A native of Limassol, a student of Lanitio, active and loved by all his classmates, although low-key. With that same low profile he marched in his adult life, too, even when he was already widely recognizable in Greece, Cyprus and abroad.
In 1974, the tragedy of the Turkish invasion found him serving the military. The brutality of the war marked him deeply and he devoted much of his work to the tragic experience of the war and his divided country. He loved the beauty of the place and the everyday, simple people. These feelings became the material that sealed his work.
He met and worked with some of the greatest artistic forms in Greece, as Dimitris Mitropanos, Parios, Dalaras, Paschalis Terzis, Glykeria, Haris Alexiou, Dimitra Galani, Antonis Kaloyannis, Tolis Voskopoulos, Marinella, Stelios Dionysiou, Lakis Halkias, Aleka Kanellidou, Katerina Kouka, Vasilis Skoulas etc. An important station along his career was his acquaintance with the poet Yiannis Ritsos, who trusted him with the music of 12 of his unpublished poems.
The composer of popular hits of the Greek music scene, along with flagship songs devoted to his country and an entire disk entitle by Mary, the Mother of God, and so many more, has been a worthy son of the city of Limassol.
Having composed music for literature by Kostas Varnalis, Kostas Karyotakis, Tefkros Anthias, Kostas Montis, Theodosis Pierides, Michael Pasiardis, Kyriacos Charalambides and musical dress the works of Federico García Lorca, Aristophanes, Iakovos Kampanelis, he was a unique kind of artist. Despite the range of his work, he has always remained as humble as the child playing in school bands.
On March 8th 2001, he was honored by the President of the Republic of Cyprus, with "the excellent provision to the country medal", which is the highest honor of the Cypriot state. In 2002 he received the prize "Yannos Kranidiotis".
Marios Tokas, who was born on June 8th 1954, passed away on Easter, April 27th 2008.
* NOTE: The tributes of the Project "History of Limassol" present information that has emerged from historical research thus far. Any new data is embedded into the tributes, once it has been confirmed.
