Vicky Leandros participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2 times; in 1967 she represented Luxembourg with “L’amour est blue” and finished in fourth place. The song, however, became a worldwide hit, and was covered by many.
In 1972 she was again asked to represent Luxembourg. She won the festival that year with “Après Toi” and gained worldwide fame.
Early life and Career
Vicky was born as Vasiliki Papathansasiou in Paleokastritsa (Corfu, Greece) on August 23. According to her own statement, she was born in 1952, but many biographies have mentioned birth year as 1949.
In 1958, the Papathanasiou family moved to West Germany. After her parents’ divorce in 1961, her mother returned to Greece, and Vicky grew up with her father, who himself had a successful career as Leo Leandros. With his support, she built a career in Greece and Germany, initially under the name Vicky. Her first single was released in 1965: “Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht” and became an instant hit in Germany. Until 1967 she had already scored several hits in this country, as well as in Canada and Greece.
After the Eurovision Fame
After winning the Eurovision Song Contest, Vicky was very successful in many countries, such as France, Greece, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Japan and Canada. She scored many hits worldwide, in different languages.
In 2000 she released her first album of her own compositions.
2005 was a jubilee year for Vicky; She was on stage for 30 years and celebrated this with a double CD with her greatest hits and some new tracks. Actually, it was her 40th anniversary as an artist, but she withdrew from publicity for about 10 years from 1982, in order to be able to pay more attention to her husband and 3 children. During that period, however, new albums were released.
In 2006 Vicky participated in the preselections for Eurosong in Germany, with the song “Don’t Break My Heart”. In this way, she hoped to represent her country in Athens. However, she had to leave the victory to the Texas Lightning.
Throughout her impressive career, she has sold over 55 million albums.
Political career
On 15 October 2006 Vicky Leandros was elected town counselor 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. She stated, that she had underestimated the work load and time needed to fulfill her political obligations. Also it became impossible to combine those duties with her singing career.
In August 2022, a few days after her 70th (or 73rd) birthday, she announced her retirement with a farewell tour in Austria and Germany, which will take place until the end of 2024.
