Artemios Demis Ventouris-Roussos was born on 15th June 1946 in Alexandria, Egypt and died on 25th January 2015. He was married 4 times and had 2 children.
When he was a kid, Demis took music lessons and formed part of the local church’s choir. He moved to Greece together with his family after losing everything during the second Arab-Israeli war.
As a teenager, he joined various groups, however, they were not very successful. Then in 1967, the band ‘Aphrodite’s Child’ was formed, which included the famous composer and musician ‘Vangelis’. Demis sang and played the bass guitar and became famous mainly in France and also in some other European countries.
The group wanted to hit the international music market, moved to Paris and released their first song ‘Rain and Tears’. With Demis’ unique tenor-like vocals, it was a hit in several countries. The band then split up and Demis and Vangelis continued working together. In fact, Demis performed in various film soundtracks produced by Vangelis, namely ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Damask Rose’ and ‘Tales of the Future’, to name a few.
In 1971, Demis decided to proceed as a solo artist and released the song ‘We shall Dance’ which was an instant top ten hit. After touring around Europe, he had a string of more hits like ‘Forever and Ever’, My Friend the Wind’, ‘Goodbye my Love, Goodbye’, and ‘Lovely Lady of Arcadia’, amongst others.
In the next 3 decades, Roussos proceeded with releasing more albums, including songs in the French language, as well as continued with concerts globally. He also appeared in a few TV shows and movies.
Demis passed away in January 2015 from stomach, pancreatic and liver cancer. 18 months later, his children opened a museum in his honour in the Netherlands, but the museum’s custodian decided to shift it to Greece.
During his career, Demis’s albums sold more than 60 million copies globally.