Demis Roussos (HD) - Far Away (Lyrics)

Roussos was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, in a Greek family where his father George (Yorgos Roussos) was a classical guitarist and an engineer and his mother Olga was a singer, her family originally hailed from Greece. As a child, he joined the Greek Byzantine Church choir in Alexandria. His parents lost their possessions during the Suez Crisis and consequently decided to move to Greece.

Artemios "Demis" Ventouris Roussos (Greek: Αρτέμιος "Ντέμης" Βεντούρης Ρούσσος, 15 June 1946 – 25 January 2015) was a Greek singer and performer who had international hit records as a solo performer in the 1970s after having been a member of Aphrodite's Child, a progressive rock group that also included Vangelis.

He sold over 60 million albums worldwide.

After settling in Greece, Roussos participated in a series of musical groups beginning with The Idols when he was 17, where he met Evangelos Papathanassiou (later known as Vangelis) and Loukas Sideras, his future bandmates in Aphrodite's Child.[8] After this he joined We Five (not the San Francisco, California folk-rock group), another cover band which had limited success in Greece.

Roussos came to a wider audience in 1967 when he joined progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child, with Vangelis and Loukas Sideras, initially as a singer but later also playing bass guitar, achieving commercial success in France and other parts of Europe from 1968 to 1972. They set off for London to break into the international music scene but were turned back at Dover due to visa problems. They retreated to Paris where they decided to stay, signing a record deal there with Philips Records. Their first recording sessions were delayed by the general strike of May 1968 but later the same year the song "Rain and Tears" was issued across Europe. the song would appear on the album End of the World in October. Composed by Vangelis and the French lyricist Boris Bergman, the song featured Roussos’s unusual high tenor, The song was only a minor hit in Britain but was remarkably successful in many other countries. Roussos's operatic vocal style helped propel the band to international success, notably on their final album 666, based on religious texts from the Apocalypse of St John, which became a progressive rock cult classic.

After Aphrodite's Child disbanded, Roussos continued to record sporadically with former bandmate Vangelis. In 1970 the two released the film score album Sex Power (although the album has also been disputably credited to Aphrodite's Child), also recording the 1977 album Magic together. Their most successful collaboration was "Race To The End" (also sung in Spanish as "Tu Libertad"), a vocal adaptation of the musical theme from the Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire, while Roussos also guested on the soundtrack to Blade Runner (1982), with a song entitled "Tales Of The Future"

Roussos died in the morning of 25 January 2015, while hospitalized at Ygeia Hospital in Athens, Greece. His death was confirmed a day later by his friend, the journalist Nikos Aliagas, who tweeted the news on 26 January 2015 in both Greek and French.[24][25] His death was confirmed later the same day by his daughter, who spoke to Greek and French media.

Fellow Greek singer Nana Mouskouri paid tribute to Roussos on the French radio station RTL, saying "He had a superb voice, he travelled in the world ... he loved what he was doing... He was an artist, a friend. I hope he is in a better world."[1]

Roussos' funeral will be held at the First Cemetery of Athens, a resting place for many Greek politicians and cultural figures, on 30 January at 12 noon.

Roussos sang the song "All Is Vanity" on Martyn Ford's 1970s The Bible Album. The lyrics of the song are based on Chapter One of the book of Ecclesiastes.[27][28]
He is the subject of an argument between two main characters in Mike Leigh's 1977 play Abigail's Party. On the day of Roussos' death actress Alison Steadman was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's PM on the significance of the music in the play.

solo albums



On the Greek Side of My Mind (also called Fire and ice) (1971)
Forever and Ever (1973)
My Only Fascination (1974)
Auf Wiederseh'n (1974, German language)
Souvenirs (1975)
Happy To Be (1976)
Die Nacht und der Wein (1976, German language)
Kyrila (1977, German language)
The Demis Roussos Magic (1977)
Ainsi soit-il (1977, French language)
Los super 2 LP (1977, Spanish language)
Demis Roussos (1978)
Universum (1979, Spanish language)
Man of the World (1980)
Roussos Live! (1980)
Demis (1982)
Attitudes (1982)
Reflection (1984)
Senza Tempo (1985)
Greater Tove (1986)
The Story of... (1987)
Come All Ye Faithful (1987)