Fidias Panayiotou

Some lesser Known Facts About Fidias Panayiotou

• Fidias is the son of a Greek Orthodox Christian priest who wanted him also to become a priest.

• Fidias’ mother is a nurse.

• Fidias is 3rd of 6 children.

  

• Fidias was required to serve in the military due to compulsory military service in Cyprus. His area of expertise was as a Navy SEAL. The training was extremely rigorous, with only 13 out of 70 people in his group successfully completing it. Fidias was among those who finished the training and became a trained Navy SEAL.

  

• During this period, he found inspiration in influencers such as Nas Daily and Drew Binsky. Subsequently, he chose to take a break from the military to pursue full-time travel and engage in part-time content creation on the YouTube platform.

• Fidias created his YouTube channel on 13 March 2019 and uploaded his first video titled ‘Fidias First Video (so bad)’ on 18 March 2019. his YouTube channel used to be named ‘Fidias Panayiotou’ which was later changed to ‘Fidias’.

• Fidias gained fame with his video “I Shook The Top 100 YouTubers’ Hands,” published on August 5, 2021. As of 2024, the video has 7.5 million views.

• Fidias came up with the idea of hugging 100 celebrities, similar to the video “I Shook The Top 100 YouTubers’ Hands.” He successfully hugged 99 celebrities but was unable to hug Elon Musk, which became a stumbling block. On October 8, 2022, he posted a video on Twitter, announcing that he had hugged 99 celebrities and expressing his desire for Elon Musk, whom he referred to as his “favourite person in the whole world,” to be the 100th hug.

• Fidias took to Twitter on January 21, 2023, to share a photo of himself embracing Musk inside the Twitter building.

  

• Fidias has won a Lamborghini in one of the Mr.Beast challenges.

• On 20th September 2023, Fidias posted a video on his Instagram account attempting to travel on the Bangalore Metro without a ticket. Anjum Parwez, the Managing Director of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited, strongly disapproved of his actions.
  

  I have seen the video of a person entering the platform without a ticket and traveling on the Metro. Such behavior is not acceptable. I have asked the official concerned to file a criminal case against the person.”

• On October 20, 2023, Fidias collaborated with three other YouTubers to create a challenge video about free travel around Japan. He used public transport, such as buses and trains, without paying his fare and begged for money. He also pretended to be a guest at a hotel where he was not staying in order to get free breakfast.

• He received criticism for his conduct in the video and issued an apologetic video, which was later deleted. YouTube also banned this video, along with four others, including a 2022 video on free travel in the United Kingdom, for breaching its community norms.

• In April 2024, Fidias announced that he would be entering politics as an independent candidate for the European Parliament and would be running on an anti-partisan platform. He stated that his goal is to promote youth’s involvement in politics.

  

•  Fidias secured a seat in the European Parliament with 19.4% of the popular vote, finishing third.

  

• On his very first days in office, Fidias used his social media to poll to determine his party affiliation and voting decisions as a Member of the European Parliament.

• On June 9, Fidias asked his TikTok followers to vote on whether he should join the Greens-European Free Alliance or remain independent. He claims that 10% of the entire Cypriot population voted on the app, with 76% of them voting for him to remain independent, which he did. He describes his strategy as a more “direct democracy with the people.”