"Music for me was like
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InterviewsAustralian Tour 2001 -Rob Buckingham of 3MPA telephone interview with Nana Mouskouri in Athens, at 9.30 am (Melbourne time) on Monday, 22nd January,2001 by RobBuckingham of Easy Music 3MP. It's a beautiful summer's day in Melbourne, Australia where it is heading for a maximum of 36 degrees! Rob: Reaching an overnight low of 6 degrees and with a max of just 11, all the way from Melbourne to Athens it's good morning to Nana Mouskouri. Nana: Yes, it is wonderful really, I believe so, and you know Melbourne is one of the biggest Greek populated cities in the world. Rob: That's correct. Yes Nana: Yes, it is, it is, so you are directly from Melbourne to Athens, it is great. Rob: Will this be your first time in Australia or have you been here before? Nana: No, no. I have been in Australia three times and the first time when I came to Australia it was in 1974. It was really a long, long time ago. And then I came twice in the '80s and now. So it's been quite a few years that I didn't come back, but I have been three times in Australia, and I am looking forward to coming back. Rob: Do you have fond memories of your previous visits? Nana: Oh, I have wonderful memories of my previous visits because the audience was excellent. I was really received in a wonderful way and I look forward to coming back and present my new songs, of course lots of my favourite songs that people know me with, but a lot of new ones as well. So it's very exciting for me to come back and introduce what I have done in all those years. You know I have been singing for about forty years now and I always love to sing. I have the same ones to sing that I have before and the same excitement, and to come to Australia, it is a wonderful country, so I am very happy to be there, soon. Rob: Since 1958 you've recorded more than 1,350 songs, how do you decide what songs to sing in your concerts? Nana: Well, I really try to get, first of all the most important songs because it is for me a life story on stage, almost. I just try to sing the songs that make more sense for me, but at the same time to have a variety and be able to go through the years and sing the most important poems that were sold for the audience, that were very, very well known to the audience as well, and they remember me with, and because they have been important to my career. And of course I sing songs that give me this emotion that I get, and to make a programme that is also agreeable for the people, and that is very exciting and that is also appreciated. I like it on stage - sometimes you can cry, you can laugh, you can clap your hands and you can enjoy. It is very important to spend a very nice moment on stage, so I try to make it a very, very nice two & a half hours that I am on stage. Rob: Is there a song that you would describe as the most important song of your career? Nana: You know, I think sometimes you are born with a song, but then you grow up so you learn other songs, so somehow the "White Rose Of Athens" was the first, it was like my passport. I travelled around the world and it was translated in many languages and somehow everybody knows me from the White Rose. But in my life there have been so many other songs like Try To Remember or Bridge Over Troubled Waters or the Jimmy Brown song or Only Love and a lot and lot of Greek songs. Greek songs have been very, very important for me in my life, so you start with ones that you are born somehow with, but you grow up as a singer with other songs. You know, when I was young, I started with classical music. Lately, after the 80s, I started to sing some classical tunes in my programme, which is very important because I have more possibilities, vocal possibilities, in them. Also I am much more mature now as a singer to be able to sing more difficult songs, so they are important as well to have them in my programme. It is very serious being on stage, but at the same time having a wonderful time going through a variety of styles and lyrics and times with the songs. Rob: Over the years you've recorded songs in French, English, German, Greek, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese and Hebrew. Nana: (Laughs) "Just one Japanese, just one. But the languages you know for me it was not just that I wanted to show off. It was going through the cultures, the visions - they are major countries. In order to bring my Greek songs to them I had to learn their music, their traditions, their culture and also I have enriched my own music, in my repertoire it was very important. I lived for quite a few years in England, doing on television what I learned in the music, in the folk music, in the traditional music and also the pop music in England. It was a wonderful moment for my career and so I sing in English. And then I lived in France as well for a while, I learned a lot from the French music. So for me it's a point when I sing a Spanish song, it's like I participated in the artistic life of that country. And in the songs I sing I speak the language and make a wonderful variety in my programme, and also I musically appreciate them. It's may be my classical studies that made me feel so. (Laughs again). Rob: Along with the languages of course you've worked with many great singers as well, people like Bob Dylan, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Celine Dion, Julio Iglesias. Do you have a favourite performer to work with? Nana: Yes, I mean I did. Sometimes on television I did work with them, but I never recorded really. I only recorded with Harry Belafonte, I recorded with Julio Iglesias. I never did, but you know the time is there, may be one day (laughs). I didn't yet record, but it was wonderful to work with them and it is exciting to be with another singer, but you have to sing because you like to sing together - it's not the commercial thing you know. But it's wonderful, I've been very lucky in my life to sing and meet all those singers. Rob: And as well as your music career, you also work with UNICEF helping children around the world. Tell us a bit about your work there. Nana: Yes, I think, that you know it was in the beginning of the 90s that they asked me to join UNICEF and have replaced Audrey Hepburn in her work, but being involved with UNICEF for me just opened another horizon. You know you grow up with the music, it is a wonderful thing, but you are very closed to human problems to humankind, to whatever is around the world and especially children, but they are the future of the world. So when I started to work with UNICEF, it was for me a new way of giving some love and care to the world who has really spoilt me for so many years as a singer. And I am really very proud of the work that we have been doing with UNICEF. I have been in many places, I mean, in South America like Columbia, or I have been in Guatemala or El Salvador that's today in such a shock, a horrible situation again or in Vietnam. I have been in many, many places, Africa and working for those projects with UNICEF, has made it the most rewarding thing that I have ever done in my life, it's wonderful. Rob: It's wonderful work indeed. Nana: Yes it's really wonderful because we don't realise until we are there, and we can tell the word to the world how much they need, these people, and the children really need to be respected and loved and give them our care if it's proper and our time as much as we can. Rob: Nana, we are so looking forward to your visit here to Melbourne. You are at the Melbourne Concert Hall on Wednesday the 14th of March. We look forward to seeing you then and thank you so much for your time this morning. Nana: Thank you very, very much and I look forward to seeing you and to sing for you also. |