Giannis Parios is the singer of love and one of the most beloved and popular singers in Greek music.

Giannis Parios appeared in music in 1969 but few people would have guessed that this voice would be associated with some of the greatest hits in Greek music and that Parios would become one of the most successful Greek singers with millions of albums sold all these years.

Giannis Parios

Short biography of Parios

Parios was born in 1946 on the island of Paros – his original name is Giannis Varthakouris.

Due to his great love for his island, when he first started singing he changed his name to Giannis Parios, because it sounded better.

Giannis was the youngest son of the family, and left Paros to study in the Medical School in Athens. He got a job at the hotel Saronida, opposite from the famous night stage Neraida in Alimos Athens. At that time Tzeni Vanou and Giannis Vogiatzis were also singing in Neraida.

He got to know the conductor of the club, Kosts Klavas who stayed at the hotel, and little later he started his music classes at Klavas’ school. This is how he made his first steps in Greek song, singing songs by Giorgos Katsaros who was also a teacher in that school.

Since then he started singing songs of the greatest Greek composers, such as Pythagoras and Kaldaras.

Little later he sang the song “Tora pia”, which is the Greek version of the song “Tu t’en vas” by Alain Barriere. This album sold more than 240,000 and became the second most well sold album till then.

The 80s started in the best possible way, since Parios released the album “Nisiotika” with songs from the Cyclades and the islands of the Aegean. Parios made his best hit and became the singer of island songs, the “nisiotika”, which are heard till today in feasts and celebrations.

Since then, Parios has released more than 40 albums and has participated in even more albums of his friends and colleagues.

Parios has worked with all the great names of Greek music, such as Marinella, Haris Alexiou, Giorgos Dalaras, singing songs of great composers and lyric writers, such as Hadjidakis, Theodorakis and more.

Giannis Parios’ personal life

Since Parios received early the title of the singer of love, most people were really interested in his personal life. After all, he is one of the most approachable people, who never hid his personal life from the media.

In 1972, Parios got married with Ntina Markopoulou and had two kids, Haris Varthakouris, who also became a composer and singer, and Thanassis.

In 1986, Parios met Sophia Aliberti with whom he started an affair. In 1992, they had their first son, Michail and in 1997 the second, Nikolas.

Parios and Aliberti got married in 1996 and divorced in 1998 after 12 years of common life.

Since then Parios has been involved with some women from the show business or not that known, but he still remains single to this time.

Parios has collaborated with his son Haris Varthakouris who is an excellent composer. At the age of 6 he composed the music for the song “Pio kali i monaksia” (Loneliness is better) that became a huge hit of Giannis Parios.

In 1995, father and son worked together again and the song “Erotas einai tharro” ( I think it’s love) was born.

Giannis Parios – The singer of love

Except for his great hits, Parios became so popular and beloved to the Greek audience because of the tenderness of his voice.

The title “singer of love” came as no accident: Parios sang all versions of love, its pleasure, its joy and its unhappiness.

The 90s ended with a very successful collection of his love songs named “Parios – Love”.

Today, Giannis Parios is still a very popular artist who sings love and manages to accompany us in our hard times in love, or in the lack of it.