Yiannis Parios

Yiannis Parios (Greek: Γιάννης Πάριος) is a Greek singer-songwriter.

Biography

Yiannis Parios was born Ioannis Varthakouris (Ιωάννης Βαρθακούρης) on the island of Paros. He made his first appearance as a singer in 1969.

He is quoted as saying “Whenever a song is born and wherever it is sung, it belongs to everyone. That, really, is the reason why music exists: so that it cannot be fenced in by frontiers”. This quote is thought to be the main inspiration for his songwriting and performances.

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.

Yiannis 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, off course, Mikis Theodorakis.
He has written lyrics of his own, and often composed music. A number of his songs have been translated and sung abroad.
One of his releases holds the record for Greek sales (one million and four hundred thousand units): 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 may have learnt and first sang in childhood.