The highly regarded Greek composer Antonis Vardis lost his battle with cancer today after being hospitalized for two months.

He was diagnosed with cancer 23 years ago and a year ago he underwent a difficult surgical procedure in Germany.

He was born in 1948 in Moschato in Athens and at the age of six he met the famous Greek artists Tsitsanis, Papaioannou, Zabetas and Rena Dalia at “Faliriko”, where he performed for the first time.

Antonis Vardis, though, had to do various jobs due to financial difficulties. He worked as a shop assistant, an employee at gas station and hardware store, a plumber assistant and a sailor. But, he finally devoted himself to his great love, the song. At the age of 17, in 1965, he formed a band with his friends named “Vickings”. Among the band’s famous songs are “Fransoas” and “Caterin”.

For more than twelve years (1969-1981) he was performing in music halls at Plaka in Athens as a musician along with famous singers, such as Christos Nikolopoulos, Takis Soukas, Thanasis Polykandriotis, Dimos Moutsis, Yannis Spanos, Loukianos Kilaidonis, Manos Loizos, Lakis Karnezis, Giorgos Dalaras, Haris Alexiou, Yiannis Parios, Manolis Mitsias, Vicky Moscholiou, Dimitra Galani, Antonis Kalogiannis, Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Anna Vissi, Dimitris Psarianos, Tzavaras, Charalambos Garganourakis, Nikos Xilouris, Mariza Koch, Maria Dimitriadis, Kostas Christou, Tania Tsanaklidou and many others.

His first distinction was in 1973 when he participated in a competition and won the second prize in music composition with the song performed by Giorgos Dalaras.

Antonis Vardis also cooperated with many well known songwriters, such as Kostas Tripolitis, Antonis Andrikakis, Manos Eleftheriou, Lefteris Papadopoulos, Pythagoras, Vassilis Giannopoulos and many others.