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Swan song for Nana
GREEK singing star Nana Mouskouri will serenade her Tyneside fans for the last time this month after deciding to call it a day.
She is preparing to bring down the curtain on a 50-year performing career, and her farewell tour includes an appearance at The Sage Gateshead.
Listening to talk enthusiastically about her life and times, it's hard to believe she's now in her 70s.
A familiar face on British TV in the 1960s and 1970s, Mouskouri has sold 230 million records, and recorded no fewer than 1,500 songs over the course of a singing career spanning more than half a century.
The Greek singer's black glasses and shoulder-length hair are instantly recognisable to millions of fans worldwide.
However, a broken ankle several years ago led to a three-month spell in hospital for Mouskouri, and that set her thinking about winding up her performing career.
A farewell tour which started back in 2005 will reach Tyneside at the end of this month.
"After the accident, I was talking with my husband and started to think how I could say I love my fans as I step down from the stage," she said.
"This is the first time I've toured the UK for five or six years, but I've appeared in Newcastle many times before.
"My farewell tour will be a kind of retrospective. Each country I play is different, and I change my repertoire according to where I'm playing."
Despite her impending exit from the live stage, Mouskouri is busier than ever, with a biographical memoir and new CDs due to be released to coincide with her goodbye tour.
Backed by a five-piece band, she will be putting on a show reflecting the many strands of her musical career, ranging from her early days as a jazz singer to folk and country material written by friends such as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.
As well as her singing, Mouskouri has been prominent in politics in her homeland and was a Euro-MP from 1994 until 1999.
However, as a committed pacifist, she felt unhappy about supporting military solutions and eventually resigned.
Her desire to make a difference at an international level was underlined when she was appointed a Unicef goodwill ambassador in 1993, a role filled by Hollywood stars Audrey Hepburn before her and Angelina Jolie since.
Mouskouri's first United Nations mission saw her travelling to Bosnia to see for herself the horrific effects of war on children there.
Moved by the experience, she later staged several fundraising concerts for Bosnia.
Music has remained an important part of her life throughout, though.
She said: "Since the 1990s, I have been involved with the Unicef human rights concerts, and even though this is my farewell tour, I would still record if I was moved by a particular cause.
"I'm not angry with modern music – I still love music – and that's why I'm bringing out my book and CDs later this month.
"I also help young performers though my foundation because I think it's very important to continue to support the music of the future."
Greece's most famous pop star has attracted some high-profile fans over the years, including rock legend Dylan, who once watched her perform from the wings during a concert she gave in Los Angeles in the 1970s.
"Dylan is a great poet, just like Leonard Cohen, and I still perform his songs, such as A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," said Mouskouri.
Her farewell UK tour will include an appearance at London's Royal Albert Hall, but Mouskouri says she has a fondness for Tyneside and is looking forward to her swan song in Gateshead.
* Nana Mouskouri is at the Sage Gateshead on Saturday, October 27. Contact the venue on 443 4661 for ticket information.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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