Iconic Greek singer Nana Mouskouri will say goodbye to the stage as she turns 90

The world star’s decision is linked to his fear of “singing badly”.

A few days before her 90th birthday, the Greek Nana Mouskouri, icon of popular song in the world, announced that she wanted to say goodbye to the stage in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel published Thursday October 3, 2024.

“I’m going to do a few more performances, and then that will be it“, she said in this interview available in the online edition of the weekly. “I think I’ve done enough“, she added.

“I can’t pretend to be a young woman. I don’t want to make people suffer. I’m not allowed to go on stage and sing badly, even if the audience applauds me for it“, she further estimated.

Born in Crete in 1934, Nana Mouskouri has recorded more than 1,500 songs, in a dozen different languages, since the start of her career in the 1960s. Her crystalline voice and inimitable look have triumphed on all continents. In 2010, she appeared, ahead of Madonna and Céline Dion, in the very closed list of stars who sold the most records in the world. A figure estimated at nearly 400 million albums.

On October 13, the most Francophile of Greek singers will celebrate her 90th birthday. And on this occasion, an album of some of his successes re-recorded by an orchestra will be released. “When I hear these recordings I can’t help but cry“, she told the magazine Der Spiegel.

In 2007 already, the Greek diva had decided to retire and embarked on an international farewell tour, giving recitals on the biggest stages. She finished, in July 2008, at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens with a double concert which was to be the last. The audience gave her a standing ovation, thinking they would never see her on stage again.

But the star with glasses had a very bad time with retirement, to the point of depression. “When I don’t sing, I don’t exist“, she then declared. To the delight of her fans, she returned to the stage a few years later.

On April 26, Nana Mouskouri participated in her own way in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by singing The Marseillaise live in the ancient stadium of Athens during the torch passing ceremonies.