Very interesting piece of info from Wikipedia.

Anastasios 'Sakis' Rouvas (Greek: Αναστάσιος "Σάκης" Ρουβάς, (born January 5, 1972 in the island of Corfu) is a very popular Greek singer and athlete, as well as an actor, and a model, who has sold 1.5 million records in Greece alone, and nearly as many internationally. He may very well be the most famous Greek artist, and has been dubbed by many critics as "Greece's only real pop-star/mega-star", "the ultimate pop-rocker" "the sexiest Greek" and "the only Greek who could ever have a great international career". As the most sought after person by Greek media, he has always been a giant in advertisement, and has soared to unprecedented heights in his career. He has been known by many throughout Europe since 2002, and became very loved in 2004, (as one of the favourites to win) when he won the third place in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Istanbul for Greece with the smash hit Shake It! He is a multi-platinum selling artist who has collaborated with countless top names in the Greek music industry, and outside, such as world-famous song-writer Desmond Child. Sakis is also happy to have been officially declared years ago as Greece's best stage performer and contemporary male artist, and to have the largest fanclub for over a decade.

Biography

Early Life

Sakis was born in a village on the Greek island of Corfu (Kerkyra) as the second son to a very poor family. He has on older biological brother and three other step/ half brothers. His athletic abilities shone from the beginning, and he participated in many sports prior to academic studies since elementary school. He loved music and would always find a way to get the latest big album from the U.S. Soon before his teen years, music would become a very big part of his life, as he decided to follow his dreams and make it as an entertainer.

As a child, he himself realized his incredible talents and strong eagerness to excel at a very young age, but was rarely given a chance to show them due to multiple problematic situations within his family. There a lot of abuse between his parents and they got divorced when he was only twelve years-old. After that point, the only two people who cared for him were his grandmother and uncle. His father remarried and Rouvas was forced to do many hard jobs for a young boy, so the family would have enough money to care for his younger brothers, but he would secretly give some to his mother, who he didn't live with. Those close to him got to here his striking voice. Sakis quickly learned to play guitar, and would often sneak out and perform as the frontman for many different bands at local clubs (much to some of his family's dismay). He had decided to start his career on his own and before he was out of high school he managed to get on the Greek National Gymnastics Team, at the age of seventeen. All of his classmates remember the night of their graduation, where Sakis sang his rendition of the greatest hits of Elvis and the Beatles at theafter party. This was the first true time that everyone from his hometown got to hear him. Rouvas refused to let all of the conflict with his family slow him down, at seventeen he left Corfu for Athens, to further on pursue his athletic career.

Athletic Career

Before graduating high school, Sakis was signed on to the Greek National Gymnastics Team. As a gymnast he won numerous awards, and his scores were always high. He was selected to represent the country in international competitions for pole vault.


Music Career

While working on gymnastics in Athens, Sakis continued working at music. It wasn't very long before famous Greek modern laika artist, Dakis, noticed Rouvas' incredible personality and potential to one of the biggest Greek stars and Decided to help him out with signing on , and making his first appearance. At the the age of nineteen, Sakis Rouvas made his first professional appearance as a singer in early 1991 at the Athens Show Center. The Greek division of the Polygram record label quickly noticed his stunning voice and breathtaking appearance and Sakis was immediately signed on, with his and the labels' dreams of him becoming the next Greek super star! A few months later, his debut album had been packaged, and he went on to perform his first single Par'ta(Take Them) at the prestigious Thessaloniki Song Festival, ultimately taking home the first place and instantly conquered many fans. After the show, Elias Psinakis (who had been a musician in the United States and is now a famous Greek media icon) became the controversial manager and soon to be best friend of Sakis. Sakis Rouvas' self-titled debut album was a big hit, especially considering that pop/rock music wasn't really that favorable at that time in Greece. The album certified Sakis as Greece's first ever male pop-star, but in many peoples' minds, especially by non-Greek fans, he was and still is considered as Greece's first and only real pop singer by international standards.(mainly because he doesn't bounce between pop and modern laika, and always performs elaborate stage shows with lots of dance). The album "Sakis Rouvas" was made No.1 for many weeks by the fans. For four years in a row he monopolized theHellenic Music Awards as he won titles that includeded Best New Singer, Best Song and Best Stage Performanceas wellas many others.

He has also played a role in reconciliation efforts with Turkey. In 1997, he performed on stage with Turkish singer Burak Kut in a concert in UN-controlled territory on Cyprus. For this, he was awarded the International Abdi Ipekci Prize for understanding and co-operation.

In 2004, he was selected to represent Greece in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, performing the song Shake it by Nikos Terzis. Clearly learning the lesson from the previous two winners of the contest Marie N and Sertab Erener that, in an era of televoting, a Eurovision entry must now also be a visual spectacle in order to succeed, Sakis produced a raunchy display in which he at one stage ripped the clothes off his two attractive female dancers, leaving them only in shimmering attire that barely covered a tenth of their bodies. The dancers then repaid the compliment by ripping off his jacket, all of which held the attention of the viewing public long enough for them to vote the catchy "Shake It" into third place, equalling Greece's best ever result, up to that point, by Antique in 2001.

He was the host for Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, along with Greek-American Maria Menounos.

Thanks a lot for this interesting piece of information. There are many things I didn't know, such as the fact that his parents divorced..I didn't know he had suffered so much when he was a kid, but maybe he has become a wonderful person beacause of this too...Smuah to Sakis

Thanks MO, Thanks alot!

Yes, much of this was news to me. Hopefully the source is reliable. Sure sounds like it, so unless I hear differently, I'll assume that this is a fair description of Sakis career.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Moldie!

In here, there are many things here that I had never knew about and wanted to know, like how many records he has sold. I'm sure this is reliable like you said Mal because Wikipedia is usually reliable. I wonder who wrote this, it is probably some barmy Rouvitsa who knows absolutely everything about him. I just discovered this last night and I found it very interesting so I posted extracts of the Wikipedia article here, the interesting parts that is, the old well known boring bits were cut out because I wanted everyone to see the more interesting bits most of them I think had never even knew about.

In 2004, he was selected to represent Greece in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, performing the song Shake it by Nikos Terzis. Clearly learning the lesson from the previous two winners of the contest Marie N and Sertab Erener that, in an era of televoting, a Eurovision entry must now also be a visual spectacle in order to succeed, Sakis produced a raunchy display in which he at one stage ripped the clothes off his two attractive female dancers, leaving them only in shimmering attire that barely covered a tenth of their bodies. The dancers then repaid the compliment by ripping off his jacket, all of which held the attention of the viewing public long enough for them to vote the catchy "Shake It" into third place, equalling Greece's best ever result, up to that point, by Antique in 2001.

I surely remember every moment of this performance. The thing that's missing from this article is that during his final performation he even slapped one of his dancing girls (not once but twice) on her arse. Not to mention the flip backwards he made on stage.

emilia from finland wrote:

I surely remember every moment of this performance. The thing that's missing from this article is that during his final performation he even slapped one of his dancing girls (not once but twice) on her arse. Not to mention the flip backwards he made on stage.

I remember that Em, and I also remember that arse slapping incident. Also I remember that backflip. I have seen the entire ESC 2004 contest and I have the DVD and I have worn it out so much that I eventually got sick of the contest altogether.
Did you know that Sakis is one of only 2 contestants at that time, the other one being the Serbian entry, which garnered points from every single country who participated in that contest?

Moldienut wrote:

I remember that Em, and I also remember that arse slapping incident. Also I remember that backflip. I have seen the entire ESC 2004 contest and I have the DVD and I have worn it out so much that I eventually got sick of the contest altogether.

Really?!? Wow ...

Moldienut wrote:

Did you know that Sakis is one of only 2 contestants at that time, the other one being the Serbian entry, which garnered points from every single country who participated in that contest?

Now that you mention it, I think you told me about it a long time ago. But I had forgot this amazing fact, and I got just as happy about hearing this this time as I got the first time I heard it! Thanks for reminding us!

really Mo, I wonder what has caused the success... except that the article sort of captured the reason..he came shook his hips, stripped the dancing girls and also showed some of his own body as wel, slapped some arses and made a vault, plus the line "shake, shake, shake, shake it mi amor..." sort of gets easily stucked in the head.

I remember from that year only Sakis and Lena Ph and her mike.

Thanx Mo. I've already read this article in Wiki. It's part of my obsession search the net to find an information available about Sakis. Emilia once asked how I found you girls and it was searching on Google. There are more 249.000 entries for his name and I look at every one that is written in a language I can read (very few) Otherwise, I'd never have joined the gang. Trusting is not easy for me. But I trust you.

aleera wrote:

Thanx Mo. I've already read this article in Wiki. It's part of my obsession search the net to find an information available about Sakis. Emilia once asked how I found you girls and it was searching on Google. There are more 249.000 entries for his name and I look at every one that is written in a language I can read (very few) Otherwise, I'd never have joined the gang. Trusting is not easy for me. But I trust you.

Btw Aleera, that's exactly how I ended up here as well. I was googling about info on Sakis Rouvas and accidentally found this forum.

rosalba wrote:

Thanks a lot for this interesting piece of information. There are many things I didn't know, such as the fact that his parents divorced..I didn't know he had suffered so much when he was a kid, but maybe he has become a wonderful person beacause of this too...Smuah to Sakis

You know that's what makes it so interesting! He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. It's easy to climb from a hill to a bigger hill but climbing to a mountain from the edge ... it's more difficult.

Maybe it's his background that has helped him to stay so genuine and down to earth.

my opinion is that there is no " accidentally"

stelios wrote:

my opinion is that there is no " accidentally"

maybe it was a sign from higher powers that Sakis came into my life...it has to be something more than co-incidence

emilia from finland wrote:

stelios wrote:

my opinion is that there is no " accidentally"

maybe it was a sign from higher powers that Sakis came into my life...it has to be something more than co-incidence

I think I must've felt the same way when I saw on YT those dancers of his ripped out his jacket at ESC '04!

Here are some more info from Wikipedia but it is unsure if that is true or not.

Sakis Rouvas was born on January 5, 1972 on the Greek island of Corfu in the village of Mandouki, near the island's capital, Corfu City. His parents are Kostas Rouvas and Anna-Maria Panaretou. He has one younger biological brother named Tolis. His father was a drive, while his mother worked at the Duty Free at the local airport. Rouvas grew up in a very poor family. However, his talents and passion for life were revealed at a very young age. Since the age of four, his incredible athletic abilities shone. Both of his parents had some background in theater, and at the age of only ten, Rouvas starred in his first major theatrical production, An I Karharies Itan Anthropi (If Caracatures were People), which quickly sold out local theatres in his native Corfu. His much older co-stars were amazed at the young boy's talent and charisma, and they soon label him "The Miracle Child." Soon after, Rouvas discovered his second great love after athletics, being music. He soon after very quickly learned to play guitar by himself and was inspired by music of abroad. His greatest inspiration that would later on mould his career, was Elvis Presley.

Unfortunately for Sakis Rouvas, fate would only bring sorrow and troublesome times for him and his family who had already been suffering from great poverty. The days of childhood contment would soon disappear in the forthcoming years. In 1984, his parents got divorced, and due to strained relationships between the two, Sakis and his brother Tolis were forced to move to the village of Potamos, where they were from then on raised by their paternal grandmother, Elpiniki, and grandfather, Anastasis, who is Sakis' namesake. Darker days follow, as his father remarried almost immediately, and Sakis would now inherit younger stepbrothers. At the age of only twelve, Sakis was forced into doing many jobs beyond his years, in order to support his father's new family, as well as his mother, who was all alone, along with his academic studies at school and the puruit of embracing and developing his athletic, theatrical, and musical talents.

At the age of sixteen, he made his first big turning-point in his career after being accepted as a member of the Greek National Gymnastics Team. His scores were always very high, and he won numerous natioanal and international awards. He was even asked to participate in pole vault for the team, one more thing that he would excel at.

However, Rouvas still held onto his love of music. He decides to leave acting, and soon started to do performances at local clubs. He became a member of the Corfu Band. The first time that everyone got to hear him sing was at the night of his graduation, where he rose onto the stage in front of his classmates and sang his rendition of all of the hits of Elvis and The Beatles.

After graduating, he started working at hotels and night clubs as a singer, however, there were too many problematic situations in his life in Corfu, and at the age of seventeen, he leaves Corfu, and moves to Patra alone, in hope of better luck.

Thanks 4 this Mo.

Very interesting information! Thanks!

Before graduating high school, Sakis was signed on to the Greek National Gymnastics Team. As a gymnast he won numerous awards, and his scores were always high. He was selected to represent the country in international competitions for pole vault.

That's how I fell in love with him!
I am gymnast and when I saw him in Eurovision 04 doing that famous move, he left me no words...

Darijas.Rouvas. wrote:

Before graduating high school, Sakis was signed on to the Greek National Gymnastics Team. As a gymnast he won numerous awards, and his scores were always high. He was selected to represent the country in international competitions for pole vault.

That's how I fell in love with him!
I am gymnast and when I saw him in Eurovision 04 doing that famous move, he left me no words...

I know exactly what u mean there Darijas! No doubt among the many moments there that caught my attention when it came 2 liking our man!

Wow that man has done a lot in his career and he is still going? Wow he must love being famous.

He is quite famous at the moment, for sure.. He had one of main role in the movie Duress which is finnished a weeks ago.. in hollywood.. (:
We are still waiting for the movie..
He is still going, yep

Yeah like his awesome Eurovision song he did this year. Shame that wasn't number one.

Yes, that's a big shame, his song was a 100 times better then maaaaany songs that beat his song..