Demis Roussos

Lore & Background

Roussos was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, in a Greek family. His father was a classical guitarist and engineer, and his mother participated in an amateur theatrical Greek group. As a child, Roussos studied music and joined the Greek Church Byzantine choir. His family lost their possessions during the Suez Crisis in 1956 and moved to Greece. After settling in Greece, he joined the Idols at age 17, where he met Vangelis and Loukas Sideras, his future bandmates in Aphrodite's Child. The band achieved international success, notably with their final album 666, a progressive rock cult classic. After the band disbanded, Roussos continued to record with Vangelis, including the film score album Sex Power and the 1977 album Magic, a solo Roussos album produced by Vangelis. Their most successful collaboration was 'Race to the End', a song from the film The Razor's Edge, not a vocal adaptation of the Chariots of Fire theme.

Reader's Guide

Demis Roussos's significance lies in his dual career as a progressive rock band member and a hugely successful solo artist. As part of Aphrodite's Child, he helped create a landmark progressive rock album in 666. His solo career peaked in the mid-1970s with chart-topping singles like 'Forever and Ever', which reached No. 1 in the UK in 1976. His popularity across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Japan was so notable that BBC producer John King made a documentary titled 'The Roussos Phenomenon'. Roussos also survived the 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking. His legacy includes over 60 million albums sold and a distinctive operatic vocal style that influenced pop and rock music. He continued recording and touring into the 2000s, and his final studio album, Demis, was released in 2009. A compilation released after his death, Demis Roussos Collected, became a number one album in Belgium.

Did You Know?

• Roussos was among the passengers of TWA Flight 847 hijacked in June 1985; he was released after five days.
• He co-authored the book A Question of Weight in 1982 about his struggles with obesity.
• His maternal grandparents were from Chios and immigrated to Alexandria after the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
• Roussos's final studio album, Demis, was released in 2009 and featured Virgil Howe on drums.

Early Life & Cultural Foundations in Alexandria

Artemios Ventouris-Roussos entered the world on 15 June 1946 in Alexandria, Egypt, into a Greek household steeped in both music and theatre. His father, Yiorgos, worked as a classical guitarist and engineer, while his mother Olga performed in one of only three amateur Greek theatrical troupes in the local community. His maternal grandparents had fled the island of Chios after the Asia Minor Catastrophe, and his paternal grandfather had emigrated from Chania in the early 1900s, even altering his surname from Ventouris to Roussos to keep his identity hidden from his young wife's relatives. Growing up in that ancient port city, young Demis absorbed a rich tapestry of influences: jazz, Arabic traditional melodies, and the solemn hymns of the Greek Orthodox Byzantine choir he joined as a child. The cosmopolitan atmosphere of Alexandria shaped his musical sensibility in ways that would later define his operatic vocal approach. In 1956, the Suez Crisis cost his parents their possessions, prompting the family to relocate to Greece, where his professional journey would ultimately begin.

Aphrodite's Child & the Progressive Rock Years

After the family settled in Greece, a seventeen-year-old Roussos joined the group Idols, where he first crossed paths with Evángelos Papathanassíou—better known today as Vangelis—and Loukas Sideras. The trio later formed Aphrodite's Child, a progressive rock act whose international breakthrough was propelled significantly by Roussos's operatic vocal delivery. The band's final album, 666, drew its narrative from passages in the Book of Revelation and has since been regarded as a cult classic within the progressive rock canon. Even after the group disbanded, Roussos and Vangelis continued to collaborate sporadically. Their 1970 film score album Sex Power was credited to Aphrodite's Child, and in 1977 they recorded Magic. Perhaps their most celebrated joint effort was "Race to the End," a vocal adaptation of Vangelis's Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire theme, also released in Spanish as "Tu Libertad." Roussos additionally contributed vocals to several tracks on Vangelis's 1982 Blade Runner soundtrack, including "Tales of the Future" and "Damask Rose."

Solo Stardom & the European Phenomenon

Roussos launched his solo career in 1971 with "We Shall Dance," a top-ten hit in the Netherlands and Belgium. Though initial success was modest, persistent touring across Europe gradually elevated him into a leading international artist. His breakthrough came in the mid-1970s: "Forever and Ever" topped charts in multiple countries in 1973 and reached number one on the UK Singles Chart in 1976. Other charting singles included "My Friend the Wind," "Goodbye My Love, Goodbye," and "Velvet Mornings." His popularity across continental Europe, despite relative obscurity in Britain, caught the eye of BBC producer John King, who produced the 1976 documentary "The Roussos Phenomenon." Philips Records issued a four-track EP of the same name, which became the first EP to top the UK singles chart. His reach extended far beyond Europe, with strong followings in Latin America, the Middle East, and Japan. By the 1980s, France had become a particularly fertile market, yielding number-two hits like "Quand je t'aime" and gold-certified albums including Le Grec and Voice and Vision.

Later Years, Faith & Enduring Legacy

Roussos's career displayed remarkable longevity well into the twenty-first century. In 1982, Jon Anderson of Yes contributed music and lyrics to his album Demis, while in 1993 he released "Insight" to general acclaim. The 1990s saw partnerships with BR Music in the Netherlands producing albums such as "Immortel" and "Serenade." He continued touring into the 2000s, appearing in Russia and the United Arab Emirates, and in 2006 released a live album from Brazil nearly three decades after his 1977 Portuguese hit. From 2006 to 2008 he joined the Âge Tendre et Têtes de Bois tour alongside French singers from the 1960s and 70s. A committed Greek Orthodox believer, he frequently sang as a guest in churches across Greece and France. His final studio album, Demis, produced by Marc di Domenico, arrived in May 2009, featuring drums by Steve Howe's son Virgil. One month before his death on 25 January 2015, he was still selecting tracks and writing notes for an official career compilation. Over his lifetime, he sold more than sixty million albums worldwide and became, as one description put it, "an unlikely kaftan-wearing sex symbol."