Demis Roussos, the Greek singer who was a member of progressive rock greats Aphrodite’s Child before going on to have a millions-selling solo career, has died, aged 68. Athens’ Hygeia hospital confirmed that Roussos passed away over the weekend.
Roussos formed Aphrodite’s Child in the late 60s, following the breakup of his previous group, The Forminx, joining with keyboards luminary Vangelis Papathanassiou, drummer Loukas Sideras and guitarist Anargyros Koulouris. They recorded three albums together, End Of The World in 1968, It’s Five O’Clock in 1969 and 1972’s 666, containing the mighty ‘The Four Horsemen’, before disbanding. Roussos’ solo career took off in the 70s and 80s, with the singer having multiple albums in the UK top ten simultaneously at one point, and enjoying huge success with songs such as ‘Forever And Ever’ (which featured in Mike Leigh’s 1977 TV play Abigail’s Party), ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Quand je t’aime’. He also worked with Vangelis again on ‘Race To The End’, a vocal adaptation of the theme from Chariots Of Fire, as well as contributing to Vangelis’ score to Blade Runner. He released his last album, Demis, in 2009 and continued to perform on stage in recent years. Have a watch of just a few of the singer’s career highlights below:
