Famous Greek singer Giannis Poulopoulos has died aged 79 (videos)

The singer of the most commercial Greek album of all time, Giannis Poulopoulos, passed away at 9 o’clock on Sunday night at the ICU of Attikon at the age of 79 where he succumbed to chronic respiratory problems.

Giannis Poulopoulos was one of the greatest performers of Greek music and one of the most iconic voices of the so-called New Wave of Greek music.

He sang songs of Mimis Plessas and Lefteris Papadopoulos in the famous “Dromos” (trnsl. “The Road”) album, with sales that have exceeded 1.500.000 copies, although reports say that the number is twice as big.

There are many who claim that if Greek cinema had a voice, it was definitely his own, the voice of a child born in Chios who was destined for great things.

He was an artist gifted with a voice that “marked” the songs of an era, endowed with deep emotional tones, who entered the studio and “nailed” songs in one take. The “Dromos” album in which he sang ten of the twelve songs on the album, was all recorded within ten hours and this is largely due to Poulopoulos.

A low-key personality who in recent years had withdrawn from publicity -he was never a fan of it anyway- and lived a quiet life with his wife Betty and their daughter Anda.

Realizing that the music business had taken a turn to the worst, he decides in 1999 to end his music career. He never came back and went on with his family and a life away from the flashlights and pointless public appearances.

He suffered a lot in recent years after a car accident and glaucoma in his eyes.