A world musical genius
Vangelis Papathanasiou is the most famous Greek music composer in the world and he has been repeatedly awarded for his contribution to the music industry. His talent has captivated millions of fans all over the world.
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanasiou was born on March 29, 1943, in Agria Volos, and since the age of four,
he showed his inclination in music, while at the age of 6 he gave his first performance to an audience, while playing his own piano compositions, without ever having received any sort of musical education.
Both his family and his teachers saw how uniquely gifted he had been and encouraged him to broaden his knowledge of music, but the child prodigy never wanted to attend such classes. His ambition was to create his own music, express it just as he listened and felt it. Becoming a piano soloist or playing another musical instrument was not something he wanted. Later, however, he studied classical music, painting and directing, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Athens.
In the 60s, the young composer created the band “The Forminx” which was a huge success in Greece and which made beat music popular across the country. But Greece could not hold back the musical composer; his passion for music led him to Paris, in 1968, where, together with another great Greek artist, Demis Roussos, formed “Aphrodite’s Child” and managed to become the most popular music band in Europe at that period.
Vangelis Papathanasiou’s career did not stop escalating, just like his desire and unstoppable thirst for the creation and exploration of new musical paths. Thus, while still a member of the band, he worked on other projects as well. In 1970, for example, he composed the music for a film by Henry Chapier, a French director, and he was also musically involved in a documentary about the wildlife, with the French director Frederic Rossif, which had great success.
Paris was the first to make him known, but after the end of Aphrodite’s Child, he found his next musical retreat in
