Nana Mouskouri

THE VOICE OF GREECE

What music are you currently grooving to? I listen to music that comes fresh and new. Music for me is a moral law and I respect it very much.

What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? I have many memorable albums, by Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday… Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker is a hard record to listen to but very special. I’ll say Amy Winehouse’s Frank. That album was a big lesson for me. A song I have followed in my life is Over The Rainbow, sung by Judy Garland. I saw that film [The Wizard Of Oz] when I was a little girl in the cinema where my father was a projectionist, and from that point I wanted to be Dorothy.

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit and Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Shoes, from a shop in Athens. I still have them.

Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be? I learned so much from other singers, but I had to make my own way.

What do you sing in the shower? Ha! I don’t.

What is your favourite Saturday night record? For a party, a Greek song, Hartino To Feggaraki, or Paper Moon. It speaks about how, even if you wish for something under a false moon, if you are real, anything can be reality. The great actress Melina Mercouri sang it.

And your Sunday morning record? I will not listen right away. I will call my children and my grandchildren, I will look at my mail, then I will find songs that will cheer me up. For instance, Leonard Cohen’s Bird On The Wire.

Nana plays London’s Royal Festival Hall on October 17. Her new album Forever Young is out now Wrasse Records.