Parios was born in 1946 on the island of Paros – his original name is Yiannis Varthakouris. Due to his great love for his island, when he first started singing he changed
Parios was born in 1946 on the island of Paros – his original name is Yiannis Varthakouris. Due to his great love for his island, when he first started singing he changed his name to Yiannis Parios, because it sounded better.
Yiannis 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, Kostas 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.
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