Nana Mouskouri Lives on The Swiss Riviera Together With Other Celebrities

My name is actually Joanna, but my father called me Nána, a child name used very often among Greek girls, she says. At home in Greece where she grew up everybody from her family sang with pleasure. Her mother, her two-year-older sister Jenny and her father who also sang often, unfortunately quite wrong.

Actually, I was above all introverted and to sing was my kind to express myself. On recommendation of friends, I went to the conservatory of Athens together with my sister Jenny. My parents wanted to prefer none of the daughters. Nevertheless, because my parents had difficulties to finance us both, my sister stopped voluntary.

Music Star Nana Mouskouri
Nana Mouskouri´s career started in 1957 when she sang regularly on the Greek radio, won the Festival de la Chanson Hellenique in 1958 and a year later the International Music Festival in Barcelona. At that time, composers like Mikis Theodorakis made Greek folk music popular and took up the first records with me.

When I was twenty, I still lived at home and strictly guarded by my mother: "Where do you go tonight, she asked often?"

In those days, it was not common in Greece for young girls to be on the move. I could only have girl friends, but male musician colleagues were unconceivable. Nevertheless, I appeared even in nightclubs - indeed only in very serious ones.

Maria Callas asked me ones why I never tried the opera after I finished the conservatory. Unfortunately, I never could take lessons for the opera because I had to earn money. I always felt more attracted to songs and jazz. In addition, with classical music I felt certain sadness, even when I love this music. Besides, I am rather a happy nature.

Nana Mouskouri wrote her autobiography "The Glasses" in 1989, which is for her a symbol against injustice. At the end of the fifties, she was not allowed to appear in an Athens nightclub anymore because she was too heavy and carries glasses, although she already had a lot of success. After that, she never took her glasses off anymore. She wanted to be convincing only by her artistic presentation.

She managed this with high-powered sponsors. Manos Hadjidakis wrote Greek, Michel Legrand French songs for her. Quincy Jones and Harry Belafonte got her to the USA. Moreover, record directors of several countries tore themselves over her. Like at the "Berlin Film Festival" in 1961 where she made a sensation with a documentary film about Greece from Hadjidakis songs.

Since that time, Nana Mouskouri has sold more than 250 million records. She belongs after Madonna and beside Mariah Carey to the three commercially most successful singers of the world. In 2008, she wants to retire after her last world tour. She lives close to Geneva in a big beautiful villa overlooking Lake Geneva where she has been living since the mid sixties. Her son and her daughter from her first marriage to Mouskouri Georgios Petsilas, Nicolas and Helene (under the name Lenou and a singer) are born and raised in Switzerland. Today she lives together with husband Andre Chapelle.

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So, what was the reason why Nana Mouskouri chooses the Swiss Riviera as her home? Since the Second World War, Switzerland is for us Greek the perfect example of peace and harmony, a paradise where every Greek would live with pleasure. I find Switzerland simply wonderful, especially here on Lake Geneva. I am in love with the water, probably because I was born on the island of Crete and have an apartment overlooking the harbour in Athens.

Many celebrities have discovered the Swiss Riviera and relocated there. Super stars like Shania Twain who lives in a town close to Lausanne - The city of Wine, or Phil Collins, Isabelle Adjani, Ornella Muti, Alain Delon, David Bowie and many more. Discover who else of the celebrities, sport stars, high finance and even royalty relocated to Switzerland.

However, on Lake Geneva is where my home is, where I recover from the tours and enjoy the family life, especially in the winter. Geneva is ideal for my tours because it is centrally located. And I love the Swiss for their affectionate respect and admire the politically open system in this country. For me as a Greek by birth, it was a revelation to experience how different languages and cultures can exist so peacefully together. I live here like the Swiss, but without having to give up my Greek identity. What more can you ask for?

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