the essentials Greek singer Nana Mouskouri celebrates her 90th birthday this Sunday, October 13, 2024. Her career is no secret for those who are older. A look back at the life of the greatest Greek singer.
“The child with the drum”, “Love as an inheritance”, “I sing with you freedom”, “C’est bon la vie”, “Soleil soleil”… She has had hits in her career, Nana Mouskouri ! It must be said that the Greek artist has had an exceptionally long career. Nana Mouskouri celebrates her 90th birthday this Sunday, October 13. The opportunity to look back on the life of this great lady of Greek song… and French song.
350 million records sold
Nana Mouskouri’s career took off in the 1960s. Her repertoire includes more than 1,500 songs and 200 albums in 12 languages. The best known in French are “L’amour en inheritance”, “Je chante avec toi liberté” or “L’enfant au tambour”. Known around the world, Nana Mouskouri has sold 350 million records worldwide throughout her career and received 300 gold records.
A look that never changes over the years
Square glasses with black frames, shoulder-length black hair, fairly expressionless face… Nana Mouskouri has kept the same look for decades. Yet he was often asked to take off his glasses when success came. “I was one of the first to wear them and I was often asked to take them off. I never did it because I’m nearsighted, it’s not to give me a style. And it protected me a little because I’m shy,” she said in an interview.
Born in Crete into a modest family
Born in Crete in 1934, Ioánna Mouskhouri is the daughter of a cinema projectionist and a mother who was an usherette. The family moved to Athens, Greece when the little girl was 3 years old. It was at the age of 12 that she began taking singing lessons and learning the piano and harmonica. At age 16, she entered the Hellenic Conservatory in Athens.
A mother who is often absent
Nana Mouskouri’s career, LPs and international tours have often kept her away from her children, Nicolas and Hélène, born from her union with Geórgios Petsilás. Her son Nicolas said in Marc-Olivier Fogiel’s show “Le Divan” in 2016: “Mom is like the dove, she comes, she lands, then she flies away”. Nana Mouskouri regretted “not having been close to my children, they blamed me”. A nanny looked after the children while their mother was away.
His own TV show on the BBC
Nana Mouskouri hosted her own TV show produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. She hosted many key stars of world music. This show propelled his international career across five continents.
She advertised an air freshener
“When I sing, when I sing…” You may remember the melody that accompanied the TV ad shot by Nana Mouskouri in 1990. It praised the merits of Wizard air freshener.
European MP for 5 years
In 1994, the Greek center-right New Democracy political party convinced Nana Mouskouri to enter politics. She is elected in the European elections. She sat for 5 years in the European Parliament. But she chose to resign in 1999.
Also read:
Crisis in Greece: Nana Mouskouri gives up her retirement as MEP
First goodbyes in 2008
In July 2018, Nana Mouskouri ended her career by giving a final concert in Greece. But she experiences retirement badly, feeling uselessness and even despair and falls into depression. Five years later, she returned to the stage in October 2013 and sang again for 6 years. In 2019, she did a farewell tour. Nana Mouskouri’s last public performance was on April 26 in Greece for the transmission of the Olympic flame to France for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Nana Mouskouri and her husband André Chapelle. MaxPPP
She beat pancreatic cancer
Nana Mouskouri has come a long way. She had pancreatic cancer in 2015 and underwent an operation for peritonitis at the end of 2019. “I underwent chemotherapy which lasted 8 months,” she told the magazine Gala in May 2023. If she kept her fight against the disease a secret for years, she finally decided to talk about it. “I am optimistic, I know that you should never give up when you are sick. You really have to fight.”
She lives in Switzerland
Nana Mouskouri has lived in Geneva, Switzerland since the 1970s. She will celebrate her 90th birthday in Paris this Sunday with her husband André Chapelle and friends. His son lives in Montreal, Canada, his daughter in Munich, Germany. She has three grandchildren. “It’s time to say thank you to life, to luck, to God, to I don’t know who brought me here,” she confides to Parisian this Sunday.
