"My energy to sing, I get it from my singing. Singing was not a reason to make a living. This is the only thing I wanted to do"
About this Quote
The second line is the sharper blade. "Singing was not a reason to make a living" draws a line between vocation and monetization, and it does so without romantic poverty cosplay. Mouskouri was, famously, prolific and commercially massive across languages and markets. So the point isn't that she refused success; it's that she refused to let success be the justification. She recasts earning as a side effect, not the thesis statement.
"This is the only thing I wanted to do" lands as both devotion and boundary. It's a kind of minimalism that reads radical now, when creative work is often packaged as a "brand" with adjacent hustles and content streams. Mouskouri's subtext is that focus is not naivete; it's a discipline. The intent is simple but strategically phrased: to protect the core pleasure of performance from being audited by economics, trends, or anyone else's idea of a sensible career.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Mouskouri, Nana. (2026, January 16). My energy to sing, I get it from my singing. Singing was not a reason to make a living. This is the only thing I wanted to do. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-energy-to-sing-i-get-it-from-my-singing-134231/
Chicago Style
Mouskouri, Nana. "My energy to sing, I get it from my singing. Singing was not a reason to make a living. This is the only thing I wanted to do." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-energy-to-sing-i-get-it-from-my-singing-134231/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My energy to sing, I get it from my singing. Singing was not a reason to make a living. This is the only thing I wanted to do." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-energy-to-sing-i-get-it-from-my-singing-134231/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





