Nana Mouskouri - Biography
By Nick Castro
Nana Mouskouri may be the highest selling female artist of all time. She is often called the Barbara Streisand of Europe. Mouskouri was born in 1934 on the island of Crete, Greece, as Ioana Mouskouri, gaining the nickname Nana from a young age. Her father worked in a movie theater as a camera operator and he moved the family to Athens, when she was very young, where he could find more work. In her youth her father joined the anti-Nazi resistance yet Mouskouri still managed to attend the prestigious Athens Conservatoire, which is the oldest conservatoire in modern Greece. Former instructors there included Mikis Theodorakis and Maria Callas. Mouskouri attended there with her sister Jenny. The two sisters studied classical music and opera. When Mouskouri was 23 the conservatoire found out she had been moonlighting in a jazz band and expelled her immediately. Mouskouri had in fact been practicing her jazz at night, mainly working on Ella Fitzgerald songs.
Mouskouri was born with one vocal cord larger than the other and as a result has a very recognizable and unique timbre to her voice. This would later play to her advantage though in her formative years it was something she had to overcome and it seemed, at first, that her sister Jenny would surpass her in talent. As a child Mouskouri listened to French chanson singers like Edith Piaf and American jazz artists like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.
In 1958 Mouskouri met songwriter Manos Hadjidakis, who took her under his wing and began to tailor her for a career in pop music. She recorded an EP of his compositions later that year. In 1959 she had a hit with her performance of the song "Kapou Iparchi Mou Agapi Mou", written by Hadjidakis and Nikos Gatsos, at the Greek Song Festival. She won first prize for her performance. Her and Hadjidakis continued to work together for the next year's festival where they once again swept the audience with another win. She sang the songs "Kiparissaki" and "Timoria". In 1960 Mouskouri flew to Barcelona to perform in the Meditterranean Song Festival. Once again she attained first prize, this time singing the song "Xypna Agapi Mou" written by Kosta Yannidis. This quickly brought the attention of record companies and the start of Mouskouri's rise to fame.
One of Mouskouri's earliest major moves came in 1961 when she sang a song, for the soundtrack of a German documentaty about Greece, called "Weisse Rosen aus Athen". She sold over a million copies of the song in Germany alone and later recorded it in several different languages, which was to become one of her trademarks: she could sing, nearly fluently in several different languages, opening up for her several international markets that she would exploit to her huge benefit. The same year she married her first husband, Yorgos Petsilan.
She collaborated with Quincy Jones in 1962, in New York City, and she recorded songs like "Black Coffee". Together they released the album The Girl From Greece Sings (1962 - Fontana). This would be Mouskouri's first album sung in English.
In 1963 Mouskouri would move to Paris, which would become her longtime home, and she would collaborate with French composer Michel Legrand on the songs "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" and "L'Enfant au Tambour". She had huge hits with both songs. She would proceed to record the album Favorite German Christmas Songs (1964 - Polydor), which brought her a huge success in Germany once again. She also toured with, and then recorded an album with, Harry Belafonte. They released An Evening with Belafonte/Mouskouri (1966 - RCA), which featured the songs "My Moon", "The Baby Snake", "The Wide Sea" and "Irene". The album featured the bouzouki talents of Ernie Calabria and George Petsilas. She also attained further fame in France around this time when she released the album Le Jour Oú la Colombe (1967 - Fontana), which finds her singing the hit song in Spanish, with Joe Dassin, "Guantanamera". She also had success with the songs "Au Coeur de Septembre" and " Robe Bleue". Many of the songs from this album became mainstays in her live repertoire in France.
By 1968 Mouskouri was focusing much of her energy on England, where she hosted a variety show called Nana and Guests. She also released the hit album Over and Over (1969 - Fontana). This album charted in the UK for almost two years and featured the songs "Scarborough Fair", which was a Paul Simon arrangement of a traditional song, as well as "The Lily of the West" which was penned by Mouskouri herself. The album was released in 1969 in the US.
In 1970 Mouskouri retouched the United States with her album Song for Liberty (1970 - Mercury), which had the "Song for Liberty" by Verdi as well as "Daydreams" by John Denver and "Loving Him Was Easier" by Kris Kristofferson. Her next albums were Turn on the Sun (1971 - Verve), the German release Singt Weinachtslieder Aus Aller (1972 - Domestic Pop) and then Vieilles Chansons De France (1973 - RCA).
In 1979 Mouskouri released the Roses & Sunshine (1979 - Verve), which was especially popular in Canada. Featured on the album were the songs "Roses Love Sunshine", "There is a Time", by Charles Aznavour, "Sweet Surrender", by John Denver and "Even Now", by Barry Manilow. She also gave a bow to her jazz roots when she covered the standard "Autumn Leaves".
Mouskouri would continue her success in the 80's with songs like "Only Love" and "Con Todo el Alma". She also returned to her homeland of Greece in 1984 for her first concert there in 22 years. She began a long string of Greek language albums which became tremendous hits there. Mouskouri has cataloged over 230 million sales of her 450 albums she recorded in her lifetime. Mouskouri now lives in Switzerland with her second husband. She gave her farewell concert in Athens, Greece at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which was built in 161 AD off of the southern slope of the Acropolis. Mouskouri also served as the Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, in 1993. She took the position after Audrey Hepburn passed away. Mouskouri helped Bosnian children during the Bosnian War.
