Panathinaikos’ legendary football player Mimis Domazos, who passed away on Friday Jan. 24, was also known for his great romance with Greece’s other sweetheart and legendary singer Vicky Moscholiou. Their wedding in the late sixties caused pandemonium and stopped Athens in its tracks.
When Domazos and Moscholiou ascended the steps of the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral on May 1, 1967, time seemed to freeze, and the center of the capital was closed off for several hours. It was the event known as “the wedding of the year,” which monopolized the attention of both high-society and the sports press of the time.
They were two superstars of their time, each with thousands of fans adoring them – a power couple made in Greece, both of whose roots of origin were poor Greek households. Their wedding was one that resembled a mix between a political rally and a hard rock concert.
Their fairytale had begun four years prior to their wedding. Domazos, despite being only 21 years old, at the time, was the undisputed leader of Panathinaikos, nicknamed the “General” of the “greens” for his ability on the pitch. He was considered a hero in the stands of the Panathinaikos’ Leoforos Alexandras stadium, currently named Apostolos Nikolaidis.
Moscholiou, on the other hand was a 20-year-old unknown, yet rising singer, who hadn’t released her first album yet. However, in the fall of 1963, she found herself performing alongside Greece’s music legends, Giorgos Zampetas and Grigoris Bithikotsis, at “Triana”, one of the most famous entertainment venues of the time
One evening the “General” accompanied by other Panathinaikos players ended up at the venue for a night out. The first glance between the leader of the “greens” and the young Moscholiou would ignite the spark that fuelled a great romance.
From that night onwards, Domazos became a “regular” at “Triana,” and after a short while, they became a couple. Their relationship would be adored by the public, especially when the singer evolved into the country’s most popular voice.
Three years after meeting, in 1967, Domazos and Moscholiou decided to walk down the aisle, but their wedding turned out to be one of the most challenging to pull off.
On April 21, the military dictatorship that came to power in Greece through a coup, threw the country into upheaval.
Urban legend has it that when Moscholiou heard that the dictators would ban gatherings, she naively wondered, “Well, how am I supposed to get married?”
However, as it turned out, not only did the regime not stand in the way of the wedding, but it also did nothing to contain the outpouring of adoration from the public.
On May 1, 1967, approximately 30,000 people flooded the streets from Syntagma Square to the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral, hoping to catch a glimpse of the couple.
As a result, the bride was delayed in arriving at the church, as the car carrying her couldn’t get through the crowd. Some even claimed that when she finally arrived, a wrestler had to help clear a path for her to enter.
However, the chaos didn’t end after the ceremony. The 7,000 wedding favors, decorated with a treble clef and the Panathinaikos clover, were nowhere near enough, with reports mentioning that the bridesmaids had to throw the favors into the air to escape the… unruly crowd.
The following day, the press reported in bold headlines, “The crowd’s displays of affection were so intense that the young couple nearly risked being lynched during their entrance and exit from the church!”
As Moscholiou later revealed, the day after the wedding, the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral had requested the couple pay 15,000 drachmas to the church for damages caused by the 30,000 uninvited guests.
The couple had two daughters, with the marriage coming to an end twelve years later.
