ELLE Greece
April 2006
Nana Mouskouri : ‘I’ve lived a rock life’
She retreats from singing with a Greek recording and a World sold-out Farewell Tour. She is the Greek Legend that made reality the world career that others dream of, while the sales of her records are of more than 250.000.000.
I have the feeling that here in Greece we have not quite understood what Nana Mouskouri means to the rest of the world. We are aware of the fact that she has accomplished an ‘international career’ that most Greek singers dream about, but I think that her numbers are beyond our imagination: she is among the top five with biggest sales of all time along with The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Madonna! She has sold more than 250 million records, has done the most important theatres with the greatest singers and musicians (Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Harry Belafonte, Quincy Jones and Julio Iglesias a.o)
The Greek who was found on the top of the planet, has decided at 72 to stop singing. She makes a last World Tour – from New Zealand and Korea to the USA and Latin America- which will end in 2007 with the very last concert in Athens. She just released her latest album with some of her foreign best but also songs by Nikos Antypas, Stefanos Korkolis and Giorgos Theophanous. So, she bids farewell the way she deserves: the timing she wants and with the head up.
ELLE: What made you so long to release a new Greek album?
NANA: When I came to Greece, there was always my beloved friend and great poet Nikos Gatsos who brought me in contact with composers to make albums with. Since he passed away I felt suspended, since I didn’t know the younger creators. Now I am enthusiastic about the new generation (Antypas,Nikolakopoulou etc.) but also about presenting to Greece some of the songs that brought me here , for the first time with Greek lyrics by Agathi Dimitrouka.
ELLE: Does it matter to you to have success in Greece at that age and after such a huge international career?
NANA: Even at my age I need to exist in my own country. I don’t think of how much I sell but how and why I keep singing.
ELLE: Why do you want to stop singing?
NANA: I’ve been in the business for 50 years. When you have sung that much, you cannot be surprised even by yourself nor overpass yourself. Those who will overpass you are young artists, whom people need more. I may move audience, but I don’t offer something more than I already have. It’s time for the final curtain for me.
ELLE: You have to be bold enough for such a final decision?
NANA: In my life I have been hold for many things. Only the fact that I took a suitcase with Greek songs and traveled them around the world, I needed courage.
ELLE: What do people say to you at your farewell concerts?
NANA: ‘Thank you’ in all languages
ELLE: When you left Greece at the age of 25 have you ever imagined that you would have such a career?
NANA: No, I only imagined of singing.
ELLE: What counted most for you? Luck or talent?
NANA: There is always a certain talent. As for luck, I believe it always comes once to a person. What is difficult is for someone to recognize it. Otherwise it just passes by and never comes back. I recognized it and grabbed it from hair as we say.
ELLE: Which country loves you most?
NANA: Many: Germany, France, Britain, Spain, Australia, Canada, Korea.
ELLE: Has Greece loved you?
NANA: Greece was my first love. Greece gave me my identity
ELLE: Did it ever let you down?
NANA: Never. Only a few of our compatriots let me down at the Olympic Games. Everybody was in front of the TV to watch the international face of Greece and the persons that represent Greece abroad were not there: Vangelis and myself. It was tragic for me.
ELLE: Maybe you were considered as to be ‘old fashioned’
NANA: I don’t know. All they told me was that I didn’t fit the concept.
ELLE: If you met now Dimitris Papaioannou, the person in charge of the Ceremonies, what would you say to him?
NANA: Nothing. He was not obliged to invite me. We must respect other’s liberty. But it makes me feel sad because I had told myself that I would stop with the Athens Olympics; it would have been an opportunity.
ELLE: You don’t feel uncomfortable mentioning your age?
NANA: If I wasn’t 72, I wouldn’t have experienced all these wonderful things I did. By saying publicly my age, I thank life for what it gave me.
ELLE: Just a few months ago, Madonna scored 4th, one position in front of you in record sales. How do you feel?
NANA: There is always someone better than you. Madonna overpassed me but she cannot undo the love of the audience for me.
ELLE: Is it true that Barbara Streisand was your big ‘rival?
NANA: We were seen as ‘adversaries’. That time I was the greatest singer in England, she was the greatest one in America.
ELLE: Many wondered that you help so passionately Sakis Rouvas to make an international career.
NANA: They were not right. He has a lot of talent. Every young person needs someone to guide them, to take them a step further. And I tried to give him a helping hand.
ELLE: Why didn’t he manage it after all?
NANA: Who told you so? I strongly believe that Sakis Rouvas is going to have an international career. He was already begun. It just takes time.
ELLE: But how comes you succeeded immediately?
NANA: Mine were different times. When I started Greece was very much in vogue.
ELLE: What other Greeks – other than Sakis Rouvas – could potentially have an international career?
NANA: Elena Paparizou, Michalis Hadjiyannis and Antonis Remos. But it takes work. Among the older ones, Haris Alexiou, could have become known all over the world. When you are a good singer in Greece you can become the best in the world, provided you want to.
ELLE: How exactly will you participate in Athens Eurovision?
NANA: I am a kind of an Ambassador abroad. Promote abroad the Greek song and the whole organization.
ELLE: How did you think to become a Deputy at the European Parliament?
NANA: It was a Miltiadis Evert proposition. But politics doesn’t suit because it needs compromise and I did very well not to be involved so many years before.
ELLE: Whom do you think as a bad politician?
NANA: George Bush. The world would be much better without him. But of course he doesn’t act all by himself. There are many trusts behind me.
ELLE: Why do we think in Greece that you are connected with Nea Demokratia (= the conservative ruling party)?
NANA: Due to me relationship with both Karamanlis (= the former President and his nephew, the current Prime-Minister). But I am not dogmatic. Often at the Europarliament I supported propositions of other political parties, not always pleasing my party. I appreciate other personalities independently their political ideas.
ELLE: From the opposition(= the socialists) which personality do you appreciate?
NANA: Evangelos Venizelos (former Minister of Culture). And Kostas Laliotis (former Minister of Public Works) who is not involved with politics lately.
ELLE: When a woman has such a huge career, is there time left for her personal life?
NANA: I have lived the life that my work’s rhythms permitted me. The problem was not mine. Men who were with me had the problem. My first husband couldn’t take the many professional obligations I had and…divorced me.
ELLE: How did you decide to re-marry, 2 years ago?
NANA: I have been with my current husband for 30 years now. He is my producer, the person whom with I share my work and my life.
ELLE: But why it took you 30 years until you were married?
NANA: When someone has a failed marriage, he is very hesitant about a second one. Besides I didn’t want to ‘wear’ my children a new father. When they grew up and got married, I was left alone and so I decided to get on.
ELLE: Do you believe that with constant tours, you had the time to raise your children the way you wanted?
NANA: My children grew up with lot of love. Of course, I was not always there for their important moments. I might have a concert on the other side of the planet. This is a weight I must carry myself. We grew up more like brothers and sisters than like mother and children. I remember the 3 of us attending rock concerts of Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen.
ELLE: Would you say you had a quite life or rock life?
NANA: I lived from one bus into another, from one airplane into another. I was constantly on the move. Imagine, in my life I never had a ‘relaxing bath’, only fast showers, because I was always in a hurry! I lived a rock life but without drugs and drinks.
ELLE: Has it been a ‘rock’ gesture to impose your glasses on stage?
NANA: When I went to France they told me ‘everything is ok with you but you must take off your glasses’. And I did so, for the three first concerts.
But then I said: ‘Or I make a career the way I want or not at all’
The 10 most commercial voices of the world:
- The Beatles
- Michael Jackson
- Elvis Presley
- Madonna
- Nana Mouskouri
- Cliff Richard
- Rolling Stones
- Mariah Carrey
- Elton John
- Celine Dion
Source: IFPI, 24.01.2006
Legends I met:
- Maria Callas
- Frank Sinatra
- Bob Dylan
- Audrey Hepburn
- Marlene Dietrich
- Edith Piaf
- Quincy Jones
- Herbert von Karajan
- Leonard Cohen
- Leonard Bernstein
- Pope John-Paul B’
- Patriarch Bartholomew
- Dalai Lama
- Queen Elisabeth
- Nelson Mandela
- Charles de Gaulle
- Constantine Karamanlis
- Aristotle Onassis
- Ronaldo
- Mohammed Ali
Translation from Greek: Thanasis |
