What language did Demis Roussos sing in? Demis Roussos died of cancer: Details of the death of the singer

During his life he received the glory of a real heartthrob. He was married four times, and each time - for love.

At the beginning of his career, the musician really needed support - after all, it is always difficult to set foot on a creative path. Such support for him was Monique. Young people got married, they had a girl named Emily. However, being married to a musician surrounded by admirers proved difficult, and the marriage fell apart. Emily went with her mother to France.

Demis, he claims, met "the woman of his dreams" - Dominic, who gave him another child - the son of Cyril (Cyril). But here, too, the singer could not be a model of family for a long time. He kept having an affair, although he claimed that his heart belonged only to his wife. Dominique did not forgive him for his betrayal. During the divorce, the son stayed with him - the mother, who went to Chicago, did not mind, believing that you were Greece, and in the care of Olga's grandmother (DUmis's mother), Cyril would be better off.

Roussos' next lover was Pamela, American model. They met tritely - in a bookstore, and, not yet being married, got into a tragic mess with hostages together. The plane on which they followed to Rome was hijacked by terrorists; they had to spend several days in captivity.

The longest, according to Demis himself, was “delayed” with him Maria Teresa, French yoga instructor They met in 1994 and Marie, leaving everything, went to Greece for her beloved. However, the couple chose a civil marriage. By the way, she is not a “girl” at all compared to her husband, the age difference is only a few years.

The artist admitted that the ideal woman for him does not exist, if we mean height, hair color, figure. He gives himself only to his passion and demands one thing in return - undivided love. He, in his own words, is terribly jealous and would never have been able to forgive betrayal.

At the same time, Demis Roussos has repeatedly admitted that he is unlikely to be able to swear eternal fidelity to his wife. He nodded at the numerous fans who surrounded him on tour, and noticed that at least one man could hardly resist in such an environment. I still remember his marriage proposal to 22-year-old Siberian Elena Kurakova, which many took seriously. However, before the wedding, it still did not come.

This is how he was, a world-famous Greek - passionate, falling in love, fickle. Roussos' daughter Emily currently lives in Paris. Cyril, the son, became a DJ and became quite famous in Greece, promoting the work of his great, without false modesty, and already deceased father with might and main.

In the Egyptian city of Alexandria, where his father worked as a contract architect. Demis's family was musical, his mother was a singer and his father played the classical guitar.

Demis Roussos was educated at the Athens College of Music, where he learned to play the trumpet, double bass and organ.

In the mid-1960s, he played with various groups in Athens on ships and in hotels, entertaining tourists and visitors. In these groups, Demis Roussos performed both as a trumpeter and bassist. But only in the We Five group did he manage to demonstrate his singing abilities to the public.

Together with other famous musicians, Roussos founded the group Aphrodite "s Child. In 1968, after a military coup in Greece, the group moved to Paris, where they achieved success thanks to the song Rain & Tears. In 1971, Demis Roussos left the group, deciding to pursue a solo career.

In the late 1970s, the singer was actively involved in solo projects. Demis' first solo album, On The Greek Side Of My Mind, was released in November 1971. In March 1972, his second solo single No Way Out was released, but it failed. However, his third single, My Reason, became a worldwide hit in the summer of 1972.

The second solo album was recorded and released in April 1973. It was in 1973 that Demis was at the pinnacle of success in Europe, Latin America and Canada and performed with concerts around the world.

In 1974, during his first concert at the Ahoy Hall in Rotterdam, Holland, he performed his single Someday Somewhere for the first time.

In 1975 Demis's three albums Forever And Ever, My Only Fascination and Souvenirs topped the top ten albums in England.

In 1977, Roussos recorded the French Album. The song of the same name as the album title Ainsi Soit-il became a hit. Demis' album Magic was released in 1977. The song Because from this album became a mega hit in many countries, including France.

In the 1970s, Roussos' popularity was so great that the singer's name entered the Guinness Book of Records for the number of records sold.

In 1978, Demis traveled to the United States. Although both the That Once A Lifetime single and the Demis Roussos album were successful in the US, the tour did not live up to high expectations.

In the 1980s, Roussos gave 150 music programs a year. In 1982, the album Attitudes was released.

On July 14, 1985, the singer flew by plane to Rome and was taken hostage by terrorists along with other passengers. Demis was held hostage in Beirut for seven days.

Roussos recorded The Christmas Album in 1987, Time in 1988, and Voice and Vision in 1989. Very successful were the music albums released in 1992 - The Story of ... and X-Mas Album.

In total, the singer has a little less than three dozen records, which are invariably popular with listeners all over the world.

The artist toured extensively, his concerts gathered the public in many countries. Roussos first visited Russia in 1986, after which he repeatedly came to the country with concerts. In 2012, his concert was dedicated to the 45th anniversary of the singer's creative activity.

Demis Roussos has passed away.

Roussos was married three times and had two children from different marriages - a daughter, Emily, and a son, Cyril.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Artemios Venturis Roussos

Singer Date of birth June 15 (Gemini) 1946 (68) Place of birth Alexandria Date of death 2015-01-25

Artemios Venturis Roussos, known around the world as Demis Roussos, is a world-famous singer who, unfortunately, died in 2015. There is hardly a person who has not heard such hits as "From Souvenirs To Souvenirs", "Goodbye My Love Goodbye", "Forever And Ever". The romantic melodies created by Demis, as well as his unique voice, made the hearts of millions of fans tremble for many years.

Biography of Demis Roussos

Demis was born in the home of wealthy immigrants from Greece on June 15, 1946. At that time, the family lived in Egypt, in the city of Alexandria, but after a short time they moved to their historical homeland. The boy's family was creative. His father, Yorgos, worked as an engineer, but he played the guitar perfectly in his spare time, and his mother, Nelly, was a professional dancer. All this affected Demis' hobbies. At a young age, his parents send him to a music school, where he learns to play string, wind and keyboard instruments (trumpet, guitar, organ and double bass).

In the mid-60s, Roussos tried his hand at a variety of youth groups, where he played the trumpet and acted as a bassist. The bands played mainly cover versions of American and English hits. Once Demis had to replace the lead singer of the group, as his singing talent was noticed.

Later, together with several friends, he organized a group called "Child of Aphrodite", whose hits are becoming quite popular in Europe. In 1968, the group was invited on tour to England and Paris, but some difficulties arose, one of the participants was urgently called up to serve in the army, and it was not so easy to work in England, many permits were required. The remaining members went to Paris, where they recorded the mega-popular hit "Rain and Tears". The group released 3 successful albums, after which, due to some financial and creative differences, they broke up. Thus began Demis' career as a solo artist.

His first album was released in 1971, then almost every year he gave the world a new album or a popular song that topped the charts in Europe. The single "Forever and Ever", from the album of the same name, sold about 12.5 million copies.

Since 1973, Demis has become an artist with worldwide popularity. He is listened to not only in Europe, but also in North and Latin America, Canada.

Roussos achieved significant popularity in part due to his phenomenal performances. He paid great attention to the costumes and the show itself. In addition, the singer sang for a wide audience in different languages. So, many of his albums were released in French, Spanish, German, Italian.

For about 15 years, Demis has been releasing various collections with new songs or covers of his own hits from past years, in addition, he pleased fans with a special Christmas album.

1993 was marked by the 25th anniversary of the singer's career, who by that time had toured all over the world, managed to visit Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, and Dubai.

In addition to concert activities and work on albums, Demis participated in the creation of soundtracks for the films Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire.

The singer has been unsuccessfully struggling with excess weight for many years. In the worst years, he weighed about 150 kg, but then he was able to normalize the weight to an acceptable state of 110-120 kg. Demis even wrote a book called "How I Lost Weight" in which he describes his personal experience.

The singer's weight loss was facilitated by a tragic incident, in which he, by an unfortunate coincidence, turned out to be.

In 1985, he flew from Athens to Rome. It was this plane that was hijacked by terrorists from the Middle East from the Hezbollah group, who demanded to change course and head to Beirut, as well as to release several hundred Lebanese prisoners from Israeli prisons. It is noteworthy that the invaders recognized the world star, because Demis's songs were popular in the East. He was treated somewhat better than other captives, however, according to Demis, they asked him to sing for them every day and give an autograph. Subsequently, he and several other Greek citizens were released in exchange for an accomplice of the terrorists.

The singer could not recover from the incident for a long time, he was depressed, on this basis he began to lose weight sharply. As the artist himself said, creativity brought him out of a protracted depression. The singer did not like to remember this story, because some prisoners were killed before his eyes.

Personal life of Demis Roussos

The Greek singer Demis Roussos has always had the glory of a womanizer, he was officially married 3 times. The first time he tied the knot early in his career was with a woman named Monique. In this marriage, his daughter Emily was born. However, the union did not last long, since Demis's wife could not bear the constant environment of her husband's fans.

Then Demis married Dominique, who gave him a son, Cyril. This marriage also could not last long, as the singer constantly had an affair on the side.

The next wife was the American model Pamela, with whom he was captured by terrorists when they were not yet married.

After his divorce from Pamela, the singer met Maria Theresa, a French yoga instructor. Maria quit her job in France and went to Greece for her common-law husband. They never made their relationship official.

Demis himself claimed that he was not able to resist beautiful women, and if he saw such, he would definitely sin.

Roussos' daughter lives in Paris, she is an actress by profession, she writes scripts for television, and for a long time she was a manager in her father's French office. The son chose the profession of a DJ, lives in Greece and promotes the work of Roussos.

Demis Roussos left this world on January 25, 2015, while staying in one of the hospitals in Athens. Relatives chose not to make this information public until the next day, since there were elections in Greece on the day of his death, and this news would have unsettled the citizens of the country. Demis was buried in the First Cemetery of Athens, where prominent figures of the country are buried.

During his career, the singer Demis Roussos has sold 100 million albums, becoming the most successful performer in Greece. Despite the fact that today the artist who participated in the recording of the soundtracks for the films "Chariots of Fire" and "Blade Runner" is no longer alive, according to music lovers, the unique work of the vocalist will exist as long as in the hearts and memory of the faithful fans hear his amazing voice.

Childhood and youth

Artemios Venturis Roussos was born on June 15, 1946 in the city of Alexandria (Egypt) located in the Nile Delta. He became the first son (there is a younger brother Kotas) of his parents Nelli and Yorgos. During the Suez crisis, the Roussos family changed their place of residence, moving to the homeland of their ancestors in Greece. Demis' craving for art was inherited by him. The mother of the future singer, Nelly Mazlum, was a professional dancer, and father Yorgos, although he earned a living as an engineer, played the guitar excellently.

It is not surprising that children of such an exceptionally talented couple preferred creative self-realization to memorizing mathematical formulas and studying chemical compounds from childhood. Demis grew up as a smart and talented boy. He sang well, so his parents gave him to the choir of the Greek Byzantine church. Five years spent there were not in vain: Roussos studied musical theory, learned to play the double bass, trumpet and even the organ.

Music

In 1963, Roussos met talented musicians who, like him, wanted to make a successful career. Soon the group "Aphrodite's Child" appeared, in which Demis became the vocalist. The compositions "The Other People" and "Plastics Nevermore" brought the band its first fame. In 1968, there was a military coup in Greece, and Roussos and his rock team left for Paris.

There he launched an active creative activity, and soon the whole of France started talking about "Aphrodite's Child". The song "Rain and tears" climbed to the first lines of the charts in Europe in a couple of days. It was followed by the release of the albums "End of the world" and "It" s five o "slock". Despite the growing popularity, Demis decided to leave the group and pursue a solo career. The last album "Aphrodite" s Child "-" 666 "- was finalized and released after the breakup of the group.

Solo career

In 1971, Roussos' first solo disc, Fire and Ice, was released. Two years later, a new work by the artist appeared on store shelves - “Forever and Ever”. There were at least six hit songs on the disc (“Goodbye May Love”, “Velvet mornings”, “Lovely lady of Arcadia”, “My friend the wind” and “My reason”). A video clip was shot for the track "Forever and ever".

In 1973, the performer of the song "Adagio" has already performed with concerts around the world. In 1974, at a concert in Holland, the vocalist performed the single "Someday Somewhere". This composition became the harbinger of the third disc "My only fascination". In 1975, three of Demis' works - "Forever and ever", "My only fascination" and "Souvenir" - topped the top ten albums in England.

Released in four languages, Universum (1979) was popular in Italy and France. The record owes its success to the singles "Loin des yeux" and "Loin du coeur" released a month before the release.

In 1982, Attitudes appeared on the shelves, but the album was not a commercial success. To redeem himself in the eyes of the listeners, Demis recorded a new work with cover versions of tracks from the fifties and sixties called "Reflections". Then the singer went to Holland, where he recorded the singles "Island of love" and "Summerwine", and also released the album "Greater love".

In 1987, the vocalist returned to his native land to work on an album with digital recordings of versions of his greatest hits. A year later, the release of the disc “Time” took place. The song of the same name with the title of the work was also released as a single.

1993 was marked by the release of the Insight record, which includes a modern version of the composition "Morning has broken". Three albums were released between 2000 and 2009: "Auf meinen wegen", "Live in Brazil" and "Demis".

Personal life

Despite the fact that in the amorous piggy bank of the charismatic musician, in addition to wives, there were hundreds of persons bewitched by his voice, Roussos did not like to touch on the topic of his personal life. The first wife of the Greek singer was a girl named Monique. Young people legalized relations at the very beginning of Demis's creative path. The young lady, who gave the vocalist a daughter, Emily, refused to share her husband with fans.

Realizing that the husband of a quiet family life prefers fame and fame, the woman filed for divorce a couple of months after giving birth and, with a baby in her arms, left for France to live with relatives. Less than a year after the collapse of the family, the artist married a second time. The singer's chosen one was called Dominica. The girl gave birth to the wife of the heir, who was named Cyril.

Blinded by love, the young lady did not believe the materials regularly published in the newspapers about her husband's affairs and firmly believed that the missus remained faithful to her during tours. This continued until Roussos himself confessed to his wife that he had committed adultery at one of the concerts. Dominique could not forgive the betrayal.

True, unlike the first wife, the woman did not take the child, considering it appropriate to leave her son in the care of Demis's mother in Greece. The next wife of Roussos was the American model Pamela. The performer of the song “Goodbye, my love, goodbye” met the fashion model in a bookstore. Even before legalizing the relationship, the lovers were on the verge of life and death.

In June 1985, the couple became hostages on an Athens-Rome flight. Then the militants from the Hezbollah group kept the passengers of the plane at gunpoint for a week and even shot one person in front of the adults and children present on the charter.

At that time, Demis was also known in the Arab countries, so when the terrorists recognized him as a popular performer, Roussos had to perform songs for the invaders. Moving away from the shock a couple of months after the release, the couple legalized their relationship. True, this union fell apart.

Roussos' longest marriage was to his last wife, Marie-Thérèse, a French woman who worked as a yoga instructor. They met in 1994. Then Marie, leaving everything, went to Greece for her beloved. It is worth noting that until the end of his days, the eminent artist did not make an offer of marriage to his beloved, preferring cohabitation to legal relations.

Death

The talented musician passed away on January 25, 2015. Relatives of the singer did not want the news of the sudden death of Demis to have a negative impact on the parliamentary elections scheduled for that day, so the press learned about the death of the artist only on January 26. Fans were alerted by the secrecy of relatives who did not disclose the cause of death of the eminent composer and for a long time could not decide on the date and place of the funeral ceremony.,

As is often the case, people who were kept in the dark began to put forward their own versions of what had happened. According to the first theory, the artist died from an exacerbation of a chronic illness that played out against the background of his obesity, according to the second, Roussos died from a fatal disease, which he deliberately did not report to the media.

A little later, Demis's own daughter, Emilia, clarified the situation. The girl gave an interview for one of the French magazines, in which she stated that her father had been fighting pancreatic cancer for a couple of years. It was this terrible diagnosis that interrupted the eventful life of the tenor. The funeral ceremony took place on January 30 of the same year. The grave of Demis is located in the First Cemetery of Athens, where, according to tradition, only noble and famous Greeks are buried.

Discography

• 1971 - "Fire and ice"
• 1974 - "Forever and Ever"
• 1974 - "My only fascination"
• 1982 - Attitudes
• 1984 - "Reflection"
• 1979 - "Universum"
• 1980 - "Man of the world"
• 1989 - "My friend the wind"
• 1993 - "Insight"
• 1995 - "Gold"
• 1996 - "Too many dreams"
• 2000 - "Auf meinen wegen"
• 2006 - "Live in Brazil"
• 2009 - "Demis"

3 chord picks

Biography

Artomios (Demis) Ventouris Roussos was born on June 15, 1946, in Alexandria (Egypt), being the first son of his parents - Olga and George. During the Suez crisis, the rather well-to-do Roussos family, with their second son Kostas, left Egypt, leaving their property there and returned to the homeland of their ancestors - to Greece.

In the mid-sixties, the tourist business began to flourish in Athens, which in turn gave support to numerous bands from this city, who mostly covered well-known western hits, especially from England and the United States. Demis played in many of these bands, both as a trumpeter (he was a major influence on American trumpeter Harry James) and as a bass player. But only in the group “We Five” Demis managed to demonstrate his singing abilities to the public. The band's vocalist decided to take a break from performing for himself and this allowed Demis to sing a cover version of the Animals' hit "House of the Rising Sun". Demis performed the song night after night, after which he also sang "When A Man Loves A Woman" and "Black is Black" at the band's concerts.

While playing at big hotels in Athens such as the Hilton, Demis met many musicians, including Vangelis Papatanassiou, the leader of the group "Formix", with whom Demis became very close friends. Together with Agyrilos Koulouris and Lukas Sideras, they founded the group "Aphrodite's Child" (named by Lou Reisner), which won worldwide recognition. The band's first two recordings "Plastics Nevermore" and "The Other People" were made for the Phonogram branch in Greece and were received with great enthusiasm in Europe, especially in London and Paris. Early in 1968 they received and gladly accepted an offer to go to London.

However, they had to face a number of difficulties: at that time it was very difficult to obtain a work permit, especially in England. In addition, Aguirilos Koulouris was drafted into the army, so the three remaining members of the band gathered in Paris, where Phongram producer Pierre Sberra recorded their single "Rain And Tears".

Aphrodite's Child was fortunate in that they recorded the single "Rain And Tears" at that time: the major riots in Paris in May 1968 brought the French economy to a standstill. The single immediately became a European hit and the group's first giant disc "End of The World" appeared on the shelves in the fall of 1968. The song of the same name as the album title failed, but in the summer of 1969 a version of the song "Plaisir d'Amour", arranged group, it was called “I Want to Live”, topped all European charts. The predecessor of the song was a rock and roll record “Let Me Love, Let Me Be”, released at the end of 1969, but received recognition only in France and Italy, while in other countries they preferred to listen to the song “Marie-Jolie ” on side B.

A second LP entitled "It's Five O'clock" was released in March 1970, the song of the same name became a hit on the singles charts, followed by "Spring, Summer, Winter And Fall" in the summer of that year.

When Aphrodite's Child began recording their third and final album, 666, "Silver" Kuluris returned to the group as the fourth member, but trouble lay ahead. Vangelis wrote almost all the music for the group, thus earning good money from publications, while the rest of the group had to rely only on what they earned from concerts. And since Vangelis preferred to be in the studio, working on "his" music, he regularly canceled shows, which, in turn, hit the pockets of the rest. Everything came to a head during the recording of the album “666” and as a result, Demis and Lucas parted ways in 1971. Vangelis at the same time added the finishing touch to the last album Aphrodite’s Child.

Demis' first solo album "On The Greek Side Of My Mind" was released in November 1971. In March 1972 his second solo single "No Way Out" was released, but unfortunately failed. However, his third single entitled "My Reason" became a worldwide hit in the summer of 1972. A second solo album was accordingly recorded and released in April 1973, preceded by the single "Forever And Ever", which became a real classic and to date has 12 million copies sold. There were no less than six hit songs on the "Forever And Ever" record, including "Goodbye My Love Goodbye", "Velvet Mornings", "Lovely Lady Of Arcadia", "My Friend The Wind" and "My Reason".

So, in 1973, Demis was on top of success in Europe, Latin America and Canada and performed with concerts around the world. In 1974, during his first concert at the Ahoy Hall in Rotterdam, Holland, he performed his new single "Someday Somewhere" for the first time. This was the forerunner of his third solo album, My Only Fascination. In 1975 Demis's three albums "Forever And Ever", "My Only Fascination" and "Souvenirs" topped the top ten albums in England. For the first time in history, a "forty-five" record entered the singles charts. It was called the Roussos Phenomenon.

Demis gained his popularity mainly through concert performances, which brought him an incredible number of fans. This was noticed by the BBC, who made a special 50-minute special report "The Roussos Phenomenon", which subsequently brought Roussos a real sensation. At the same time, Roussos became a star in Germany with hits such as "Goodbye Mo Love Goodbye", "Schones Madchen Aus Arcadia", "Kyrila" and "Auf Wiedersehn". Most of these songs were written by Leo Leandros, who was also a record producer.

France has always been a second home for Demis, and in an artistic sense, the first. Therefore, it became natural that in 1977 he recorded a French album. The song of the same name with the title of the album “Ainsi Soit-il” became a hit. Demis and Vangelis teamed up again and Vangelis produced Demis' album Magic in 1977. The song "Because" from this album became a mega hit in many countries, including France, where it was called "Mourir Aupres De Mon Amour". This song became one of the biggest hits ever released. In 1978, Demis went to the United States. Top producer Freddy Perren (Gloria Gaynor, Tavares) was brought in to work to adapt Roussos' style for the American music market. Despite the fact that both the single "That Once A Lifetime" and the album "Demis Roussos" were successful with Uncle Sam, the tour did not live up to high expectations. 1979 was the year for a united Europe.

Demis' album "Universum" was released that year in no less than four languages: French, German, Italian and Spanish. Demis achieved the greatest success with this album in Italy and France, which was facilitated by the hit “Loin des yeux, loin du coeur”. In Australia and New Zealand, an album was released - a collection called "The Roussos Phenomenon", which then sold quite well.

David McKay was invited to produce the album "Man of The World" in 1980. The song "Lost In Love", a duet with Florence Warner, became a big hit. Harry Nilsson's arrangement of "The Wedding Song" from the musical "Zapata" became a big hit in France and Italy, and his version of "Sorry" (written by Francis Rossi and Bernie Frost of Status Quo) was very well known in England. The vocal version of "Chariots of Fire" was produced by Vangelis in 1981. "Race to the End" was the precursor to the "Demis" album.

In 1982, Demis surprised everyone with the album "Attitudes" - perhaps the best of what he recorded. The album was produced by Rainer Pitsch of Tangerine Dream. The album "Attitudes" includes the songs "Follow Me" and "House of The Rising Sun". Unfortunately, the album was not a commercial success, so Demis and Vangelis decided to record a new album with cover versions of hits from the fifties and sixties, called "Reflections".

With his new girlfriend, Pamela, Demis flew from Athens to Rome on July 14, 1985. Their plane was hijacked by terrorists and Demis was held hostage in Beirut for seven days.

The only thing that could help Demis overcome this mental trauma was to take up music again. To this end, he went to Holland and recorded the single "Island of Love", which could be considered his comeback in the spring of 1986. The successors of this single - the song "Summerwine" (recorded originally for a TV show) and the album "Greater Love" were released in August 1986

In 1987, Demis returned to the studio to work on an album of digital recordings of versions of his greatest hits. He also recorded his first Christmas Album and two songs for the French Company: "Les Oiseaux de ma jeunesse" and "Quand je t'aime". The last song was originally recorded as the B-side, but was expected to be a big success in discotheques in France, Belgium and Switzerland. In 1988 the CD "Time" was released, the song of the same name was also released as a single, followed by the 1989 album "Voice and Vision". The song "On ecrit sur les murs" from this album became a big hit in France.

The albums "The Story of ..." and "X-Mas Album", released in 1992 by Arcade, became very successful for Demis. Both albums feature a number of new songs. Both albums attracted attention in France and Germany.

1993 was an important year for the singer, because that year marked the 25th anniversary of Demis Roussos' career, first there was the release of the new album "Insight", which included a modern version of the composition "Morning Has Broken". This composition was released as a single, followed by concerts in 1993.

Demis tours all over the world. Concerts in Moscow, Montreal, Rio de Janeiro and Dubai became a part of his life.