Ioanna "Nana" Mouskouri (born 13 October 1934) is a Greek singer and politician. Over the span of her career, she has released over 200 albums in at least twelve languages, including Greek, French, English, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Hebrew, Welsh, Mandarin Chinese and Corsican.
Nana Mouskouri, who was born in Crete, is not only Greece's most important voice of all time but also one of the world's greatest singers of all time, with sales of more than 350 million albums to date (more than the sales of all the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined) and more than 300 gold and platinum record awards. She is a best-selling female artist.
Nana Mouskouri, who studied at the Athens Conservatory, quickly attracted the attention of producers by adapting her soprano voice to her favorite jazz music. Nana Mouskouri, who recorded her first record in 1957, was awarded the first prize in the Greek Song Contest in 1959.
Nana, who participated with her songs in a documentary film about Greece prepared by German television in 1961, made a big hit with her song "White Roses from Athens" and the song sold more than 1 million copies in Germany alone. With this song, Nana rose to fame throughout Europe as the "White Rose of Athens".
The artist, who released her third album with Quincy Jones in New York in 1962, settled in Paris in 1963 and began to continue her musical life there. In 1966, she went on a joint world tour with the king of calypso, Harry Belafonte. "An Evening With Belafonte & Mouskouri", a collection of tour recordings, has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.
Nana, who attracted the attention of the British in 1968, made a music program called "Presentin Nana Mouskouri" for the BBC. All of her albums, sung in English, French, Greek, and German, continued to break sales records in the countries where they were released.
Nana Mouskouri, who constantly increased her place on the agenda of the music world with her concerts that continued uninterruptedly until 1990 and released around 50 albums, reached sales figures exceeding 10 million in America alone with her album "Only Love: The Best Of Nana Mouskouri" in 1991. The same album exceeded 18 million copies in European sales.
Nana Mouskouri, who has produced many collaborative songs with Julio Iglesias, Mercedes Sosa, Quincy Jones, Barry Manilow, and Bob Dylan, was declared a "Goodwill Ambassador" by UNICEF in 1993. Nana, who was impressed by the events in Bosnia, the first place she went to after taking over the embassy from Audrey Hepburn, went on a European tour to donate money to those damaged in the war and became the artist who gave the biggest aid to Bosnia.