Paul Lekakis
Encyclopedia
Paul Lekakis is a Greek
-American
actor
, model
, filmmaker and club music / Hi-NRG
singer, who was discovered for his musical and dancing skills at a nightclub while on assignment as a model in Italy
.
" was released in 1987. The hit version was produced by the Italo-disco producers Miki Chieregato, Tom Hooker and Roberto Turatti, with additional production by Ric Wake
. The song was originally released on ZYX Records and peaked at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100
, #60 on the UK Singles Chart
, #2 in Canada and #1 on the Pop charts in Australia and Japan. This single received attention for its explicit lyrics
(Boom boom boom / Let's go back to my room / Where we can do it all night / And you can make me feel right) and is Lekakis' best-known song. This led to a recording contract
with Sire Records
, who released his debut album Tattoo It
in 1990. The album included the Top 20 Hot Dance Club Play hit, "My House."
Lekakis sang the title track to the British film The Fruit Machine, which was released in 1988. In the US
, the film was re-named Wonderland. This song was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman
.
Lekakis has since had significant success in the dance music genre with the club hits "Let It Out," "Assume the Position," and "(I Need A) Vacation."
In late 2006, Lekakis filmed a music video
for a remix
of "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)" in Palm Desert, California
. The video was directed
by Walid Azami. In late July 2007, the 20th anniversary remix appeared on the Billboard dance chart. In 2009, "Boom Boom" ranked #83 on VH1
's "Top 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders Of The 80's" list.
film
, Hellbent, a co-starring role in the 2001 film Circuit
, and roles on the television program
s Out of Practice
and Passions
. In June 2005, Lekakis and fitness trainer Clay Adkins released a fitness DVD
, Partners, that was sold at Target
stores throughout the United States
.
He performed in the James Edwin Parker two-man stage play 2 Boys in a Bed on a Cold Winter's Night alongside Scott Douglas Cunningham at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in San Francisco, California
in July 2007.
around 1989, though he did not make this widely known until the 1990s. In recent years, he has played HIV-positive characters in several of his film appearances and has spoken out publicly on HIV-related issues. In 2000, Lekakis appeared on the cover of the February issue of POZ
magazine, where he also gave an interview, relating, among other reminiscences, his time as a male prostitute in West Hollywood between 1994 and 1997, the time he "joined a 12-step group and quit drinking, doing drugs and turning tricks".
He lives in the Los Angeles
area. In a video interview, Ben Patrick Johnson
referred to Lekakis as "my neighbor."
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
, filmmaker and club music / Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG describes a form of high-tempo disco music as well as a genre of electronic dance music originating in the United States during the late 1970s...
singer, who was discovered for his musical and dancing skills at a nightclub while on assignment as a model in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Music career
His debut single, "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)
"Boom Boom " is the debut single by American Hi-NRG singer and model Paul Lekakis.Originally released in 1987 on ZYX Records, then picked up by Polydor Records for a wider release, the song peaked at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. and at #60 on the UK Singles Chart in England...
" was released in 1987. The hit version was produced by the Italo-disco producers Miki Chieregato, Tom Hooker and Roberto Turatti, with additional production by Ric Wake
Ric Wake
Ric Wake is a record producer who has won an Academy Award and two Grammy Awards. During his tenure as staff producer with Sony Music Entertainment he has worked with vocalists such as Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Barry Manilow, and Marc Anthony...
. The song was originally released on ZYX Records and peaked at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, #60 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, #2 in Canada and #1 on the Pop charts in Australia and Japan. This single received attention for its explicit lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
(Boom boom boom / Let's go back to my room / Where we can do it all night / And you can make me feel right) and is Lekakis' best-known song. This led to a recording contract
Recording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
with Sire Records
Sire Records
Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...
, who released his debut album Tattoo It
Tattoo It
Tattoo It was the title of a 1990 album by American pop / Hi-NRG singer Paul Lekakis. The album was released on Sire Records. It contains the song, "Boom Boom ", which Lekakis had previously released in 1987 on Polydor Records. Two of the tracks on the album, "You Blow Me Away" and "My House", were...
in 1990. The album included the Top 20 Hot Dance Club Play hit, "My House."
Lekakis sang the title track to the British film The Fruit Machine, which was released in 1988. In the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the film was re-named Wonderland. This song was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman, sometimes known as SAW, were a UK songwriting and record producing trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. They had great success during the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s...
.
Lekakis has since had significant success in the dance music genre with the club hits "Let It Out," "Assume the Position," and "(I Need A) Vacation."
In late 2006, Lekakis filmed a music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for a remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)" in Palm Desert, California
Palm Desert, California
Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census, up from 41,155 at the 2000 census...
. The video was directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Walid Azami. In late July 2007, the 20th anniversary remix appeared on the Billboard dance chart. In 2009, "Boom Boom" ranked #83 on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
's "Top 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders Of The 80's" list.
Acting career
Lekakis had a role in the queer horrorQueer horror
LGBT themes in horror fiction refers to sexuality in horror fiction that can often focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender characters and themes. It may deal with characters who are coded as or who are openly LGBT, or it may deal with themes or plots that are specific to homosexual people...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Hellbent, a co-starring role in the 2001 film Circuit
Circuit (film)
Circuit is a 2001 gay-themed independent film set in the world of gay circuit parties. Written by Dirk Shafer and Gregory Hinton and directed by Shafer, Circuit follows the lives of several people involved in the circuit party scene. Shot on digital video over a period of six months, Shafer was...
, and roles on the television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
s Out of Practice
Out of Practice
Out of Practice is an American situation comedy that was originally broadcast on CBS from September 19, 2005 to March 29, 2006. With producers Joe Keenan and Christopher Lloyd at the helm, the show was about a family of five doctors who had little in common and usually did not get along...
and Passions
Passions
Passions is an American television soap opera which aired on NBC from July 5, 1999 to September 7, 2007 and on The 101 Network from September 17, 2007 to August 7, 2008....
. In June 2005, Lekakis and fitness trainer Clay Adkins released a fitness DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, Partners, that was sold at Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
stores throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
He performed in the James Edwin Parker two-man stage play 2 Boys in a Bed on a Cold Winter's Night alongside Scott Douglas Cunningham at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in July 2007.
Personal life
Lekakis tested positive for HIVHIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
around 1989, though he did not make this widely known until the 1990s. In recent years, he has played HIV-positive characters in several of his film appearances and has spoken out publicly on HIV-related issues. In 2000, Lekakis appeared on the cover of the February issue of POZ
POZ (magazine)
POZ is a monthly magazine that chronicles the lives of people affected by HIV/AIDS. Its website, Poz.com, has daily HIV/AIDS news, treatment information, forums, blogs and personals....
magazine, where he also gave an interview, relating, among other reminiscences, his time as a male prostitute in West Hollywood between 1994 and 1997, the time he "joined a 12-step group and quit drinking, doing drugs and turning tricks".
He lives in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area. In a video interview, Ben Patrick Johnson
Ben Patrick Johnson
Ben Patrick Johnson is an American voice-over actor, author and blogger, Foundation Director, and human rights activist.-Voice-overs:...
referred to Lekakis as "my neighbor."
Singles
- (1987) "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)"Boom Boom " is the debut single by American Hi-NRG singer and model Paul Lekakis.Originally released in 1987 on ZYX Records, then picked up by Polydor Records for a wider release, the song peaked at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. and at #60 on the UK Singles Chart in England...
" [US #43, US Dance Chart #6, UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#60, CAN #2, AUS #1 (for 5.wks), South Africa #1, Japan #1] - (1989) "You Blow Me Away"
- (1990) "My House" [US Dance Chart #17]
- (1990) "Tattoo It On Me"
- (1991) "Let It Out"
- (1996) "See Me, Feel Me" (Dance remake of The Who's song of the same name) (Promo-Only released by Tri Coastal Records and Film Corp.)
- (1992) "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)" ('92 Remix)
- (1997) "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)" ('97 Skitz Remix) [Australian-only release]
- (2001) "Assume the Position" -- from the "Circuit" movie soundtrack
- (2004) "I Think I Love You" -- from the "Hellbent" movie soundtrack
- (2004) "Paul Lekakis Mega Mix 2004" -- available at www.paullekakis.com
- (2006) "(I Need A) Vacation"
- (2007) "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)" [20th Anniversary Remix]
External links
- Paul Lekakis Official Website
- Paul Lekakis on Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...