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". He sold over 60 million albums worldwide.
He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to George Roussos and Nelly Mazloum. His father, a civil engineer with a construction company, was of Greek extraction and his mother was of Egyptian and Italian origin. Demis’s vocal abilities were recognised at an early age and he became a soloist with the choir of the Greek Orthodox church in Alexandria. He also took up the guitar and trumpet.
Increasing xenophobia in Egypt led his family to emigrate to Athens in 1961. There Demis took up the bass guitar and as a teenager sang and played in a series of pop groups including the Idols and We Five. Among his fellow performers were the keyboards player Evangelos Papathanassiou (aka Vangelis) and the drummer Loukas Sideras, with whom he formed Aphrodite’s Child in 1967.
The trio decided that they needed to get closer to the centre of the international music industry and set off for London. Unfortunately, they were turned back at Dover due to visa problems. Retreating to Paris, they were able to audition successfully for executives at the Philips record company. Their first recording sessions were delayed by the general strike of May 1968 but later that year, Rain and Tears by Aphrodite’s Child was issued across Europe. Composed by Vangelis and the French lyricist Boris Bergman, and featuring Roussos’s unusual high tenor, the song was only a minor hit in Britain but created a sensation in many other countries.
Aphrodite’s Child had more hit singles in continental Europe and went on to record the album 666 (made in 1970 but released in 1972), based on religious texts from the apocalypse of St John, but soon afterwards Vangelis’s ambition to create film music caused the group to split up. He and Roussos would occasionally collaborate in later years, notably in 1981 when Roussos sang Race to the End, a vocal version of Vangelis’s theme from Chariots of Fire, with lyrics by Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes.
Roussos embarked on a solo career with the album Fire and Ice (1971), whose first single We Shall Dance was a summer hit across Europe, though not in Britain. In 1972 he toured Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Greece. The following year he went to South America. Although Roussos songs were generally written in English, usually by the Athens-born Lakis Vlavianos, he often rerecorded them in French, German and Spanish, and even, on one occasion, in Japanese. Roussos’ love for kaftans saw him named “the Kaftan King” and he often wore them for his performances.
In 1973, Roussos released Forever and Ever, which became his first British hit record after widespread television appearances, including on the Nana Mouskouri Show and the children’s show the Basil Brush Show. In 1976 a BBC TV documentary, The Roussos Phenomenon, produced by John King, kindled further interest in the singer. Philips issued a four-song record of the same name (including a version of Forever and Ever), which became the first EP to top the British singles chart. A few months later, the single When Forever Has Gone was only kept from achieving the same position by Abba’s Dancing Queen.
Critics had often remarked on Roussos’s weight and by the end of the 1970s, when he weighed nearly 150kg (about 23st 9lb), Roussos had become concerned. After trying several diets, he found one that helped him lose 50kg in 10 months. In 1982, he described this process in the book A Question of Weight.
In 1985, Roussos was travelling on TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome, when it was hijacked by Hezbollah terrorists and flown to Beirut. Most of the passengers were held hostage for 17 days but Roussos and other Greek citizens on board were released after five. Although his popularity in Britain declined from its 70s peak, Roussos continued to record and perform round the world until shortly before his death.
Roussos died in the morning of 25 January 2015, from stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, and liver cancer while hospitalised at Ygeia Hospital in Athens, Greece. He had been in the private hospital for some time, and died surrounded by his family at the age of 68. His funeral was held at the First Cemetery of Athens, the burial place of many Greek politicians and cultural figures.
(Edited from obit by Dave Laing @ The Guardian & Wikipedia)