Bowing Out
Nana Mouskouri bids the stage adieu
DANETTE DOOLEY
Special to The Telegram
After almost half a century of sharing her music with fans throughout the world, Nana Mouskouri is saying goodbye.
Four months shy of her 73rd birthday, Mouskouri says she always knew the time would come when she’d step aside. That time is now, she says.
“Many singers go on and sing very late (in life), but I don’t want to go on and then for people to say my voice is not like it was,” Mouskouri says during a telephone interview from Paris, France, Wednesday.
It’s been her intention, she says, to stop while she’s still in good health and able to sing with pride.
“When people can have a nice time and not to feel pity about me.”
Slowing down
While Mouskouri admits she’s slowing down and that performing in various parts of the world is becoming tiresome, she would not feel right, she says, bowing out without saying a final goodbye and thank-you to her fans.
Her upcoming Farewell World Tours gives her an opportunity to do that.
“I want to thank all the generations for helping me come up to here,” she says.
Mouskouri began her career in her native Greece.
After studying classical music at the Hellenic Conservatory in Athens, she went on to make her first recording in 1959.
Since that time she’s recorded over 1,500 songs in several different languages and has sold over 300 million records worldwide.
The 50 diamond, platinum and gold recordings she has to her credit has earned her a reputation as one of the world’s most gifted singers.
Mouskouri had no idea when she began her singing career that it would take her to some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Olympia in Paris and New York’s Carnegie Hall.
“I became a singer because I wanted to sing. I sang for love, for peace, for hope and for dreams,” she says.
Such messages have been passed to her fans, through her music.
Feeling the love
While Mouskouri has captured audiences throughout the world, she’s also received much love from her fans, she says.
As she steps aside, she says, she does so knowing there are many other talented singers to take her place.
“It’s not a surprise to the people that I cannot offer what the young people can offer.”
Silencing her voice on stage won’t mean that Mouskouri will be sitting back with her feet up.
She has much to offer the world and will continue to give of herself in other ways.
Her plans include spending time mentoring talented young singers in Greece.
“I was 24 when I first left and I stayed outside of Greece but know I want to concentrate on being in one place.”
An international UNICEF ambassador for the past 15 years, Mouskouri will also continue in her role as advocate, fundraiser and field worker.
“It’s very rewarding because you’re using your voice for people who have no voice,” she says of her volunteer activities with UNICEF.
Mouskouri will take to the stage one last time in St. John’s Wednesday at Mile One Centre where she’ll treat her fans to a journey through her life. It will be nostalgic but not sad, she insists.
“It’s to remember the old times, not with regret, but to be happy that they happened.”
danette@nl.rogers.com
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