Georges, you're currently back in the music news with a compilation album...
They call it an "anthology" actually. It's not a selection of hits, the songs which have sold the most in my career, but those which are most representative of my work. The way the anthology's presented plays up the importance of the content. We've paid a lot of attention to the aesthetic side of things and the songs are presented with drawings, photos, short texts and so on. You know, when people usually put out a compilation, a "Best of " album, they just include the hits but the way I see it, there are other songs which deserve to be featured too... It was my producer, a guy I've been working with for ten years now, who drew up a preliminary selection for the album and then I came along and added a few songs he'd missed out.

Were there any particular songs you wanted included in the anthology?
Yes, there was one song in particular which goes way back to the days when Spain was under Franco. The song's called Flamenco - it wasn't much of a hit at the time and never really became part of my repertoire. But I didn't want the song to disappear completely now that vinyl's over. And I'm glad to say Flamenco now has its rightful place on this album!

Is your concert at the Olympia intended as a comeback?
No, I've performed in Paris a couple of times this year already. I did a concert at the Sorbonne to raise money for flood victims in Venezuela and I played another two concerts at Le Petit Journal (Ed: a famous Parisian jazz club). I love performing at Le Petit Journal and for me, the two concerts I played there marked my real return to Paris. I couldn't get over it - the place was absolutely packed!

What kind of relationship do you have with your public after all these years?
I came to singing pretty late in my career really. In fact, by the time I started performing my own material people already knew me through the songs I'd written for others. And then there was Le Métèque which became an overnight hit. But people knew me before that. They knew I'd written songs for Piaf and Reggiani, so right from the start there was a sort of complicity between me and the audience. When I first started singing I didn't feel the need to prove who I was, to get up on stage and try and seduce the audience or amaze them. And we still have that kind of relationship today really.

You scored a phenomenal hit with Le Métèque which, incidentally, opens your new anthology. Have you ever understood why this song made such an impact on people?
No, I don't know exactly. All I can do is analyse what I think might be a few causes, but I'm not sure any of them are the real reason. Firstly, I think it's a good song which stood out in its time (Ed: 1969). People ended up listening a lot more closely to someone singing softly, you know, than someone yelling their head off with electric guitars. That's what people told me in any case. And it was also something to do with the time - we'd just had May '68 and all those slogans like "We're all German Jews" and "Black is Beautiful". There was a real spirit of protest in the air. Le Métèque wasn't aggressive and virulent like Ferré's songs and it wasn't in the same anarchist vein as Brassens - that's to say, attacking traditional institutions like the army, the police and the church. Le Métèque was a different kind of protest. In fact, it wasn't so much about direct protest, it was more about standing up for the right to be different. And Le Métèque came along at just the right time. The way I see it, what makes a hit is a combination of different factors which happen to come together at the right time - it's a matter of hitting the right moment, having the right singer, the right sensibility and so on.
In actual fact, Le Métèque had already existed for two or three years before I sang it. Pia Colombo first recorded it, but it didn't have much success with it at the time. So the song in itself wasn't enough to guarantee a hit - it needed something else to act as a catalyst. Another interesting thing to consider is this: what you think you've written is not necessarily what people hear when they listen to a song.

Have you ever done a concert without singing Le Métèque?
No, never. I've performed Le Métèque in concert from day one. Either I break into it because I feel the audience is about to request it or they ask for it themselves. It's become a bit like a secret password between me and the audience, between the anonymous part of the star and myself...
You're a great traveller. Do you see yourself as a 'citizen of the world'?
I'd say I'm more like a 'citizen of nowhere'! When I travel I feel very much at home with the idea of travelling. It's rare that I go on a trip which totally disorientates me, which makes me lose my bearings and my usual habits.

That must be partly due to the fact that when you travel you're actually performing too...
It's a great way to travel! You know, you're giving something to people, not just taking. You're not just going to look, you're going to be looked at too. It makes the whole thing much fairer somehow.

Do you ever think about giving up live performances? Lots of other singers of your generation have...
That's because they believe there's a beginning and an end to things. Personally, I'm not really sure when things began for me. Perhaps the day I do decide to give up singing, I'll be off to a Greek island to play the accordion instead. That will be my way of continuing … Being up on stage is such a great feeling. When you're up there you really feel people love you. The musicians who accompany me do it for the pleasure, you know. I've always chosen to work with people I respect and admire. I never get stage fright. I do feel really powerful emotions sometimes - to the point where I'm almost paralysed by emotion - but I've never experienced stage fright.

Are you inspired by the new vein of French chanson, with what's going on on the French music scene today?
I like chanson but I think the current French music scene's a bit lacking in personalities. There are a few singers who try to perpetuate the chanson tradition but they're not necessarily the best known. What I hate most of all is the tendency the French have of falling into line with what's going on in the States. I think music in the States is fantastic - but over there, not here! We're not poor relations of our American cousins and yet the majority of singers today act like servants, bowing down before their American role models.

You've just published a book*, and one of your earlier books is also being re-issued in paperback. Do you consider yourself to be a writer?
I'd say yes, I do, although I haven't written much prose to date. You know what my editor said to me lately: "Stop singing, you're a writer!". Writing is something I'd always wanted to do, but I didn't think I was capable of. I haven't written much since I've started writing, in fact. Writing's fascinating and it's fascinating to turn round and see you've actually written something. I was very apprehensive at first when it came to reading over what I'd written, but when you read it you get the impression I really enjoyed writing. That surprised me because I never thought I wrote like that. I guess you can say the same about writing songs too. When you're wrapped up in the creative process you experience a sort of splitting of the self. When you've finished something you turn round and ask yourself "How did I do that? Who was I when I wrote that?".

CD: Georges Moustaki Un métèque en liberté Polydor 2000
*Books: Georges Moustaki & Siegfried Meir Fils du brouillard Ed. de Fallois 2000
(Re-issue) Georges Moustaki Les filles de la mémoire Le livre de poche 2000