Billy Dertilis

Biography

DertyLee is the current creative identity of Vasilis Dertilis, a Greek composer, songwriter and producer whose career stretches back to the late 1970s. He first emerged as the founder and principal creative force behind Apocalypsis, one of Greece’s distinctive progressive rock bands of the period, before moving into pop, electronic music and studio production. In the mid-1980s he co-founded Bang with Thanos Kalliris, beginning an international chapter that included releases across Europe, the US and Japan. Bang represented Greece at the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest with “Stop,” written by Kalliris and Dertilis, finishing 10th. Their international releases included “You’re the One,” which entered the UK Singles Chart in 1989, and “Holding My Heart,” which reached the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990 and was produced and remixed with Shep Pettibone. Across the decades that followed, Dertilis continued writing, producing and working across records, film, advertising and studio projects. Today, as DertyLee, he channels that long creative history into new music with an electronic, atmospheric and contemporary focus.