Vicky Leandros

Vasiliki Papathanasiou (Greek: Βασιλική Παπαθανασίου; born 23 August 1949), generally known as Vicky Leandros (Greek: Βίκυ Λέανδρος), is a Greek singer living in Germany. She is the daughter of singer, musician and composer Leandros Papathanasiou (also known as Leo Leandros as well as Mario Panas). In 1967 she achieved worldwide fame after gaining fourth place for the country of Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “L’amour est bleu”, which became a worldwide hit. She further established her career by winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1972 with the song “Après Toi”, again representing Luxembourg.

On 15 October 2006, Vicky Leandros was elected town councillor of the Greek harbour town of Piraeus on the Pasok list. Her task concerned the Cultural and International development of Piraeus. She was also Deputy Mayor of Piraeus. It was announced in June 2008 that Leandros decided to leave her position in Greek politics with immediate effect stating that she had underestimated the work load and time needed to fulfil her political obligations and that it had become impossible to combine those duties with her singing career.

Leandros was born as Vasiliki Papathanasiou in Palaiokastritsa, Corfu. Her father wanted to expand his career and went to West Germany while she grew up at her grandmother’s house until the age of eight. In 1958 her parents took her to West Germany where she stayed with her father permanently after her parents’ divorce. She revealed her talent at a young age while taking guitar, music, dance, ballet and voice lessons.

In 1965, she released her first single “Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht”. This was the beginning of a successful career for her with her father as composer, manager and producer. In 1967 she received an offer to sing for Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “L’amour est bleu”. She finished in fourth place but the song became one of the biggest worldwide hits of the year and was covered by other artists. She was shortly singing in eight languages with her albums, singles and EPs being sold all over the world.

In 1970 her first TV show Ich Bin was broadcast in 13 European countries. It received many awards for its originality and thought-provoking contemporary graphics including in 1971 the world-famous Bronze Rose of Montreux. It was also the first time that Vicky used the same stage surname as her father (actually his real Christian name) and became known from then onwards as Vicky Leandros having been known simply as Vicky during the 1960s. Guests appearing were Julien Clerc and Deep Purple. The show has been repeated over the years and is seen as a classic piece very evocative of the era though at first it was not well received in all quarters owing to its surprising even shocking imagery in an age when songs were not generally accompanied by visuals for marketing purposes. Throughout the 1970s other film portraits by prominent film makers were to follow which attracted interest around the world. She later went on to host a television series in the UK for the BBC, entitled Music My Way. …

Source: Article “Vicky Leandros” from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.