Nana Mouskouri

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a download from the Desert Island Discs archive. This edition may be slightly different from what was actually broadcast, but it is the only version we have. It comes from the British Library's radio collection.

Presenter0:15

The recording didn't contain the guests' eight music choices, so we rebuilt the original show by using discs from the B B C Gramophone library. For Wright's reasons we've had to shorten the music.

Presenter0:26

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Disc's website.

Presenter0:31

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy nine.

Presenter0:35

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:54

Decorating our desert island this week is the international singer Nana Muskuri.

Presenter1:00

Nana

Presenter1:01

Is that your real name, or is it a diminutive or a nickname?

Nana Mouskouri1:06

Nana is a diminutive of um Joana. Ioana is in Greek.

Presenter1:10

Yeah.

Nana Mouskouri1:10

Yes. So uh when I was a little girl I couldn't pronounce yo Anna. I used to call myself Nana. And that became my um you know, that it stayed uh through the years. Everybody calls me Nana, yes.

Presenter1:22

Did you find it difficult to choose just eight records to take on this island?

Nana Mouskouri1:27

It it was very difficult. I but I think it it would have been difficult even if I if I had to choose fifty or a hundred or two hundred.

Presenter1:32

Yeah.

Nana Mouskouri1:33

It's it's like if you had, uh, I don't know, uh, ten children and they will ask you, you get eight with you. I mean, you want

Presenter1:41

Okay.

Nana Mouskouri1:41

You won't be able to do that. It's impossible.

Presenter1:43

Is it impos

Presenter1:44

What's the first one on that that pile that you have there?

Nana Mouskouri1:47

Well, I would like to start with um with a singer. She was not only singer, but she was also actress, and that's uh Judy Garland. She was not a good singer, she was not uh at all the sort, you know, of of singing that I would do, but I I liked the the exuberance and the nature. I in my feeling she was a very natural person. So uh this is why I always liked her very much. And one of the the records I I always it was a live one, which is is not at all perfect, it's the contrary of being a perfect record. And that was uh one of the songs was Come Rain or Come Shine.

Speaker 22:34

I'm gonna love you like nobody's loved you, come rain Uh

Speaker 12:41

How come shine?

Speaker 12:45

High as a mountain, deep as a river, come rain.

Speaker 12:53

Welcome shape.

Presenter2:56

Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall. Now, Nana, you are from Greece, from Athens?

Nana Mouskouri3:01

Yes. I in fact I was born in in Crete, but I was raised in Athens.

Presenter3:05

Yeah.

Presenter3:06

Now your childhood was spent in Athens during the war when conditions were very rough indeed during the occupation.

Nana Mouskouri3:10

Kingsware.

Nana Mouskouri3:12

Yes. Oh, I think they were rough for for all the the young people of my age. It was not uh worse. But I mean, um it's a sort of thing that brought you up uh to grow up in a different way and uh l let's say to start your life in a hard way.

Presenter3:18

Yeah.

Speaker 13:18

Yeah.

Presenter3:31

Yes. There wasn't much to eat in those days. No.

Nana Mouskouri3:34

Yeah.

Presenter3:35

There's a very sad story that rain was welcomed because it brought the snails up.

Nana Mouskouri3:39

The snails, yes. Yes. I mean, it's it it I laugh when I think about it. I don't know how it's but it's such a s sad thing because i if you think how many countries nowadays they they still have the same problem for different reasons, but they have it's a very sad thing.

Presenter3:54

Mm.

Presenter3:57

Now your father was away fighting with the partisans. In ordinary life he was a cinema projectionist, so you could get into the movies for nothing.

Nana Mouskouri4:03

You could

Nana Mouskouri4:04

Yes, absolutely. I used to spend hours and hours to watch movies.

Presenter4:09

What sort of films did you like best?

Nana Mouskouri4:11

Well, um, I was very fond of musical films because there there was a lot of music, uh, singing and dancing and that was one of my, you know, the the high points watching films. But also I was very fond of of dramatical things, very sad stories. I I I was a very good audience. I was crying when I had to cry.

Speaker 24:33

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Nana Mouskouri4:34

And laugh when it was, you know, the right time to laugh. I'm still a very good audience. I'm sure you are.

Presenter4:37

I'm still

Presenter4:39

I'm sure you were. Were the musical films dubbed into Greek?

Nana Mouskouri4:42

No, no.

Presenter4:42

No, no, no.

Nana Mouskouri4:43

They were not. Uh you see it was very expensive to overdap the film. So but it was a good thing though, because I grew up learning songs only with um

Nana Mouskouri4:55

Um, not to I didn't speak the language, so I had to to mime the the the sound of of the of the lyrics.

Speaker 15:01

Uh

Presenter5:01

Yeah.

Speaker 15:01

Yeah.

Nana Mouskouri5:02

The music, there was no problem, but the words I had to find a way to say them, and I didn't know what I was saying.

Presenter5:08

You learnt them by ear.

Nana Mouskouri5:09

Yes, but I used to catch exactly the right word without knowing what it was, just

Nana Mouskouri5:16

with the with the expression.

Presenter5:17

Was there musical talent in your family?

Nana Mouskouri5:20

There was a lot of singing in the house nobody was professional.

Nana Mouskouri5:24

But my mother used to to sing while she was doing her homework and and we learned to do the same thing.

Presenter5:31

Did you have many brothers and sisters?

Nana Mouskouri5:33

I just had one sister. She she sings very nicely.

Presenter5:34

One sister.

Presenter5:36

Did you have singing lessons as a child?

Nana Mouskouri5:38

Yes, I had uh eight years of classical training.

Presenter5:41

That was at the Athens Conservatoire. How old were you when you went there?

Nana Mouskouri5:42

Yeah, it works.

Nana Mouskouri5:45

I started very young, although it was not permitted. I was twelve years old, but I I think nothing could stop me from singing, and my parents thought that it was a good way.

Presenter5:54

Mm-hmm.

Nana Mouskouri5:55

for me to to go to school and learn how to sing.

Presenter5:58

Well, there you are. You're on your way, so at this point, let's stop for your second record. Watch that.

Nana Mouskouri6:03

At the time I used to like a lot of uh American music.

Nana Mouskouri6:08

And um

Nana Mouskouri6:10

Maybe it was not uh the uh this artist went they did not sing at the time and they were not popular, but I would I would like to play one of the records. I I really like songs from by Paul Simon.

Presenter6:21

Paul Simon, what shall he sing?

Nana Mouskouri6:22

What should you say? Well, old friends with Art Garfunkel. And I think I chose this song, it's not because uh of the the music, but it's it's the sentiment of the of the lyric. And it is it's such a good idea and I really like it.

Presenter6:46

Sat on their pop bench like pokins

Presenter6:51

Newspaper blown through the grass

Presenter6:54

Balls on the round toes.

Presenter6:58

The high shoes of the old friends

Presenter7:03

Simon and Garfunkel, old friends. So you were at the Conservatoire. What was the other subject you were doing, singing and?

Nana Mouskouri7:10

Well, I learned the piano and uh theory all music studies that I had to do on the side. But I was never good to it. The only thing that uh w was, you know, in my mind was singing.

Presenter7:16

But I will

Presenter7:19

Yeah.

Presenter7:23

As well as the classical music you were studying, you were also interested in jazz. In fact, there was a a bit of a blow-up between you and your professor about this.

Nana Mouskouri7:30

You

Nana Mouskouri7:32

Yes, I think there is not a good or bad music. It's it's a well done, well sung music. That depends how you sing it and uh so I was interested in learning around singing and

Speaker 17:41

Yeah.

Nana Mouskouri7:43

Even nowadays when I sing a song, I I don't care whether it is a popular song or if it's a classical, if I can sing it and if I feel like singing, that's the most important thing. Of course.

Nana Mouskouri7:53

So at the time of course I was a young girl of uh fifteen or sixteen years old and jazz was there because of the beat and the fascination of of

Nana Mouskouri8:04

this uh skating around or so. So I d I did do some of it and um

Nana Mouskouri8:10

My professor he realized that I was doing that and I was very uh badly punished and he did not let me go for a for uh final examinations.

Presenter8:22

Which was virtually the sack, wasn't it, from from the Conservative side?

Nana Mouskouri8:25

Yes, it it was because you know, at at the time they were very hard in students trying to do anything else than what they were studying.

Presenter8:36

So off he went to sing, anyway.

Nana Mouskouri8:38

I went off, but uh I didn't know I was going to sing, but then because the only thing I wanted to do was singing, so I when I was offered to uh to sing something else, I I was very happy about it and I I said, Well, there is no other solution, so let's go.

Presenter8:55

What did you sing and where?

Nana Mouskouri8:57

I went to a taverna and uh I was singing all night for people to dance.

Presenter9:03

Now you'd done some language study, of course, at the at the Conservatoire. Were you singing in English at this time, some of the time?

Nana Mouskouri9:08

Um English I I learned because of American music and jazz and

Nana Mouskouri9:14

That pushed me to learn. But but at the time I could sing uh a bit of Italian because you see Italian is is um sort of second language to the Greek. There are a lot of islands, the Greek islands, that the people speak Italian. And of course all the classical music is very popular in in Greece.

Speaker 19:22

Ghost.

Presenter9:31

Hmm.

Nana Mouskouri9:32

And I I could speak a bit of Italian, which led me to other languages.

Presenter9:37

You began doing very well on on a on a local level. You began broadcasting.

Nana Mouskouri9:42

Yes.

Presenter9:42

and and made them record.

Nana Mouskouri9:44

Yes, I did, yeah.

Presenter9:45

You had a great success, I believe, with the American Sixth Fleet.

Nana Mouskouri9:48

Oh well, it it is it was the first time I went on uh a sort of stage because

Nana Mouskouri9:55

Uh i I was not a professional at the time yet, but um the the fleet was around in in Athens, in the port of Paris, and they wanted to celebrate uh a certain holiday, I don't know American and'cause they were in these waters, they wanted to get a uh a show. And there was a show set up with dancers and singers. And there was a a young singer who used to sing very well in English, and she was booked to sing to that evening, but unfortunately

Nana Mouskouri10:26

The same day that she the show was on she went very badly ill.

Nana Mouskouri10:30

and they were desperate to find somebody to sing.

Nana Mouskouri10:33

And the boys in the in the orchestra that they have heard from other people that I could sing in in in English. It was just an accident, you know. They said, We know a girl, she's somewhere, if she can sing in English. So they found me like this and uh they brought me on and I sang for several hours. They say all my repertoire, my phonetically learned repertoire.

Presenter10:53

Is it all my referred to?

Presenter10:56

Yeah.

Presenter10:57

Uh

Presenter10:58

What was the the big breakthrough for you, Nana? What was was your first big success?

Nana Mouskouri11:03

My first big success in Greece was a Greek song called Kapuipatia Gapimu which was a Greek festival, the first was done in nineteen fifty-nine.

Presenter11:12

Yes.

Nana Mouskouri11:12

And um I sang a song which h became popular in one evening and w this song won the prize. So um the next day I I was the singer of of you know, of of the whole country.

Presenter11:29

And that gave you your first international job.

Nana Mouskouri11:33

No, not international. International came a few years later, um that uh I participated in the Mediterranean uh Festival in Barcelona, and that's where I started to be asked as international singer.

Presenter11:47

I think it's time we had your third record. What's that to be?

Nana Mouskouri11:50

Let's play a Greek song.

Nana Mouskouri11:53

I mean Greek music, not uh not a singing song. And it is um music com not composed but arranged by Manusa Jedakis, who is one of our greatest composers, and he was one of the people that uh I first collaborated in popular music.

Nana Mouskouri12:10

And I I I learned a lot from him and I've always felt that all the songs he writes, they are written.

Nana Mouskouri12:19

for me, because it's not that I think so much, it's because he used to write the songs and call me up in the middle of the night to tell me, Come, I have written the song, let's try to hear how it sounds and he couldn't think of anybody else

Nana Mouskouri12:33

Trying the song but me

Nana Mouskouri12:36

He at the time I met him, he was a young composer, not known at all, but he

Nana Mouskouri12:41

found a way of expressing himself, and it just happened that it fitted me very nicely. So I was very lucky.

Presenter13:18

A Greek tune arranged by Hegydakis When the fires light up

Presenter13:23

So you had your success in in Barcelona. That took you off to well, to Paris?

Nana Mouskouri13:28

Yes, but it it started a little bit before but it it re I think it was definite after Barcelona that I I went to Paris and do my first recording there.

Presenter13:37

And you were groomed by the record company. I I hate to be personal, but you were at that time a large lady, which you're certainly not now.

Nana Mouskouri13:44

Well, yes, I was yes. I was enormous.

Presenter13:47

Yeah.

Nana Mouskouri13:47

Yeah.

Nana Mouskouri13:49

Yes, it is true. And I used to wait about uh I think um

Presenter13:50

I used

Nana Mouskouri13:53

Forty pounds more than I have now.

Presenter13:56

But you continue to wear spectacles, which are still your personal trademark.

Nana Mouskouri13:58

Yes

Nana Mouskouri14:00

I I was made this way and I think uh

Nana Mouskouri14:03

The the glasses was I wore my glasses the first time I was eleven years old and like all young girls, they don't like to have glasses on. But then I I just

Nana Mouskouri14:13

got the impression that if it it's not the glasses that bother, but maybe me, I was bothered by the glasses. So I got used to to have them.

Nana Mouskouri14:22

And I grew up thinking that uh my looks i are not so important. The most important thing is what I feel and what I give.

Nana Mouskouri14:31

And honesty and sincerity was much more important than

Nana Mouskouri14:35

What you look like. So I I wanted to keep my glasses, and it was a sort of

Nana Mouskouri14:40

somehow protection for me against concessions, which I I hated. I d I don't like concessions in life anyway. I still don't. And keeping my glasses, it was one of the things that protected me to to stay myself. Of course the weight, it was also a sort of problem. I used to eat the wrong thing and I used to to you know, I I didn't think the right way. And I was um convinced later on to to lose weight by doing the right thing. And I I re still remember the first time I went to see my doctor, who's been my doctor for years after that.

Nana Mouskouri15:18

He said I I give you this diet, and you won't come back to see me unless you have lost so many pounds.

Nana Mouskouri15:25

And three weeks later I went back and he said I I didn't believe because many times a lot of people they never come back.

Nana Mouskouri15:32

But I I had a feeling you will and I and I did because it it was a sort of discipline and it was also very good for my health and also it was

Nana Mouskouri15:43

I sort of um

Nana Mouskouri15:45

compliment to the people that they they are not obliged to see a big fat girl because she does not want to do a an effort to lose a few kilos, you see.

Presenter15:55

When did you first come to Britain?

Presenter15:57

What was the occasion? Was it recording?

Nana Mouskouri15:57

What was the occasion?

Nana Mouskouri15:59

I came the first time in Britain, I think it was nineteen sixty three or four, just to participate in one of the Eurovision festivals.

Presenter16:09

You were representing.

Nana Mouskouri16:10

No, no, the Greece was not in the Eurovision at the time. You only came a few years ago now. No, it was uh Luxembourg. You were representing.

Presenter16:17

You were representing Luxembourg. Yes. You are an honorary Luxembourgoise.

Nana Mouskouri16:18

You are an honorary

Nana Mouskouri16:22

But Luxembourg doesn't they they they don't have um national singers, so they always

Nana Mouskouri16:28

Rents are from another country. Uh

Nana Mouskouri16:33

So all the foreigners they have a chance to go through Luxembourg.

Presenter16:38

Well, your records were were selling like crazy by this time. You'd had your first gold disc in Germany, wasn't it?

Nana Mouskouri16:44

Yes, well I I recorded this record in in nineteen sixty one, the first one, but it was recorded in Greek and in Greece.

Nana Mouskouri16:52

And then the the f I it was a film, a documentary film, and I sang all the music in there, I mean, the songs and the and later on it represented the, um the documentary festival in Berlin.

Nana Mouskouri17:05

I think it was sixty one. And this documentary won the f first prize. So it was normal that after that a lot of producers they and record companies they wanted to

Nana Mouskouri17:18

record me. They they liked my voice and and they said she she should record in German, but I didn't speak German at all. And I didn't like the idea of singing in German.

Nana Mouskouri17:28

But then I said, So I'll try and then and then we see what's going to happen. And I did this recording.

Nana Mouskouri17:36

And in six months it sold more than a million records. Th that was the White Rose of Athens. So of course this gave a reason to a lot of um other countries to ask me to sing, you know, and to believe that it could be something in there, in in this voice.

Speaker 117:43

Are you?

Presenter17:55

You were conquering one country after another.

Nana Mouskouri17:57

But I should to that I I have to refer to the the question you asked me before, because I remember that the first record I did in Germany, they didn't even put my my photograph on it because they thought I was so ugly they couldn't stand it.

Presenter18:08

Yeah.

Presenter18:11

Well, they see you now, so they they know how wrong they were.

Nana Mouskouri18:12

Yeah.

Presenter18:15

Record number four. What's next?

Nana Mouskouri18:17

Jacques Borell

Presenter18:18

Jacques Boyle, and watch the song.

Nana Mouskouri18:20

Uh Le Pla P. Jack Really is one of of the artists that would be unforgettable for me. I mean there are a lot of artists that I have heard as singers and every time I heard them sing I felt like never to sing again.

Speaker 118:37

Avec, la mer du nor pour dérni terrin vague, et de vague de dune, pourtilles vague, et de vague or chick les marie des pas et quiant jamaille que marie base with confinant de borius ava.

Presenter19:03

Jacques Brell, the flat country. How many languages are you fluent in?

Nana Mouskouri19:08

Oh, fluent. I mean it. I put the languages upside down whenever I

Nana Mouskouri19:13

Anyway, I I speak of course Greek first of all, and then English, French. I speak German and Italian.

Presenter19:20

Well that's not

Nana Mouskouri19:21

Yeah.

Presenter19:21

You obviously have a very good ear.

Presenter19:24

It must be very hard to keep up to date with song trends in in five or six languages.

Nana Mouskouri19:29

Yes, this is it's quite difficult. It's um it's because also nowadays we change from one country to the other and you change also the language of the song, not every song, but in certain songs. And this is a little bit of a strain because uh sometimes all of a sudden you can say a word which belongs somewhere else, you know. I mean the same song, but you say it in another language, which is the same thing, but uh

Presenter19:50

Yeah.

Presenter19:55

Yeah.

Presenter19:56

Your voice has a a very individual sound. This is partly due to the fact that your vocal cords are not quite like other people's vocal cords.

Nana Mouskouri20:05

I think that the voice mostly reflects like like I was saying before, the face and the heart uh reflects what you have inside. That's the most important thing. But it is true that I have a problem in my voice. I have one chord which is thicker than the other and that makes my voice be really, very ugly and husky when I speak, but when I sing it vibes differently.

Speaker 120:13

That's the most important thing.

Presenter20:27

Well that I hadn't noticed.

Presenter20:31

Now I've been looking at the programme of songs you're going to sing on on on forthcoming tour. One of the songs is is is Casta Deba.

Speaker 120:38

Yeah.

Presenter20:38

From Bellini's opera Norma. Does that mean that you sometimes regret having given up your classical career?

Speaker 120:40

Yeah.

Nana Mouskouri20:40

Yeah.

Nana Mouskouri20:45

Oh, I I don't r regret because I I don't think that I really had that big voice to be an opera singer. But nevertheless I I was trained to the classical music and I'm a I'm very fond of uh of good music. And um

Nana Mouskouri21:01

Speaking about it, that it is true that I I have two friends, a composer, a writer, that they have adapted uh La Castadiva for me. They made it as a song for me. But uh still I I can tell you that I I remember when uh I heard Maria Callas singing uh La Castadiva, I was in tears and I think it's one of the most wonderful acts that I ever heard.

Presenter21:10

Uh

Presenter21:26

And that's another of your records for the island. Yes. Shall we have that now? It seems to fit in here, doesn't it?

Nana Mouskouri21:32

It it will feed it and it uh perfectly. And I must say the great not only the respect that I had for this uh lady, she for me she she was maybe the

Nana Mouskouri21:42

the greatest singer of the century such a great voice and performer they're they're very rare in life.

Presenter21:53

It rains if you wanna.

Presenter22:00

Lord, we've away, Lord, we've waited.

Nana Mouskouri22:20

Oh if you sing softly they sing.

Presenter22:35

It's all

Presenter22:42

Maria Calla singing Casta diva from Bellini's Norma.

Presenter22:46

Now, your family situation, Anna. You have two children to look after. How old are they?

Nana Mouskouri22:50

How old are you? Um my son is eleven years old and my daughter, she's almost nine. I mean she will be this summer, nine years old.

Presenter22:58

Where is your home?

Nana Mouskouri22:59

Geneva, Switzerland.

Presenter23:00

Which is handy for the whole of Europe. You you can take all the ways.

Nana Mouskouri23:02

It is very yes it is it's a spot in the middle of all the rest of it.

Presenter23:07

I know that if you have a few hours or if you fly back, you can never see them.

Nana Mouskouri23:09

I may I make it so that I have time in between tours to fly once a week or two days a week and and

Nana Mouskouri23:18

Very very very often.

Presenter23:20

Do you take them with you sometimes on on a tour?

Nana Mouskouri23:22

I I used to take them when they were younger and didn't have s the school, but if it happens in the summertime that the school is uh finished then they do come with me.

Presenter23:31

How long in the year are you travelling?

Nana Mouskouri23:34

I think about seven months. But uh not in split half, yes.

Presenter23:35

Yeah.

Presenter23:37

The split up, of course.

Presenter23:40

Uh record number six we've got to already.

Nana Mouskouri23:42

Record analysis since we were talking about the classical and I spoke about Mar Maria Callas, I would like to put another classical record. I mean the singer that I

Nana Mouskouri23:51

I much appreciated. I mean, that I never had the chance to see, which I regret a lot. And that is Kathleen Ferrier. I don't pronounce right, you say? Ferrier. Ferrier. Yes, wonderful. Yes. I have chosen Blow the Wind Southerly, but I it was very difficult for me to choose because one of her most wonderful recordings she she has made was the kinderdotted leader.

Presenter24:01

Yeah.

Presenter24:03

Wonderful idea.

Nana Mouskouri24:16

But uh I think we play Blow the Wind Southern.

Presenter24:21

No the wind southerly, southerly, southerly Nobody breathes my love heart to me.

Presenter24:37

They told me last night there were ships in the offing, And I hurried down to the deep rolling sea.

Presenter24:52

But my eye could not see it where Emma might be.

Presenter25:00

The bark that is bare

Presenter25:12

Kathleen Ferrier, Blow the Wind Southerly. That's another item in your own repertoire.

Nana Mouskouri25:18

Yes, yes I

Nana Mouskouri25:20

With the the lot of uh shyness, I must say.

Presenter25:26

How well could you look after yourself on this desert island?

Nana Mouskouri25:30

Oh, I I could look after myself um quite well because I I'm very um

Nana Mouskouri25:36

uh s self taken care. I'm not a person that I wait everybody to do things. Self reliant. Se yeah, self reliant. But I I must say that it would be awfully difficult to be in a desert island by yourself.

Presenter25:39

Uh what

Presenter25:41

Self-reliant

Presenter25:49

Would you try to escape?

Nana Mouskouri25:52

Um if there are not sharks around, yes.

Presenter25:55

All right, good. Record number seven.

Nana Mouskouri25:59

Well, I would like to to um play a record. I should have played earlier because it's f from somebody that I love very much and it's I think it's been very m big influence of in what I'm doing. And that will be Bob Dylan.

Nana Mouskouri26:13

It was about the time I was going over to Europe and building my career that I first heard his writing and his songs and I was really very deeply influenced by him.

Speaker 226:28

If you're traveling in the North Country far

Speaker 226:34

While the winds hit heavy on the border line

Speaker 226:41

Remember me to one who lives there.

Speaker 226:48

But she once was a true love of mine.

Presenter26:56

Bob Dylan, Girl from the North Country, which brings us to your last disc.

Nana Mouskouri27:01

Lastly, it is from a lady that I also admired very, very much, and that is A G T P F.

Nana Mouskouri27:07

She was a singer that when I started in Greece I'm I was listening to her records, but I was never very fond of this type of singing because I was very English oriented, American oriented in in the music, modern music.

Nana Mouskouri27:21

So uh it was a very typical French style that I didn't know well. But the first time I went to Paris a friend of mine took me to to a concert to see Edit Pierf singing.

Nana Mouskouri27:32

And at the time I didn't speak French at all. And when I stood there

Nana Mouskouri27:37

listening to her singing at the Olympia Theatre.

Nana Mouskouri27:41

I

Nana Mouskouri27:42

was crying all the way through because the emotion I got from this lady, it was so strong that I, you know, I I was very m moved by her.

Nana Mouskouri27:52

And I I still had it. I just saw her later on when she was not well and sh still like I used to get this sort of of m magic, um

Nana Mouskouri28:03

Feeling on somebody who was so close to you and so heartbreaking. So I I

Nana Mouskouri28:10

I really admired her very very much. And uh the song I have chosen, it it is one of the most beautiful if you call them love songs, it's strange to say that word because it does not fit, but it is. I mean, it's it's when you pray and you say, My God, let my love to be with me for another day, another hour, another week. I mean, it's it's such a wonderful thing and she was singing that with such a

Nana Mouskouri28:36

Deep feeling.

Speaker 228:38

Or

Nana Mouskouri28:38

Yeah.

Speaker 228:38

Uh

Nana Mouskouri28:41

More dear.

Nana Mouskouri28:43

Morning.

Speaker 228:50

Uh

Speaker 228:51

My bird

Presenter29:00

Maru

Presenter29:01

The rule

Presenter29:08

Etit Piaf Mon Dieu.

Presenter29:11

If you could take only one disc out of the eight.

Nana Mouskouri29:15

One discarded.

Nana Mouskouri29:18

Well

Presenter29:18

Making things hard for you.

Nana Mouskouri29:19

Yes, very hot, yeah.

Nana Mouskouri29:22

I don't know. I will take Bob Dylan.

Presenter29:25

Bob Dylan, Girl from the North Country.

Nana Mouskouri29:26

Don't you know?

Presenter29:27

And you're allowed one luxury, only one thing of no practical use.

Nana Mouskouri29:32

Our very practical uses is a telephone.

Presenter29:34

Telephone.

Nana Mouskouri29:35

Everybody's trying this.

Speaker 229:37

It came from me that I couldn't live without it.

Presenter29:40

Well yes. I think we can only cover that by explaining that the telephone service on the island is awful.

Speaker 229:48

Uh Uh

Speaker 229:48

I prefer to have a bad source than nothing at all.

Presenter29:52

I don't, I think it'd be very frustrating. You wouldn't be able to make many calls and you don't know exactly where you are, so you couldn't really effectively cry for help. So we'll let you have a telephone, even if you're talking to yourself most of the time. And one book, apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already on the island, and we don't allow great big encyclopedias.

Nana Mouskouri30:09

Yeah.

Nana Mouskouri30:12

Well, I will take a book, The Little Prince, or The Young Prince, how do you call it, by Saint Experience, yes.

Presenter30:17

Yeah.

Presenter30:19

The Little Prince, yes, by Saint Exupuri. Right. And thank you, Nana Muskuri, for letting us hear your Desert Island disc.

Nana Mouskouri30:26

Thank you very much.

Presenter30:28

Goodbye everyone.

Presenter30:37

You've been listening to a download from the Desert Island Discs archive.

Presenter30:41

For more downloads, please visit the Radio4 website.

Speaker 131:25

Uh

Speaker 131:26

Uh