A Musical Ambassador -- Greek Singer Nana Mouskouri Returns From Politics To Bring Music With International Flair To America

------------------------------- Concert preview

Nana Mouskouri 8 tonight, King Cat Theater, Seattle; $29.50-$39.50, 206-628-0888. -------------------------------

It's been eight years since Nana Mouskouri, the multilingual, international pop singer from Greece, last appeared in Seattle.

"A lot has happened since then," she said from her apartment in Paris, where she was packing for a North American tour. Chief among that period was five years service as a Greek representative to the European Parliament.

"I always refused to be a politician, I didn't want to be a politician," she said. But she was persuaded by Greek officials and friends.

"You can make them understand our mentality, our problems, everything we Greeks have, they told me," Mouskouri said. "And they felt we weren't very well represented in Europe."

She found the experience rewarding, up to a point.

"Wonderful things happened," she said. "I worked very hard for five years. I learned a lot because I didn't know how politics worked."

She specialized in issues regarding children, cultural exchanges, artistic freedom, refugees and international trade.

But she quit last year because she felt the parliament did not do enough to bring peace to Kosovo. She said it was "shameful" that United Nations forces had to intervene after most European nations did nothing. She praised the United States and Great Britain for taking action.

She also learned about politics, she said, as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, which she undertook after the death of Audrey Hepburn, who had held the post.

"This also introduced me to politics, although this is a nonpolitical job," she said. "It's work of communication between the government and the people and the United Nations. You have to try to see government ministers and presidents and premiers, and their wives. It's very important work."

Her goal, she said, is for "the children of undeveloped and underdeveloped nations to grow up safe and with hope for the future, like children of developed countries."

A professional highlight was recording her "Concert for Peace" album at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.

"That was absolutely magnificent," she said. "It was not scary but moving. It was very sacred for me. The cathedral is one of the most beautiful spaces in the world. I felt the spirits around me."

She has recorded more than 400 pop and folk albums in 10 languages in an almost 40-year career. Bob Dylan wrote "Every Grain of Sand" for her. She's covered songs by the Beatles, Harry Belafonte, Simon & Garfunkel, Bette Midler, Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, among many others.

Her first albums were in Greek. In the early 1960s she expanded to other languages.

She explained that she originally began studying other languages in order to explain Greek music to European audiences, and to learn about other cultures. "It is not because I wanted to show off," she said with a laugh.

She has just finished recording her first classical album, with music by Beethoven, Brahms, Donizetti, Verdi and others. It will be released early next year.

She will sing some material from it at her concert here. She also will sing pop songs in six languages, but most of the concert will be in English.

"The emotions in music, they have no language barriers or nationalities," she explained. "It's just what you feel that's important. That is the magic of the music.

"When you choose a song, in any language, then you try to find the power, the tenderness, the expression that is in the song.

"A French love ballad would be more realistic than one in German or English. German is more dreamy, although it is hard to sing sometimes, but it is very deep. Greek is very big dreams and situations. In Greece everything is psychological drama. Such passion!"

She will be accompanied by six musicians. And singing backup will be her daughter, Helene, 29.