Demis roussos biography discography wiki

The Roussos had been in Egypt for two generations and on 15 June Artemios Venturis Roussos was born in Alexandria. His mother, Olga, and his father, George, both of Greek extraction, had also been born in the country their parents had come to in the s.

Following the Greek custom, the baby was named after his paternal grandfather, Demis being a pet name for Artemios. In the heart of an orthodox community, he lived in the middle of a Muslim city.

Demis roussos wife

From his early childhood he was immersed in folk music, exposed to Byzantine and Arabic influences. Attracted to singing, he joined the choir of the Greek Byzantine Church with which he sang for five years as a soloist. At the same time he studied musical theory and learnt how to play the guitar and the trumpet.

Everything was going well when the Suez crisis blew up in Residents in Egypt had to leave the country and the Roussos – Mr Roussos was an engineer with a property construction company – returned to their nat