Career
Yiannis Parios (Greek: Γιάννης Πάριος) is a Greek singer-songwriter. 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.
Yiannis Parios has worked with many of the leading Greek composers, including Manos Loizos, Yorgos Hadzinasios, Stavros Xarchakos, Stamatis Spanoudakis, Yorgos Katsaros, Marios Tokas, Yannis Spanos and 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. Yiannis Parios has not confined appearances to Greece: He has also performed in Albert Hall, the Carnegie Hall and most of the major venues in Canada, Australia, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey and Israel. Parios has four sons from two marriages.
