Nana Mouskouri born Ioánna Moúschouri on October 13, 1934, in Chania

Chania

Chaniá , , also transliterated Chania, Hania, and Xania, older form Chanea and Venetian Canea, Ottoman Turkish خانيه Hanya) is the second largest city of Crete and the capital of the Chania peripheral unit...

, Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, is a Greek singer who has sold about 300 million records worldwide in a career spanning over five decades, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She was known as Nána to her friends and family as a child. (Note that in Greek her surname is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable - MOOS-hoo-ree - rather than the second.) She has recorded songs in many languages, including Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

, Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

, Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

, Mandarin Chinese, Maori

Maori language

Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...

 and Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

.

The early years

Nana Mouskouri's family lived in Chania, Crete, where her father, Constantine, worked as a film projectionist in a local cinema. Her mother, Alice also worked in the same local cinema as an usherette. When Mouskouri was three, her family moved to Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

.

Mouskouri's family sent her and her elder sister, Eugenia or "Jenny", to the Athens Conservatoire

Athens Conservatoire

The Athens Conservatoire is the oldest conservatoire in modern Greece. It was founded in 1871 by the Athens Music and Drama Society. Initially, the musical instruments that were taught there were limited to the violin and the flute, representative of the ancient Greek Apollonian and Dionysian...

. Mouskouri had displayed exceptional musical talent from the age of six. Jenny initially appeared to be the more gifted of the two sisters. Financially unable to support both girls' studies, the parents asked their tutor which one should continue. The tutor conceded that Jenny had the better voice, but Nana was the one with the true inner need to sing. Mouskouri has said that a medical examination revealed a difference in her two vocal cords and this could well account for her remarkable singing voice (in her younger years ranging from a husky, dark alto

Alto

Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" in Italian, that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence,...

, which she later dropped, to a ringing coloratura

Coloratura

Coloratura has several meanings. The word is originally from Italian, literally meaning "coloring", and derives from the Latin word colorare . When used in English, the term specifically refers to elaborate melody, particularly in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and...

 mezzo

Mezzo

mezzo is the Italian word for "half", "middle" or "medium". It is pronounced in English, but in Italian.In music, mezzo is the beginning of various Italian musical terms...

), as opposed to her breathy, raspy speaking voice.

Mouskouri's childhood was marked by the German Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 occupation of Greece. Her father became part of the anti-Nazi resistance movement in Athens. Mouskouri began singing lessons at age 12. As a child, she listened to radio broadcasts of singers such as Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

, Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

, and Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...

.

In 1950, she was accepted at the Conservatoire. She studied classical music with an emphasis on singing opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

. After eight years at the Conservatoire, Mouskouri was encouraged by her friends to experiment with jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 music. She began singing with her friends' jazz group at night. However, when Mouskouri's Conservatory professor found out about Mouskouri's involvement with a genre of music that was not in keeping with her classical studies, he prevented her from sitting for her end-of-year exams. During an episode of "Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey", shown on the UK ITV channel in the autumn of 2011, Mouskouri told the actress Joanna Lumley of how she had been scheduled to sing at the amphitheatre at Epidauros with other students of the Conservatoire, when upon arrival at the amphitheatre word came through from the Conservatoire in Athens that she had just been barred from participating in the performance there due to her involvement in light music. Mouskouri subsequently left the Conservatoire and began performing at the Zaki club in Athens.

She began singing jazz in nightclubs with a bias towards Ella Fitzgerald repertoire. In 1957, she recorded her first song, Fascination, in both Greek and English for Odeon/EMI Greece. By 1958 while still performing at the Zaki, she met Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis

Manos Hadjidakis

Manos Hatzidakis was a Greek composer and theorist of the Greek music. He was also one of the main prime movers of the "Éntekhno" song ....

. Hadjidakis was impressed by Nana’s voice and offered to write songs for her. In 1959 Mouskouri performed Hadjidakis' Kapou Iparchi I Agapi Mou (co-written with poet Nikos Gatsos

Nikos Gatsos

-Biography:Nikos Gatsos was born in 1911 in Asea in Arcadia, a district of the Peloponnese, where he finished primary school . He attended high school in Tripoli, where he became acquainted with literature and foreign languages. Afterwards, he moved to Athens, where he studied literature,...

) at the inaugural Greek Song Festival. The song won first prize, and Mouskouri began to be noticed.

At the 1960 Greek Song Festival, she performed two more Hadjidakis compositions, Timoria and Kiparissaki. Both these songs tied for first prize. Mouskouri performed Kostas Yannidis' composition, Xypna Agapi Mou, at the Mediterranean Song Festival, held in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 that year. The song won first prize, and she went on to sign a recording contract with Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

-based Philips-Fontana.

In 1961, Mouskouri performed the soundtrack of a German

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 documentary about Greece. This resulted in the German-language single Weiße Rosen aus Athen ("White Roses from Athens"). The song was originally adapted from a folk melody by Hadjidakis. It became a success, selling over a million copies in Germany. The song was later translated into several languages and it went on to become one of Mouskouri's signature tunes.

Family life

Mouskouri has been married twice. When she was 25, she married her first husband, a guitarist in her backing band and the first man she'd kissed. They had two children (Nicolas Petsilas and Lenou Petsilas (singer)) but divorced when Mouskouri was 39. Not long after that, she met her second husband, André Chapelle, then her sound technician, but they did not marry then because she 'didn't want to bring another father into the family' and divorce was against her traditional Greek upbringing. They eventually married on 13 January 2003 and live primarily in Switzerland.

Life outside Greece

In 1962, she met Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

, who persuaded her to travel to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to record an album of American jazz titled The Girl From Greece Sings. Following that she scored another hit in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 with My Colouring Book.

In 1963 she left Greece to live in Paris. Mouskouri performed Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1963

Eurovision Song Contest 1963

The Eurovision Song Contest 1963 was the 8th Eurovision Song Contest. France had won the contest in 1962 but were incapable of hosting in 1963, as was their right, due to financial shortcomings. As was the case in 1960 - and as would become a tradition when smaller broadcasters could not afford to...

 that year, À Force de Prier. The song achieved success, and helped win her the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque

Grand Prix du Disque

The Grand Prix du Disque is the premier French award for musical recordings. The award was inaugurated by l'Académie Charles Cros in 1948 and offers prizes in various categories. The categories vary from year to year, and multiple awards are often made in any one category in the same year...

 in France. Mouskouri soon attracted the attention of French composer Michel Legrand

Michel Legrand

Michel Jean Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist...

, who composed for her two major French hits Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a 1964 French musical film directed by Jacques Demy, starring Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo. The music was written by Michel Legrand...

(1964) and an arrangement of Katherine K. Davis

Katherine K. Davis

Katherine Kennicott Davis was a composer, pianist, and author of the famous Christmas tune "The Little Drummer Boy".-Biography:...

' Carol of the Drum, L'Enfant au Tambour (1965).

In 1965 she recorded her second English-language album to be released in the United States, entitled Nana Sings. American calypso

Calypso music

Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...

 musician Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...

 heard and liked the album. Belafonte brought Mouskouri on tour with him through 1966. They teamed for a live duo album entitled An Evening With Belafonte/Mouskouri. During this tour, Belafonte suggested that Mouskouri remove her signature black-rimmed glasses

Glasses

Glasses, also known as eyeglasses , spectacles or simply specs , are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes. They are normally used for vision correction or eye protection. Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light or...

 when on stage. She was so unhappy with the request that she wanted to quit the show after only two days. Finally, Belafonte relented and respected her wishes to perform while wearing glasses.

Mouskouri's 1967 French album Le Jour Où la Colombe raised her to super-stardom in France. This album featured many of her French songs, Au Cœur de Septembre, Adieu Angélina, Robe Bleue, Robe Blanche and the French pop classic Le Temps des Cerises. Mouskouri made her first appearance at Paris' legendary Olympia

Paris Olympia

The Olympia is a music hall in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Located at No. 28, Boulevard des Capucines, its closest métro/RER stations are Madeleine, Opéra, Havre – Caumartin and Auber....

 concert theatre the same year, singing French pop, Greek folk, and Hadjidakis numbers.

In 1968, Mouskouri was invited to host a BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 TV series called Presenting Nana Mouskouri. The next year she released a full-length British LP, Over and Over. The LP spent almost two years in the UK charts. She expanded her concert tour to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 (where she met Frank Hardy

Frank Hardy

Francis Joseph Hardy, or Frank, was an Australian left-wing novelist and writer best known for his controversial novel Power Without Glory. He also was a political activist bringing the plight of Aboriginal Australians to international attention with the publication of his book, The Unlucky...

, who followed her to the south of France in 1976), New Zealand and Japan. She recorded several Japanese songs for the Japanese market.

In France, she released a series of top-selling albums that included Comme un Soleil, Une Voix Qui Vient du Cœur, Vieilles Chansons de France, and Quand Tu Chantes!.

Middle years

In 1979, Mouskouri released another English-language album named Roses and Sunshine. This album consisting largely of folk and country material, and included work from sources as Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

, Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton

Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...

, Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 and John Denver

John Denver

Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...

. It was well received in Canada, and one of the album's tracks, "Even Now" (not the same song as the 1978 Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...

 hit), became a staple on beautiful music

Beautiful music

Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...

 radio stations in the United States. She scored a worldwide hit in 1981 with Je Chante Avec Toi, Liberté, which was translated into several languages after its success in France. The momentum from this album also helped boost her following German album, Meine Lieder sind mein Leben. In 1984, Mouskouri returned to Greece for her first live performance in her homeland since 1962.

In 1985, Mouskouri recorded Only Love, the theme song to the BBC TV series Mistral's Daughter — based upon the novel by Judith Krantz

Judith Krantz

Judith Krantz , is an American novelist who writes in the romance genre. Her works include Scruples, Princess Daisy, and Till We Meet Again.-Early years:...

 — that reached #2 in the UK charts. The song was also a hit in its foreign language versions: L'Amour en Héritage (French), Come un'eredità (Italian), La dicha del amor (Spanish), and Aber die Liebe bleibt (German). The German version was also recorded with an alternate set of lyrics under the title Der wilde Wein but was withdrawn in favour of Aber die Liebe bleibt.

That same year, Mouskouri made a play for the Spanish-language market with the hit single Con Todo el Alma. The song was a major success in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 and Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

.

She released five albums in different languages in 1987, and the following year returned to her classical conservatory roots with the double LP The Classical Nana (aka Nana Classique), which featured adaptations of classical songs and excerpts from opera. By the end of 1987, she had performed a series of concerts in Asia, including South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, Malaysia and Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

.

Autobiography

A French language autobiography appeared in 1989 titled "Chanter ma vie" (Singing my life), which is also the title of her French version of ABBA's "I Have a Dream".

In 2006, Greek publisher A.A. Livanis published a biography in Greek titled "To onoma mou ine Nana" (My name is Nana). In autumn 2007, the French and English versions of this biography appeared under the titles "Nana Mouskouri — Memoires — La fille de la Chauve-souris" (XO publishers) and "Nana Mouskouri — Memoirs" (Orion Publishing Group).

The later years

Mouskouri's 1991 English album, Only Love: The Best of Nana Mouskouri became her best-selling release in the United States. She spent much of the 1990s touring the globe. Among her early 1990s albums were spiritual music, Gospel (1990), the Spanish-language Nuestras Canciones, the multilingual, Mediterranean-themed Côté Sud, Côté Coeur (1992), Dix Mille Ans Encore, Falling in Love Again: Great Songs From the Movies. Falling in Love featured two duets with Harry Belafonte.

She recorded several more albums over 1996 and 1997, including the Spanish Nana Latina (which featured duets with Julio Iglesias

Julio Iglesias

Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...

 and Mercedes Sosa

Mercedes Sosa

Haydée Mercedes Sosa, known as La Negra, was an Argentine singer who was popular throughout South America and some countries outside the continent. With her roots in Argentine folk music, Sosa became one of the preeminent exponents of nueva canción. She gave voice to songs written by both...

), the English-language Return to Love, and the French pop classics, Hommages. In 1997, she staged a high-profile Concert for Peace at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. This concert was later released as an album, and aired as a TV special on PBS in the U.S.

In 1993, Mouskouri recorded the album, Hollywood. Produced by Michel Legrand

Michel Legrand

Michel Jean Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist...

 it was a collection of famous songs from films, and served not only as a tribute to the world of cinema, but also as a personal reference to childhood memories of sitting with her father in his projection room in Crete.

UNICEF/Politics

Mouskouri was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in October 1993. She took over from the previous ambassador, the recently deceased actress Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...

. Mouskouri's first U.N. mission took her to Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

 to draw attention to the plight of children affected by Bosnian war. She went on to give a series of fund-raising concerts in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

.

She was elected a Member of the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

 from 1994 until 1999, when she resigned from her position as an MEP. Several reasons have been given for this, one being her pacifism, and another being that she felt ill-equipped for the day-to-day work of a politician.

21st century and retirement

Mouskouri lives in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 with Chapelle, and, until her final performance in 2008, performed hundreds of concerts every year throughout her career. In 2004, her French record company released a 34-CD box set of more than 600 of Mouskouri's mostly-French songs. In 2006 she made a guest appearance at that year's Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 2006

The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens, Greece on 18 May and 20 May 2006 . The hosting national broadcaster of the contest was Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi . The Finnish band Lordi won the contest with the song "Hard Rock...

 which was held, for the first time ever, in her native Greece.

In the same year, she announced her plans to retire. From 2005 until 2008, she conducted a farewell concert tour of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. On July 23 and 24, 2008, Mouskouri gave her two final 'Farewell Concert' performances at the ancient Herodes Atticus Theatre, in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, before a packed stadium, including Greece's Prime Minister and Athens mayor, plus the mayors of Berlin, Paris and Luxembourg, along with fans from around the world and thousands of her Athenian admirers.

In 2010, in response to the financial situation in Greece caused by excessive deficit, Mouskouri announced that she would forgo her pension to contribute to the country's recovery. She commented: "Everywhere I see stories about my country going bankrupt. And people are aggressive about it. It's frightening. And it's painful for me. Nobody wants their country to be treated badly. It's frustrating and very sad."

In late 2011 Mouskouri released two newly-recorded CDs, the first featuring songs of the Greek Islands, recorded with other Greek singers, and the second featuring duets with French contemporaries. In late November 2011 Mouskouri is scheduled to sing again at single one-off concert, with guests, in Berlin, commemorating the 50th anniversary of her hit single "The White Rose of Athens". Dates of a multi-city tour of Germany in early 2012 have also been announced.

Record sales

Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...

, which has over the decades come to acquire virtually all the labels under which Mouskouri recorded, claims that Nana Mouskouri has sold nearly 400 million discs worldwide, recording about 1,500 songs in 15 languages on 450 albums. She has more than 230 gold and platinum albums

RIAA certification

In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...

 worldwide, making her a candidate for the best-selling female recording artist of all time.

Impersonators

The British comedian Benny Hill

Benny Hill

Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...

 impersonated Mouskouri on The Benny Hill Show

The Benny Hill Show

The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill.There were various incarnations of the show between 1951 and 1991, and it aired in over 140 countries. The show is generally sketch-based with heavy use of slapstick, mime, parody and double-entendre...

. He wore long dresses and long black hair, that he stroked back, and talked and sang with a slow and quiet voice. He described the songs with long and verbose introductions before singing them.

Partial discography

• Epitaphios (1960)
• Nana Mouskouri Canta canciones populares griegas (1960)
• I megales epitichies tis Nana Mouskouri (1961)
• Ta prota mas tragoudia (1961)
• The White Rose of Athens (1961)
• Greece, Land of Dreams (1962)
• The Girl From Greece Sings (1962)
• Roses Blanches de Corfu (1962)
• Ce Soir A Luna Park (1962)
• Crois-Moi ça durera (1962)
• Un homme est venu (1963)
• Sings Greek Songs-Never On Sunday (1963)
• Celui Que j'aime (1964)
• The Voice of Greece (1964)
• Chante en Grec (1965)
• Nana Mouskouri et Michael Legrand (1965)
• Griechische Gitarren mit Nana Mouskouri (1965)
• Nana Mouskouri in Italia (1965)
• Nana's Choice (1965)
• Nana Sings (1965)
• An Evening with Belafonte/Mouskouri
  An Evening with Belafonte/Mouskouri
  An Evening With Belafonte/Mouskouri is an album by Harry Belafonte and Nana Mouskouri, released by RCA Victor in 1966.-Track listing:# "My Moon"# "Dream"# "If You Are Thirsty"# "The Train"# "In the Small Boat"# "The Town Crier"...
  
  (1966)
• Le Cœur trop tendre (1966)
• Strasse der hunderttausend Lichter (1966)
• Nana Mouskouri in Paris (1966)
• Moje Najlepse grčke pesme -Yugoslavia- (1966)
• Pesme Moje zemlje -Yugoslavia- (1966)
• Un Canadien Errant (1967)
• Un souvenir du congres (1967)
• Nana Mouskouri à'lOlympia (1967)
• Showboat (1967)
• Chants de mon pays (1967)
• Singt Ihre Grossen Erfolge (1967)
• Le Jour où la Colombe (1967)
• Nana (1968)
• What now my love (1968)
• Une soirée avec Nana Mouskouri (1969)
• Dans le soleil et dans le vent (1969)
• Over and Over (1969)
• The exquisite Nana Mouskouri (1969)
• Mouskouri International (1969)
• Grand Gala (1969)
• Verzoekprogramma (1969)
• Le Tournesol (1970)
• Nana Recital 70 (1970)
• Sings Hadjidakis (1970)
• Turn On the sun (1970)
• Bridge Over troubled water (1970)
• My favorite Greek songs (1970)*
• Song for liberty (1970)
• After Midnight (1971)
• A Touch of French (1971)
• Love story (1971)
• Pour les enfants (1971)
• Comme un soleil (1971)
• A place in my heart (1971)
• Chante la Grèce (1972)
• Lieder meiner Heimat (1972)
• Xypna Agapi mou (1972)
• Christmas with Nana Mouskouri (1972)
• British concert (1972)
• Une voix... qui vivent du coeur (1972)
• Spiti mou spitaki mou (1972)
• Presenting...Songs from her TV series (1973)
• Vieilles Chansons de France (1973)
• Chante Noël (1973)
• Day is Done (1973)
• An American album (1973)
• Spotlight on Nana Mouskouri (1973)
• Nana Mouskouri au théatre des champs-Elysées (1974)
• Que je sois un ange... (1974)
• Nana's Book of Songs (1974)
• The most beautiful songs (1974)
• Adieu mes amis (1974)
• Le temps des cerises (1974)
• If You Love me (1974)
• The magic of Nana Mouskouri (1974)
• Sieben Schwarze Rosen (1975)
• Toi qui t'en vas (1975)
• Träume sind Sterne (1975)
• At The Albert Hall (1975)
• Quand tu chantes (1976)
• Die Welt ist voll Licht (1976)
• Lieder die mann nie vergisst (1976)
• Nana in Holland (1976)
• Songs of the British isles (1976)
• Love goes on (1976)
• Quand Tu Chantes(1976)
• An Evening with Nana Mouskouri (1976)
• Ein Portrait (1976)
• La récréation (1976)
• Passport (1976)
• Une voix (1976)
• Alleluia (1977)
• Glück ist wie ein Schmetterling (1977)
• Star für Millionen (1977)
• Geliebt und bewundert (1977)
• Lieder, die die Liebe schreibt (1978)*
• Nouvelles chansons de la Vieille France (1978)
• Les enfants du Pirée (1978)
• A Paris (1979)
• Roses and Sunshine (1979)
• Vivre au Soleil (1979)
• Sing dein Lied (1979)
• Kinderlieder (1979)
• Come with me (1980)
• Vivre avec toi (1980)
• Die stimme in concert (1980)
• Wenn ich träum (1980)
• Alles Liebe (1981)
• Je Chante Avec Toi, Liberté (1981)
• Ballades (1982)
• Farben (1983)
• Quand on revient (1983)
• When I Dream (1983)
• La dame de cœur (1984)
• Athina (1984)
• Nana (1984)
• I endekati entoli (1985)
• Ma vérité (1985)
• Alone (1985)
• Libertad (1986)
• Kleine Wahrheiten (1986)
• Tu m'oublies (1986)
• Why Worry? (1986)
• Only Love (1986)
• Love Me Tender (1987)
• Tierra Viva (1987)
• Du und Ich (1987)
• Par amour (1987)
• Classique (1988)
• A voice from the heart (1988)
• The magic of Nana Mouskouri (1988)
• Concierto en Aranjuez (1989)
• Tout Simplement 1&2 (1989)
• Weinachts Lieder (1989)
• Taxidotis (1990)
• Gospel (1990)
• Only Love: The Best of Nana Mouskouri (1991)
• Nuestras canciones 1 & 2 (1991)
• Am Ziel meiner Reise (1991)
• Côté Sud - Côté Cœur (1992)
• Hollywood (1993)
• Falling in Love again (1993)
• Dix mille ans encore (1994)
• Agapi in'i zoi (1994)
• Nur ein Lied (1995)
• Nana Latina (1996)
• Hommages (1997)
• Return to Love (1997)
• The Romance of Nana Mouskouri (1997)
• Concert for peace (1998)
• Chanter la vie (1998)
• As time goes by (1999)
• The Christmas Album (2000)
• At Her Very Best (2001)
• Erinnerungen (2001)
• Songs the whole world loves (2001)
• Fille du soleil (2002)
• Un bolero Por Favor (2002)
• Ode to Joy (2002)
• Nana Swings (2003)
• Ich hab'gelacht, ich hab'geweint (2004)
• L'Integrale Collection (34 CD Box Set) (2004)
• A Canadian Tribute (2004)
• I'll Remember You (2005)
• Complete English Works Collection (17 CD Box Set) (2005)
• Moni Perpato (2006)
• Nana Mouskouri (Gold) (2 CD) (2006)
• Le Ciel est Noir - les 50 plus belles chansons (3 CD) (2007)
• The Ultimate Collection (2007)
• Les 100 plus belles chansons (5 CD) (2007)
• 50 Hronia Tragoudia (50 Years Of Songs) (2007)
• Alma Latina Todas sus grabaciones en español (5CD) (2008)
• The Best Of (Green Series) (2008)
• The Very Best Of (Readers Digest 4 CD-Box) (2008)
• The Ultimate Collection (Taiwan) (2CD) (2008)
• The Greatest Hits: Korea Tour Edition (2 CD-Box) (2008)
• The Singer (2008)
• Nana Mouskouri - Best Selection (2009)
• Nana sings (reissue) (2009)
• Nana Mouskouri: Les hits (2009)
• Meine Schönsten Welterfolge vol. 2 (2CD) (2009)
• Les n°1 de Nana Mouskouri (Edition Limitée) (2CD) (2009)
• La mas completa coleccion (2009)
• Nana Mouskouri I (2009)
• Nana Mouskouri: Highlights 娜娜穆斯库莉:精选 (2010)
• As time goes by (Nana Mouskouri sings the Great Movie Themes) (reissue) (2010)
• The Danish Collection (reissue) (2010)
• Nana Jazz (2010)
• My 60's Favourites (2010)
• Mes chansons de France (2010)
• Nana around the world (2010)
• Ballads and Love songs (2010)
• Nana Country (2010)
• Tragoudia apo Ellinika nisia (2011)

External links

• YouTube video of Mouskouri in 1960 (without her glasses) singing a song by Hadjidakis