EPTA
October 16, 2011

"Honesty is the strongest currency"

Nana Mouskouri has spent the biggest part of her life, travelling around the globe; some of the artists that participate in her new album have no experience in traditional songs, still the loudspeakers fill the air with a sea breeze as soon as they roll one after the other popular songs from the islands: "To louloudaki tou baxe" with Haris Alexiou, "Agapiomaste alla" with Manolis Mitsias, "Mes tou Aigaiou" with Natasha Theodoridou, "Dari dari" with Helena Parizou, "Triantafyllaki" with Nikos Alliagas. Others are sung by her alone but always with great musicians, turning "Tragoudia ap’ta ellinika nisia" one of her most fresh and comforting albums. This very album, which has just been released, will offer next Sunday "K.E" to its readers. A few days before the great singer sings "Tzivaeri" and "Matia san kai ta dika sou" at the Berliner Philarmonie, the city where she had her first hit half century ago, unfolds her memories, her hopes and her worries:

My mother was from Corfu, had a nice voice and I never forget those beautiful folk tunes and "Erotokritos" she used to sing for us. Sweet bitter tunes and tales about greedy lords and lost loves, songs that even though they’re sad, filled us with relief, just as it happens with Greek music. Each time that I listened to them, travelling around the world, I came back to my roots thanks to these songs. And when I happened to be in a greek restaurant in Germany or Canada and someone would sing "Ah, that scam should have been stabbed" (phrase taken from a song of the 1940s "Ena vrady pou vrehe"), I feel such a sympathy for the scam just as much as for every fellow Greek.

- Have there been lyrics that expressed your pain, your sad childhood?
I see my entire youth in these songs. Even though I don’t see my story in them. I don’t have to. What consoles my pains is entering another character’s life. Besides, even though we didn’t experience all this, these songs, somebody else did, someone whom we knew, so we identify him listening to these songs. We can see the love expression, his story. This is why folk music is part of our common existence, with all its joy and sorrow. Because, you know, happiness and sadness are very close together. And when you’ve not experienced one, you can’t value or endure the other. That’s the two extremes. They have another common thing: both have an end.

- Have you found yourself in your life often at the edge of the emotions?
I’ve been and always am a lucky person. My sad childhood, the war, poverty, my father’s passion for gambling, I felt that all these things were put aside with the life that was offered to me later. But the traces of the past were left inside of me – this goes for everyone. So, even though I have lived happy moments, there’s always the shade of the past.

- When you sing today traditional songs, is there a bitter taste about a Greece that no longer exists?
When I sing these songs today, I feel that I spring out my country. I need it, especially these last years. Travelling for half century around the world, I worried I was so busy to show everyone that I come from Greece, that maybe my very compatriots had forgotten about me. About Greece, the one you are talking about still exists. Our root is ancient and it’s been proved how resistant it is, so it can easily blossom. Because we don’t seek to impose ourselves but to survive. The culture, the soul, the spirit of our country are more than alive thus our duty is higher. We are in a trouble now, because we’ve been spoilt. But we’ll manage it once again.

- You know so well the fellow Europeans; what would you advise Mr. Venizelos (Greece’s Minister of Finance) to look after in his human contact with german politicians?
I am an old lady. How can I instruct someone who is so intelligent, moreover when he has to ask for money he knows we can’t give back? As a singer I have succeeded in introducing our civilisation to the foreigners because I respected theirs. That respect, honesty is a disarming language. Unfortunately politicians, no matter greek or foreigners, speak their own dialect. But they ought to remember more often that the ethics of a country is its culture. I was telling them when I was a Member of the European Parliament and they would answer to me "Mrs Mouskouri you are dreaming. Today there is nothing but the market". Here are the results….. Wasn’t it ultimately Europe that was "whistling around" (greek expression meaning be indifferent) when we were eating the cake? Wasn’t it Europe that rashed us to quickly become 27 partners, before even the 15 we get to know each other better, to exchange views and to face difficulties. Now, obstacles stand before us.

- If you were asked to give one or two ideas about how our country can change its image, what would you suggest.
Honesty. It’s the strongest currency. I think they don’t trust us, because we said things we couldn’t support. That was the way Mr. Papandreou took power. And then he put the blame on the others.

- Let’s finish the way we started. Is this album a sort of a personal remedy from the depression you passed, since you stopped touring?
I wanted to stop in a dignified manner. It was then that I realized that the human, the woman in me had been overshadowed by the singer. I had believed that people loved me because I was an artist. And now that I stopped, I feared that the people would change feelings about me and that they would forget me. I had to teach the women in me to live without the protection of the singer. After fifty years, it wasn’t easy. I had rough times. These songs helped me. But the remedy, the balance, I found it inside of me.

- What would you advise a thick, talented young girl with glasses, who is about to participate in one of those talent shows nowadays?
Talent shows are dangerous. Once we used to sing before a committee and if you were rejected, you could a chance on the next one. Television camera instead exposes you violently to everybody. You have the feeling the whole society votes against you. What can you do next? TV is inhuman towards all these young people who are still immature, unprepared. But, you see, nowadays an artist, a human being, is faced a product. So, I would advise that young girl, not to go to sing thinking she will be famous and rich. That’s over along with the times of "nouveaux riches" and the music industry. She should sing where she feels better; where the people can take a close eye on her and love her from what they’ll have heard not what they’ll have seen. And she should remember that some people "put the glasses over others" just because they refused to take off theirs. (put the glasses on someone’ greek expression meaning "being smarter than someone else")

 

Translation from Greek: Thanasis