Greek Diva Nana Mouskouri Returns to the Athens Stage at 80

Nana Mouskouri, one of the best-selling singers of all time, returned to the stage in her native Greece on Monday as part of a tour to celebrate her 80th birthday.

Ahead of a concert at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, where six years ago she bid goodbye to the music industry, the icon known for her signature black-rimmed glasses and marble-like profile, admitted leaving was a mistake.

"I want to be clear: six years ago, at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, it was goodbye. It was a period when I felt myself ageing, when the world I belonged to had disappeared," she told the Kathimerini newspaper. "But that decision cost me dear." 

Mouskouri, whose signature tunes include "White Roses from Athens," and the love song from the cult French musical "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), said retiring after half a century had damaged her health. 

"I was always with the doctor... my body was hurting, my back ached," she said, adding that she had experienced feelings of hopelessness and depression after leaving the stage.

The singer decided last year to return with a tour to celebrate her 80th birthday, which is in October. The new show, which features her best-known Greek songs, jazz and variety performances, started at the end of 2013, in South America, and will continue until early next year.

But Monday night's concert -- in which she will be joined on stage by her daughter Lenou and other musicians -- was a return to her roots, and the only date she is performing in the summer.

"The voice ages in the same way as the face, or the hair. It loses its freshness. That has happened to mine but it is safe, I can still sing at the same highs as I did before," she told the magazine To Vima.

Best known overseas for her crystalline vocals, the singer first became known in the 1950s for songs interpreting the literary works of the Greek poets, set to music by Manos Hadjidakis. 

After decades of musical success, she served as a member of the European parliament between 1994 and 1999.

At the start of the Greek financial crisis, she offered Athens her political pension out of "duty to the country".