Yiannis Parios - Biography

Biography

Yiannis Parios was born Ioannis Varthakouris (Greek: Ιωάννης Βαρθακούρης) on the island of Paros (part of the Cyclades).

He made his first appearance as a singer in 1969. At that time no one could have imagined that his voice would one day become the most perfect expression of the word “love”.

Any attempt to analyse the “Parios Phenomenon”, his enormous appeal to the public and the hundreds of thousands of record sales (all his releases have won both gold and platinum discs), will show that his success is the result of his constant search for lyrics and music which contribute to his own growth as an artist, which promote his art and which will stand the test of time. Most of Yannis Parios’ time is spent on his work, which he approaches with dedication and respect.

His great talent, then, in conjunction with these factors explains why Parios has managed to break new ground in the love song, to gain the recognition of the general public and to have his songs on everyone’s lips. His popularity is constantly increasing and Parios is one of the very few singers who does not need a constant string of hit recordings to maintain his fame.

“Whenever a song is born”, says Yannis Parios - and this is one of his most deep-seated beliefs - ”and wherever it is sung (in France, Italy, or anywhere else), it belongs to everyone. That, really, is the reason why music exists: so that it cannot be fenced in by frontiers”.

With that consideration in mind, Yannis Parios was the first Greek singer to perform Alain Barriere’s song “Tu t’en vas” with Greek lyrics. Under its new title “Tora pia”; the song was a gigantic hit, on an unprecedented scale for the time, and it marked the beginning of a new age in which many Greek singers adapted “foreign” melodies to Greek lyrics.

Yannis Parios has worked with many of the leading Greek composers, including Greek composers, including Manos Loizos, Yorgos Hadzinasios, Stavros Xarchakos, Stamatis Spanoudakis, Yorgos Katsaros, Marios Tokas, Yannis Spanos and Alaxis Papadimitriou. He writes lyrics of his own, and often composes music, too. Quite a number of his songs have been translated and sung abroad. One of his releases holds the record for Greek sales: this was the album “Nisiotika”, released in 1982 and consisting of a collection of songs of the Aegean islands which, as an islander himself, he learnt and first sang in childhood.

Yannis Parios does not confine his appearances to Greece: he has sung at the Albert Hall, the Carnegie Hall and the largest theatres in Canada and Australia. He has also appeared on radio and TV programs with very high viewing and listening rates.