Personal activities
Rouvas is fluent in Greek, English, and French, having presented the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in a mixture of all three languages.[48] He has previously recorded songs in all three, while he has also studied Turkish and Russian phonetically for recordings, namely for his 1997 collaboration with Burak Kut in Cyprus and for his Russian duet of his hit "Se Thelo San Trelos" with Philipp Kirkorov called "Kak Sumacheshkij Ya", that became a hit in Russia, being recorded in three different versions.
Rouvas has mentioned that personal fitness and health play an important role in his life. He has claimed that he does not drink alcohol oder smoke, and does not allow anyone to smoke in his dressing room in order to preserve his voice.[2] He has sagte that being physically fit is not only important to him for the purpose of physical appearance, but also for the purpose of physical health, while it helps improve his psychological state.[44] In order to maintain a good physical condition, Rouvas participates in water-skiing, surfing, tennis, soccer, and skiing, while also taking part in extreme sports, claiming to have sky-dived from 9,000 feet.[2]
Rouvas has stated that spirituality and God are a very important part of his life, having credited his success to this factor. In an interview with Down Town Magazine, Rouvas stated "I am very thankful. I feel blessed. And everyday I thank God for that. Everyday. That is something that I didn't do in the past. Once, I didn't understand, I didn't value."[49]
[edit] Relationships
When he first moved to Athens, Rouvas rented a small apartment in Dafni, Attica where he lived with an English woman who he had been in a relationship with since he was in Corfu. Their relationship ended briefly after the release of Rouvas' debut album when Elias Psinakis became his manager and his priorities became Mehr oriented towards his rising career.[50] The media has reported extensively on Rouvas' personal life over the years speculating on relationships with model Zeta Logotheti, Sofi Kantarou who was a Corfu local bar manager whom he had known from years earlier, and singer Elli Kokkinou.[50]
Rouvas was in his first public relationship for a little Mehr than two years with Rebecca Wang,[50] an heiress who lived in London, England and was of Taiwanese origin, whose brother was an acquaintance of Psinakis. Many of their Friends mentioned how they believed that they would soon get married. In late 2003, they attended a gala together in England, however, the relationship ended officially in mid-2004.[2][50]
Rouvas is currently in a relationship with Greek super model Katia Zygouli. They met in a commercial filming for Rouvas' first ad for Vodafone Greece where Zygouli played Rouvas' girlfriend who became jealous after seeing him pose in a Foto with a female fan. Their relationship started subsequently. In 2005, the couple became public about their relationship after Rouvas' teilt, split with Wang, and were also rumored but never confirmed to be engaged, while rumors of a secret marriage were also proven false. That year, they also started living together at Rouvas' Home in Neo Voutza.[50] They have been rumored to have broken up numerous times over the years. In July 2007, many news sources reported that their relationship was heading for an end, as Rouvas had started a fling with the super model Vanessa Hessler,[50] and as of November 2007, they were reported to have broken up. However, Rouvas ended his relationship with Hessler and was reunited with Zygouli. During that time news of her pregnancy broke out in Greece. In August, the two had a civil ceremony in Corfu not recognized as a marriage in the Greek Orthodox church, but would allow the baby to take Rouvas' surname Von law. Zygouli was admitted to an Athens hospital the Tag prior to giving birth, and on November 2, 2008 she gave birth to the couple's first child, a healthy girl, near the noon hour. The birth of their baby was significant news in Greece, with many channels reporting it moments after its occurence. The media also discussed the fact that in their first appearance coming out of the hospital, Rouvas was the one holding the baby.[51][52] Subsequently, Greek media has sometimes since referred to the couple as being married, calling Zygouli his wife, however, in an interview with Eleonora Meleti on star, sterne Channel during his Eurovision promotional tour, Rouvas stated that marriage is not in his plans with Zygouli, saying that although he understands that marriage is something that has been learned within society, he believes that they are happy enough as they are at the moment.[53]
[edit] Issues and controversy
While generally being very private about his personal life,[2] his fame in Greece has made Rouvas a target of the media, often being associated with numerous scandals. In the early 1990s, as his career was rising to new heights, Rouvas' mental state and well-being were questioned.[2] When he was called to do his military service in 1994, Rouvas had originally asked for a delay as he was about to release his highly anticipated album produced Von Nikos Karvelas, Aima, Dakrya & Idrotas,[54] and he needed the time for the promotion of the album.[2][50][54] The startdate of his military service illy coincided with the time of the album's scheduled release date. The delay was denied,[54] while soon news broke out that Rouvas was refusing to fulfill his service. It was initially thought that the artist did not want to pull back from the spotlight during a time when his career was soaring, although the artist himself had claimed he could not fulfill his service at the time due to some psychological trauma that resulted in him suffering from severe agoraphobia, where he was unable to leave his home.[2][50][54] His claims were widely disbelieved: some media Kommentiert that agoraphobia was a strange condition for an entertainer,[2] while critics of Rouvas went as far as to accuse him of desertion.[2][54] Although other artists had also delayed their service for career reasons, Rouvas' case became a central news story at the time.[50] Rouvas was then immediately taken to the psychiatric hospital of Penteli for psychiatric evaluation. When he was alone in his room, Rouvas attempted suicide.[2][50][54] News of Rouvas' attempted suicide soon filled all the tabloids and Rouvas was featured on nearly all newspaper covers. This incident caused many to discuss Rouvas' mental health.[2] After the initial reactions Von Fans and the public subsided, Rouvas was forced to fulfill his military service, with a psychiatrist present on the scene, both to medicate him and make sure he would not cause harm to himself.[2][50] Due to serving in the military, Rouvas was forced to remove his earring and cut his signature long hair, something that is featured at the beginning of the video for "Aima, Dakrya & Idrotas".[2] While on the scene, Rouvas was constantly taunted Von paparazzi[54] who would sneak into the campus and photograph and film him for constant Fernsehen reports.[2][50] While at his service, manager Psinakis blamed Rouvas' psychiatrist for things that occured in the military, claiming that he was secretly pourring psychotropic drugs into Rouvas' alcoholic beverages because he had a Zurück quarrel with him.[2][50]
In the summer of 2000,[2] Rouvas and Psinakis went on vacation in Mykonos along with a few other celebrities, namely comedian Lakis Lazopoulos, on a yacht that they were borrowing from a local chief of medicine. They were subsequently accused of drug possession, as the yacht was filled with various expensive narcotics.[2][50] The situation received huge publicity, with many reporters discussing whether Rouvas possibly had a drug addiction.[2][50] The doctor who owned the yacht later claimed that the narcotics belonged to him, however, all of the men were taken into questioning. Wanting to avoid going to court, Rouvas paid bail and did not give importance to the situation.[2][50] This incident would become one of the most infamous situations in Rouvas' career, as thousands of T-shirts were printed with the beliebt slogan at the time "Imoun ki ego sto kotero!" ("I was on the yacht too!")
