The meeting of Nana Mouskouri with Mimi Plessas in the forecourt of the ERT Radio Megaros was one of the most touching moments of Wednesday's presentation of the album "Nana Mouskouri – Radio Days."
Despite his advanced age, which did not allow him to be in a closed space with many people, the 99-year-old composer patiently waited for his muse, sitting in his wheelchair, to hug her and take the collectible vinyl from her hands with the 24 songs, most of which bear his musical signature.
When she arrived, he opened his arms and hugged her tenderly whispering with her one of his songs that brought them together decades ago, "The window": "Open my window/ two eyes to face/ I lost my sleep/ forty -two nights" they sang, exchanging looks of deep love.
@charilaospapaioan #μουσχουρη#ελλαδα #πλεσσας #κυπρος #love #αγαπη #nanamouskouri
Somewhere in the mid-fifties, a young girl studying music found herself in the studio of the Hellenic Radio in Zappeio, from where the program's broadcasts were broadcast live.
At the piano sat Mimis, who played the intro of a song and asked the audience to identify who it was. The dark-haired girl, jumping from her seat, replied that it was "Smoke gets in your eyes", and the composer invited her to sing it with the orchestra.
This was the first public performance of Nana Mouskouri, the Greek woman who later travelled through her voice to Greek music and poetry to the ends of the earth.
A little while later, and after she had taken exams three times to be accepted as a performer of the Orchestra of the National Radio Foundation, Nana Mouskouri recorded in the studios of Agia Paraskevi until the beginning of the 1960s, her first songs, which bore the signatures of essential composters such as Mimis Plessas, Michalis Souyoul, Takis Morakis, Kostas Giannidis and others.
These maiden performances of hers, which remained anecdotes for decades, were retrieved from the historical archive of ERT and delivered to the public through the recording work - a document entitled "Nana Mouskouri - Radio Days", which is released from today on CD and also on collector's vinyl, in Greece, France and Germany.
"Today, I am returning to my home. The music brought me back to where I started," said the 89-year-old performer, visibly moved, at the official presentation of the album at noon on Wednesday at the Radio Megaro of ERT, in the same studio where the recordings were made.
Everyone stood and applauded her for quite some time when she entered the studio smiling and elegant, accompanied by her beloved husband and producer of decades, Andre Chapel.
"I am very excited. All this is bigger than I imagined," he confessed, looking with a look of love and gratitude to all who came to this critical moment.
Among them are Giorgos Hatzinassios, Giorgos Katsaros, Manolis Mitsias, Dimitris Papadimitriou, Natasa Theodoridou et al.
As for the secret to her massive success? As she revealed to us, it is her honesty: "In life, you have to be yourself, and I always tried to be honest...".
In addition to being honest, Nana Mouskouri has always been a persistent, extremely hardworking, tireless woman who was always thirsty for new experiences and deeply loved music as well as Greece.
"My greatest success was how I made foreigners love Greece. Greek music, and the Greek language," said proudly, the artist who has sold over 300 million records worldwide.
"Ms. Mouskouri, the Greeks who meet you for the first time do not feel like we are meeting you for the first time because we have you in us. You are perhaps the only Greek performer who, when you sing, gives us a feeling of national pride," said the President of ERT, Constantinos Zoulas, meaningfully.
At the same time, the director of music programs of ERT, journalist Fotis Apergis, to whom the idea of this record also belongs, characterised her aptly as the one who "put the glasses on the world of lifestyle by simply refusing to take off her glasses."
Margarita Matsa, managing director of MINOS – EMI/Universal, from where this record work is released, revealed that "two years ago, this idea seemed unfeasible due to the large number of licenses and processing required". And yet, today, we can hold it in our hands!
Overwhelmed by the love and positive energy received by Nana Mouskouri, she wanted to please us in her way, which is none other than singing.
So she took the microphone and performed the wonderful "Paper Moon" by her favourites Manos Hadjidakis and Nikos Gatsos and "Dream Traveler" to the music of Giorgos Hatzinassios with him accompanying her on the piano.
And just like that, the end became the beginning again...!
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