Mouskouri became well known throughout Europe for the song "The White Rose of Athens", recorded first in German as "Weiße Rosen aus Athen" as an adaptation of her Greek song "Σαν σφυρίξεις τρείς φορές" (San sfyríxeis tris forés, "When you whistle three times"). It became her first record to sell over one million copies.[2]
Later, in 1963, she representedLuxembourg at theEurovision Song Contest with the song "À force de prier", finishing eighth. Her friendship with the composerMichel Legrand led to the recording by Mouskouri of the theme song of the Oscar-nominated filmThe Umbrellas of Cherbourg. From 1968 to 1976, she hosted her own TV show produced byBBC,Presenting Nana Mouskouri. Her popularity as a multilingual television personality and distinctive image, owing to the then unusual signature black-rimmed glasses, turned Mouskouri into an international star.
"Je chante avec toi Liberté", recorded in 1981, is perhaps her biggest hit, performed in at least five languages[3] – French,[4] English as "Song for Liberty",[5] German as "Lied der Freiheit",[6] Spanish as "Libertad"[7] and Portuguese as "Liberdade".[8] "Only Love", a song recorded in 1984 as the theme song of TV seriesMistral's Daughter, gained worldwide popularity along with its other versions in French (as "L'Amour en Héritage"), Italian (as "Come un'eredità"), Spanish (as "La dicha del amor"), and German (as "Aber die Liebe bleibt"). It became her only UK hit single when it reached number two in February 1986.[9][10]
Mouskouri became a spokesperson forUNICEF in 1993. She was elected to theEuropean Parliament as a Greek deputy from 1994 to 1999.[11][12]
Nana Mouskouri was born on 13 October 1934 inChania, Crete, where her father, Constantinos, worked as a film projectionist in a local cinema; her mother, Aliki, worked in the same cinema as anusher.[15][16][17] When Mouskouri was three, her family moved toAthens.[15]
Mouskouri's family sent her and her older sister Eugenía (Jenny) to theAthens Conservatoire. Although Mouskouri had displayed exceptional musical talent from age six, Jenny initially appeared to be the more gifted sibling. 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 she has only one functioningvocal cord[18] and this could well account for her remarkable singing voice (in her younger years ranging from a husky, darkalto, which she later dropped, to a ringingcoloraturamezzo), as opposed to her breathy, raspy speaking voice.[19]
In 1950, she was accepted at the Conservatoire. She studied classical music with an emphasis on singingopera. After eight years at the Conservatoire, Mouskouri was encouraged by her friends to experiment withjazz 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.[20]
During an episode ofJoanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey, shown on the UK ITV channel in the autumn of 2011, Mouskouri told the actressJoanna Lumley how she had been scheduled to sing at theamphitheatre 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 owing to her involvement in light music. Mouskouri subsequently left the Conservatoire and began performing at the Tzaki club in Athens.
She began singing jazz in nightclubs with a bias towards Ella Fitzgerald's 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 Tzaki, she met Greek composerManos Hadjidakis. Hadjidakis was impressed by Nana's voice and offered to write songs for her. In 1959 Mouskouri performed Hadjidakis' "Κάπου υπάρχει η αγάπη μου" (Kápou ipárchi i agápi mou, "Somewhere my love exists"; co-written with poetNikos Gatsos) at the inauguralGreek 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, "Τιμωρία" (Timōría, "Punishment") and "Κυπαρισσάκι" (Kyparissáki, "Little cypress"). Both these songs tied for first prize. Mouskouri performedKostas Yannidis' composition, "Ξύπνα αγάπη μου" (Xýpna agápi mou, "Wake up, my love"), at theMediterranean Song Festival, held inBarcelona that year. The song won first prize, and she went on to sign a recording contract withParis-basedPhilips-Fontana.
In 1961, Mouskouri performed the soundtrack of aGerman documentary about Greece. This resulted in the German-language single "Weiße Rosen aus Athen" ("White Roses of Athens"). The song was originally adapted by Hadjidakis from a folk melody. 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.
Map of participating countries in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest, where she also participated with the song "À force de prier" and represented Luxembourg, receiving 13 points and winning 8th place out of 16 participating countries.Nana Mouskouri with her first husband Georges Petsilas in theNetherlands in 1971
Mouskouri has been married twice: first at age 25, to Yorgos (George) Petsilas,[21] a guitarist in her backing band (the trio "The Athenians") They had two children (Nicolas Petsilas in 1968 and Hélène (Lénou) Petsilas in 1970); the couple divorced in 1973.[22] Shortly afterward, she began a relationship with her record producer André Chapelle;[citation needed] however, they did not marry then because she "didn't want to bring another man into the family" and divorce was against her conservative upbringing.[22] They eventually married on January 13, 2003, and live primarily in Switzerland.
In 1960, Mouskouri moved to Paris.[23] She performed Luxembourg's entry in theEurovision Song Contest 1963, "À force de prier". Although the song achieved only eighth place in the contest, in a field of sixteen, it achieved commercial success, and helped win her the prestigiousGrand Prix du Disque in France. Mouskouri soon attracted the attention of French composerMichel Legrand, who composed two songs which became major French hits for her: "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" (1964) and an arrangement ofKatherine K. Davis's "Carol of the Drum", "L'Enfant au Tambour" (1965).
In 1962, she metQuincy Jones, who persuaded her to travel toNew York City to record an album of American jazz titledThe Girl from Greece Sings. Following that she scored another hit in theUnited Kingdom with the song "My Colouring Book" (later included in her 1973 albumSongs from her TV series). In 1965, she recorded her second English-language album to be released in the United States, entitledNana Sings. American singerHarry Belafonte heard and liked the album. Belafonte brought Mouskouri on tour with him through 1966. That year, they collaborated on an album entitledAn Evening With Belafonte/Mouskouri released byRCA Victor. On the album's cover photo, Mouskouri is noticeably not wearing her signature black-rimmed glasses; during the tour, Belafonte suggested that Mouskouri remove her glasses while on stage. She was so unhappy with the request that she wanted to quit the show after only a few days. Finally, Belafonte relented and respected her wish to perform while wearing her glasses.[24]
On September 15, 1965, Mouskouri appeared for the first time on American television with Harry Belafonte on theDanny Kaye Show. While on the show Mouskouri performed "Telalima" followed by "Σήκω χόρεψε κουκλί μου" (Siko horepse koukli mou) accompanied byHarry Belafonte andDanny Kaye.
Mouskouri's 1967 French albumLe 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' legendaryOlympia concert theatre the same year, singing French pop, Greek folk, and Hadjidakis numbers.
These successes across Europe and elsewhere impressedYvonne Littlewood, the BBC producer who had first met Mouskouri at the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest in London. Following several successful guest appearances on British TV after her Eurovision performance, theBBC invited Mouskouri and her backing group, The Athenians, to start hosting a TV series calledPresenting Nana Mouskouri from 1968 onwards. A typical episode of her series contained contemporary British, American and French pop and folk music, popular classical pieces, and the Greek songs which had originally made her famous. The shows also featured European andworld music stars of the time as guests, making it one of the first BBC TV series to do so regularly. Despite the fact that stars from mainland Europe singing in languages other than English have tended to find it difficult to break into the British market, the series proved very popular with viewers of the newBBC-2 channel, and it ran until 1976. As well as performing songs known to British viewers, Mouskouri welcomed the television audience, chatted to her guest stars and gave spoken introductions to her French and Greek songs in fluent English. These introductions, along with a modest stage presence and her bespectacled appearance, made her a very distinctive star, as Yvonne Littlewood later explained:
I suppose it was unusual to see a singer wearing glasses. She didn't look like everyone else. She didn't have blonde hair, and she was very distinctive in her appearance. […] You know, we should remember that, in those days, we didn't have all the holiday programmes, so Greek music and anything Greek wasn’t as well known to the average public as it is now. […] She would give the gist [in English] of the subject of the song before she sang it, and that was really quite unique and quite charming.[25]
Nana Mouskouri receiving a gold and a platinum disc for record sales in Netherlands (1971)
Mouskouri's international appeal encouraged the BBC to sell her programmes to television stations across the world, a fact which she acknowledged in a BBC interview in 2014:
For about 10 years, I was doing every year the series on BBC2… and they went everywhere… in Asia… of course inthe Commonwealth… but even in South America… so that I think that I owe to the BBC a lot. And to Yvonne Littlewood, really.[26]
Mouskouri also hosted her own shows for French and West German broadcasters during this period. At a time when TV programmes could attract huge audiences, her popularity as a multilingual television personality turned her into a truly international star.
Although music series such as hers started to become less common on British TV as the 1970s wore on, the BBC continued to engage Mouskouri regularly for one-off television specials and guest appearances on other programmes until the mid-1980s, by which time she had been a regular contributor to British TV for more than 20 years.
In 1969, Mouskouri released her first British LP,Over and over, which reached number 10 and spent a total of 102 weeks in the UK album charts.[27] This began a series of albums for the UK market which, boosted by her TV appearances, sold extremely well during the early 1970s, includingThe exquisite Nana Mouskouri (1969),Turn on the sun (1970),A place in my heart (1971) andPresenting Nana Mouskouri - Songs from her TV series (1973), while concerts from two of her British tours were also recorded and released as LPs:British Concert (1972) andLive at the Albert Hall (1974).
During the 1970s, Mouskouri - always a prolific recording artist - had two hit LPs in West Germany:Sieben schwarze Rosen (1975) andLieder, die die Liebe schreibt (1978).Spiti mou, spitaki mou (1972) returned Mouskouri to prominence in Greece, and she continued to release a series of top-selling records in France, includingComme un soleil (1971),Une voix qui vient du cœur (1972),Vieilles chansons de France (1973), andQuand tu chantes (1976). Meanwhile,Passport, a compilation including her most popular songs in English, reached number 3 in the UK album charts in 1976 and won for her a gold disc.[27]
In August 1974, while in Australia, Mouskouri was presented with a plaque representing the sale of twenty Gold Records.[28]
As her fame began spreading outside her fan base in Europe, the United States, and the Commonwealth, Mouskouri was asked to record songs for the Japanese and Taiwanese markets. In 1976, a renowned Taiwanese author, Echo, heard her music and introduced it to one of her female radio DJ friends. Mouskouri's records then became popular in Taiwan, especially among high school and college students, with one of her British albums,Nana's book of songs (1974) becoming particularly popular.
In 1979, Mouskouri released another English-language album namedRoses and Sunshine. This album consisted largely of folk and country material, and included work from sources includingNeil Young,Dolly Parton,Bob Dylan andJohn Denver. It was well received in Canada, and one of the album's tracks, "Even Now" (not the same song as the 1978Barry Manilow hit), became a staple onbeautiful music 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 and performed to a large audience at theOdeon of Herodes Atticus; her first performance in her homeland since 1962.
In 1985, Mouskouri recorded "Only Love", the theme song to the American TV seriesMistral's Daughter – based upon the novel byJudith Krantz – which reached number 2 in the UK charts. The song was also a hit in its other versions:L'Amour en héritage (French),Come un'eredità (Italian),La dicha del amor (Spanish), andAber die Liebe bleibt (German). The German version was also recorded with an alternate set of lyrics under the titleDer wilde Wein; it was withdrawn in favour ofAber die Liebe bleibt.
That same year, Mouskouri made a play for the Spanish-language market with the hit singleCon Toda el Alma. The song was a major success inSpain,Argentina andChile.
Mouskouri released five albums in different languages in 1987, and the following year returned to her classical conservatory roots with the double LPThe Classical Nana (a.k.a.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, includingSouth Korea,Taiwan,Singapore,Hong Kong,Malaysia andThailand.
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-languageNuestras Canciones, the multilingual, Mediterranean-themedCôté 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.
In 1993, Mouskouri recorded the albumHollywood. Produced byMichel Legrand 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.[29]
She recorded several more albums in 1996 and 1997, including the SpanishNana Latina (which featured duets withJulio Iglesias andMercedes Sosa), the English-languageReturn to Love, and the French pop classics,Hommages. In 1997, she staged a high-profileConcert for Peace at theCathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. This concert was later released as an album, and aired as a TV special onPBS in the United States.
On 30 May 2013, Mouskouri was awarded an honorary degree byMcGill University, Canada.[30]
Mouskouri was appointed aUNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in October 1993.[31] She took over from the previous ambassador, the recently deceased actressAudrey Hepburn. Mouskouri's first U.N. mission took her toBosnia to draw attention to the plight of children affected by the Bosnian war. She went on to give a series of fund-raising concerts inSweden andBelgium.
She was a Member of theEuropean Parliament for Greece through the centre-rightNew Democracy party from 1994 until 1999,[32][33] when she resigned from her position as an MEP.[citation needed] Several reasons have been given for the resignation, one being her pacifism, and another being that she felt ill-equipped for the day-to-day work of a politician.
Mouskouri lives inSwitzerland 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'sEurovision Song Contest 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 ofEurope, Australia, New Zealand,Asia,South America, theUnited States, andCanada. On July 23 and 24, 2008, Mouskouri gave her two final 'Farewell Concert' performances at the ancientHerodes Atticus Theatre, in Athens, Greece, before a packed stadium, including Greece's Prime Minister and the mayor of Athens, 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 theGreek government-debt crisis,[34] 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."[22]
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 sang again at a single concert, with guests, in Berlin, commemorating the 50th anniversary of her hit single "The White Rose of Athens". She then did a concert tour in Germany in 2012.[35] At age 80, she embarked on a three-year Happy Birthday Tour;[36] in 2018 she had booked a five-month Forever Young Tour through parts of Europe and North America.[37]
In 2015, she was awarded with theEcho Music Prize for Outstanding achievements by the German music association Deutsche Phono-Akademie.[38]
Despite her 'farewell tour' and 'final concert', she continues to make occasional appearances on TV shows, especially in Germany, though increasingly using 'le playback' (miming), which, unlike many other singers, she rarely used through most of her career; the most recent at time of writing was the 2023-12-2 German (ARD1) 'Das Adventsfest der 100 000 Lichter' (advent celebration of 100,000 lights - coincidentally the show's title partially reflecting one of her early [1965] German hits[39]), in which she duetted one song[40] and participated in the finale.[41]
Commemorating her 90th birthday, 4 new albums were released - "Happy Birthday, Nana" in Germany with theRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra;[43] "90th Birthday" in England; "90 Cumpleaños" in Spain and "90e anniversaire" in France. A new version of the Greek song "Pios échi Dakria" is included in the albums.
In 2025, her song "Guten Morgen, Sonnenschein" became a viral hit amongst younger generation after being played in theNetflix series -Cassandra. Since the show’s debut, the song has had over 37 million streams onSpotify, 15 millionYouTube views, and a staggering 1027% increase in listens onDeezer in France alone. OnTikTok over 30 000 fan-made videos with the song were created, reimagining the eerie wake-up scenes or dancing to its beat.[44][45][46][47]
The British comedianBenny Hill impersonated Mouskouri onThe Benny Hill Show. Wearing a long dress, large glasses and long black hair, he talked and sang with a slow and quiet voice. He introduced a song with a long translation into English of all the events supposedly mentioned in the song; he then sang just a single line of "Greek".[48]
Andrea Martin played Mouskouri in a sketch, 'The Nana Mouskouri Story', during the 1981–1982 season ofSCTV (later included in a DVD compilation).
In 1976,Ronnie Barker performed a song in drag as a parody of Mouskouri inThe Two Ronnies as Nana Moussaka. Mouskouri was also parodied in the first episode of the 1970s New Zealand political satireA Week Of It.
In 1991, British comedianVictoria Wood mentioned Mouskouri in her original song, "The Reincarnation Song." The song was included in Wood's television special of that year,Victoria Wood: Sold Out.
In theEd, Edd n Eddy episodeO-Ed-Eleven, Eddy's brother is shown to have a Nana Mouskouri poster in his old bedroom.
Karl Pilkington included Mouskouri as a clue in his contest 'Rockbusters', part of the radio showThe Ricky Gervais Show on XFM. Broadcasting on December 31, 2005, the clue was "Me granny's taking a penalty. She better get the ball in the back of the net," initials (NM) = Nana Mouskouri (nanna must score 'ere).Gervais described this clue as "one of his best clues ever."
In the UK, Mouskouri performed quite successfully. Her 1976 release titledPassport was certified Gold while her 1977 albumThe Magic of Nana Mouskouri also attained Gold status a year after it was released. She also had two other silver certified albums,Alone (1986) andAt Her Very Best (2001).[50]
France
In France, Mouskouri achieved her first gold certification in 1995 with her 1987 release titledNana Mouskouri 1. Three years after, she scored her second Gold record with her 1987 albumMaster Serie Vo. 1.[51]
Germany
In Germany, Mouskouri has six albums that received certifications fromBVMI.Nana Mouskouri In New York received 5× Gold in 2015 for selling over 50,000 in Germany. Other albums that received 1× Gold certification includes the albumsDie schönsten deutschen Weihnachtslieder,Lieder, die die Liebe schreibt,Alles Liebe,Die Welt ist voll Licht andSieben schwarze Rosen.[52]
United States
In the US, her album titledOnly Love - The Best of Nana Mouskouri charted and peaked at No. 141 onBillboard 200, spending six weeks on chart. This is her highest charting project in the country. In 2007,I'll Remember You peaked at No. 22 on Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums and No. 42 on Billboard Jazz Albums. In 1998,Concert for Peace peaked at No. 7 on Billboard World Albums and charted for six weeks.[53]
Canada
In Canada,Live at the Albert Hall (1974) reached No. 49,[54]Songs Of The British Isles (1976) reached No. 89.[55]Je Chante Avec Toi Liberte was certified platinum in 1985 for selling over 100,000 copies in the country.When I Dream (1983) reached No. 65.[56] Her 2018 and most recent albumForever Young debuted at No. 73 on Billboard Canadian Albums.[57]
Others
The single "White Roses from Athens” was released in 1961, which stayed at number 1 on the charts for 39 weeks and sold more than 1.5 million copies within six months.[58]
Nana Mouskouri won aWorld Music Award for Best-Selling Greek Recording Artist two years in a row, in 1991[59] and 1992.[60]
In 1992,Spin magazine included Mouskouri on their list of "7 chart-toppers you won't see on MTV" and stated that Mouskouri sells two million records each year worldwide and has released about 800 albums in seven different languages.[61]
In 1996,Platinum Europe Awards handed Mouskouri a special award saying "Europe is a great musical culture".[62] She also received a Golden Disc Award for "Weisse Rosen Aus Athen" and became the first Philip artist to reach one million sales.[63]
Το όνομά μου είναι Νάνα (To ónomá mou eínai Nána, "My Name Is Nana"), by Nana Mouskouri, Livani Publishing, Athens 2006.ISBN960-14-1341-3,ISBN978-960-14-1341-9(in Greek).
Memoirs, by Nana Mouskouri with Lionel Duroy, translated by Jeremy Leggatt, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2007.ISBN0-297-84469-5 andISBN978-0-297-84469-3(in English).
Stimme der Sehnsucht: Meine Erinnerungen, by Nana Mouskouri with Lionel Duroy, translated by Ulrike Lelickens, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2008.ISBN3-89602-848-0 andISBN978-3-89602-848-8(in German).
Poilly-Genoud, Audrey.Nana Mouskouri, une fragilité fondatrice: quelques notes éparses sur les lunettes de Nana Mouskouri. Paris: l'Harmattan, 2010ISBN978-2-296-12948-1
Site québécois de Nana Mouskouri (in French, English, Spanish and German) Biography, discography by language, list of 2 000 recordings, covers magazines, TV in Quebec, drawings, memories et topicalities.
