orthodox faith, he has sung as a guest in a number of churches in Greece and worldwide.

In 2006, he released the acclaimed Live In Brasil, which documents his return to a country where his popularity led him to record "Você Você E Nada Mais" - a huge hit in Portuguese. From 2006 to 2008, he was part of the Âge Tendre Et Têtes De Bois tour, a series of concerts featuring French singers from the sixties and seventies.

A comeback took place in 2009, with Roussos recording a new studio album produced by Marc di Domenico, released on May 11.

In popular culture

• The Roussos song "A Flower's All You Need" is featured in both the opening and closing credits for Aldo Lado's 1975 horror film, Night Train Murders.
• He is the subject of an argument between two main characters in Mike Leigh's play Abigail's Party.
• Roussos sang the song "All Is Vanity" on Martyn Ford's 1970s The Bible Album. The lyrics of the song are based on chapter one of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.
• Appeared on the Dame Edna Experience to perform "Forever and Ever" and an interview in the same episode as Joan Rivers.

Discography

Aphrodite's Child albums

• End of the World (1968)
• It's Five O'Clock (1969)
• 666 (1972)

Solo albums

• On the Greek side of my mind (also called Fire and ice) (1971)
• Forever and ever (1973)
• My only fascination (1974)
• Auf Wiederseh'n (1974, German language)
• Souvenirs (1975)
• Happy to be (1976)
• Die Nacht und der Wein (1976, German language)
• Kyrila (1977, German language)
• The Demis Roussos magic (1977)
• Ainsi soit-il (1977, French language)
• Los super 2 LP (1977, Spanish language)
• Demis Roussos (1978)
• Universum (1979, Spanish language)
• Man of the world (1980)
• Roussos live! (1980)
• Demis (1982)
• Attitudes (1982)
• Reflection (1984)
• Senza tempo (1985)
• Greater love (1986)
• The story of... (1987)
• Come all ye faithful (1987)
• Le grec (1988)
• Time (1988)
• Voice and vision (1989)
• Insight (also called Morning has Broken or Adagio) (1993)
• Demis Roussos in Holland (1995)
• Immortel (1995)
• Serenade (1996)
• Mon île (1997)
• Auf meinen Wegen (2000)
• Live in Brazil (2006)
• Demis (May 2009)