"Music for me was like many rainbows, filled with many, many colours."

- Nana Mouskouri -

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I would like to share with you moments of joy that I experienced at Anvers (Antwerp), last Sunday March 5, 2006. A big "thank you" to Rosina for providing the photos -
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The evening's concert was a sell out. Doors to the concert opened rather late, and everyone rushed to their seats. Towards 20:15hrs, the lights died out and a video, projected on a large screen, recalled the exceptional international career of Nana, from her early days in Athens until today. Instrumental recorded music accompanied this retrospective. Luciano Di Napoli settled behind his keyboard, playing the introduction of the first song and, almost at once, Nana entered the stage, wearing a white dress entirely covered with a superb tunic, with colours of the rainbow, undoubtedly should have inspired Rubens, the famous painter of Antwerp. For this short Flemish and Dutch tour, Nana chose an original program with of course the great classics. From the very start of the concert, one notes with pleasure that she is in great voice. For the first part, she offered a superb bouquet of songs to us with:

I'll remember you
The first time ever I saw your face
Fille du soleil / Sonnenkid
Me t'aspro mou mantili
Aide to malono
Siboney
Bilder
From both sides now
Love changes everything
Scarborough fair / canticle
Plaisir d'amour
Que reste-t-il de nos amours
Odos oniron
The three bells

She takes the opportunity to mention her parents and the Conservatoire of Athens. She concludes with a masterly "Le ciel est noir", sky as dark as the one which snow-covered the city this morning for few hours.

After the interval, the musicians played a new instrumental and Nana, black dress, red tunic with black motifs, continues her recital by evoking the love, the joy, the past as well as the various musical choices of its career. Her rapport with the
musicians is very touching. Sitting on a stool at the front of the stage, she invites some of her musicians to gather around her. They then gratify us with superb solos:
Yannick extracted from his guitar the sounds of bouzouki that the children of Pirée would not disavow; Robert makes the cords of his violin vibrate to light the sun; Philippe picks his bass guitar to make way for the Blue dog (it is left to you to find the three evoked songs - it is almost a quizz! ). During this time, Michel, a technician in charge of organising the placements of the stools and microphones, produces involuntary comic effect, which amuse the public. He was in charge of bringing, at convenient periods, the words of the songs De Kleinste and De Herder. He came several times, his papers in hand, hoping to slip them to Nana, but, seeing it a waste of time and effort, he sets out again words in hand. Finally it is Luciano who inherits the documents and transmits them to Nana at the proper time. I believe the order of the songs was modified at the last minute because, from her stool, Nana, made a negative gesture to Luciano to indicate that he had made a mistake in the musical accompaniment.

Last gag: at the end of Come on Blue, the famous technician returned to the stage in order to take away the stool used by Nana, but he was surprised to note that his work had already been done (by Yannick or Robert). At this point in time Nana presented him to us and he was applauded.

After a true festival, a fireworks with:

Only love
Guten morgen sonnenchein
Pefti vrohi
I endekati entoli
O? es-tu passÈ
Love me tender
Try to remember
Cu cu rru cu cu Paloma
Over and over
Ta pedia tou Pirea
Me and Bobby Mcgee
Turn on the sun
Come on Blue
De Kleinste
Je chante avec toi libertÈ
The summer knows
Over the rainbow
Amazing grace
Come and sing
De Herder
The white rose of Athens,
Nana terminated with a sublime My way.

I hoped that she would not stop there, but the curtain calls of the
public were not nourished enoug, and also many people left before the end, as I had already regretted at the time of the concerts of Dortmund and Cologne in May 2005. This lack of respect will always disconcert me.

Before and after concert are always pleasant moments, because it is the occasion to find friends like Monique and André, Philippe, Jürgen, Marie, Rosina, Jolanda, Inge... We have patience in the cold while hoping to be able to slip some words with Nana and to make her dedicate a rare disc, a photograph, a book of her French or English boxes. This evening, just like in the afternoon at the time of her arrival towards 17hrs, Nana appears in a flash in front of us. We understand her and we do not delay her, because we know that the slightest cold breeze would be fatal to her voice. It would well be a pity for those who will have the immense pleasure of applauding her in Holland. I think particularly of Marie,
Ignar, Dimitry, Rolf, Ber, and all the others.

Friendships with all.

Christian