The Inexplicable Fame of Nana Mouskouri

I’ve been avoiding her for years

Hello, is Paul there?

I *adore* Nana Moussaka!

She's no Aliza Kashi...

[quote] Recently I found one of her LPs at the thrift store, and I am shocked to say her voice was a huge disappointment- a breathy girl’s voice that often failed at true pitch

But, it's wrong! [italic]SHOCKINGLY[/italic] wrong!

Why can't a poster just say, "Recently I found one of her LPs, and I was disappointed by her voice?

Why, when a Datalounger tells this kind of story, does he inevitably have to instead be "[bold]shocked[/bold] to say her voice was a [bold]huge[/bold] disappointment"?

So much drama!

"My breathy girl's voice put millions of bums in millions of seats from Minsk to Milwaukee!"

Same here. I’m baffled. Competent enough singer. Middle of the road, non threatening songs. But to the point of selling, what, close to 300m records? Putting her in the same league as Elvis, ABBA, the Beatles, DL fave Madonna? WTF?

The same could be said for fellow Greek singer Demis Roussos. At least Nana has a decent voice.

Demi’s Roussos = Trans Nana

I prefer Mireille Mathieu over Nana. Much better voice and material.

My favourite version of Habanera comes from Nana Mouskouri, I know it's more poprah than oprah, but I love her voice for it, teetering on the edge, she's Carmen.

The complaints about her having a a 'breathy girl’s voice' are comical today, considering we're *truly* stuck with that style now.

ohh, thank you, r11

OMG r12, that is absolutely awful! My favourite Habanera is by her fellow Greek Maria Callas, who, even though she was a soprano and not a mezzo (as Carmen is meant to be), this performance is just divine.

I was sitting in a restaurant with a dark haired female friend and a waiter came up to her and said “You look so much like Nana Mouskouri.” My friend looked like she was going to cry and I had to comfort her and say that the waiter was insane.

Nana sang in a variety of languages and genres and was popular among all age groups, so she appealed to plenty of markets.

My favourite song by her is a much later one, from 2003, a song dedicated to the late Melina Merkouri. Gives me goosebumps, but you have to understand the Greek context for that I guess.

I would have told her to just take off the damn glasses, r15.

I love Joanna Lumley's travel docu series for segments like this one.

I think she was part of that older generation evergreen pop that was particularly popular in Europe in the 70s and 80s. You know, like what Rita Coolidge did in the US, but in the US it was more folk music centric.

She was a frequent guest on UK light entertainment shows in the 70s and 80s. Her gentle style was very popular with old people. My grandparents loved her. Becoming an MEP was a big surprise.

I love Nana’s voice & have her CD “Only Love.” My mother borrowed it & liked it, but said that listening to it makes one want to commit hari-kiri.

I read she is homophobic, especially at the time she was a politician.

I don't know if she's particularly homophobic r22, but I assume she would have shared the same generic attitudes towards homosexuality as any centre-right or even centre-left politician did in the 1990s, which was not a time when same-sex marriage, for example, was supported anywhere. Not that as an MEP gay issues would ever have really come up in her work, except for to condemn human rights violations.

[quote] The same could be said for fellow Greek singer Demis Roussos. At least Nana has a decent voice.

He’s a much better singer. Aphrodite’s Child was the dog’s nuts.

She has supposedly sold more records worldwide than Madonna claims to have sold. A lot of people don't know who she is. The only way she could've sold over 300 million records would be if she recorded and released 3,000,000 albums and each one sold over a hundred copies.

OP you misspelled “inevitable”.

She knocks it out of the park with “Minuit Chrétiens” and the bizarre camera work on this version captures her “little lost sparrow” quality.

"And we are all five Greeks..."