With over 55 million records sold worldwide, she has achieved what not many have achieved: gaining a global reputation with her melodious voice, creating a “bridge” to a global audience with an eye on the Mediterranean.
THE Vicky Leandros internationally renowned singer of Greek origin, symbol of Greek-German friendship with the legendary “Après toi”, celebrated her 70th birthday yesterday, August 23.
“I think you have to combine talent with diligence. Even in my greatest successes I always felt that I had to keep learning.” the popular singer told the German News Agency on the occasion of her 70th birthday celebration. The Greek-born singer is not afraid to exercise self-criticism looking back on her life and career. With over 55 million records sold worldwide, she has achieved what not many have achieved: gaining a global reputation with her melodious voice, creating a “bridge” to a global audience with an eye on the Mediterranean.
The first years towards recognition
Vicky Leandros, born Vasiliki Papathanasiou, is the daughter of the well-known producer and singer Leandros Papathanasiou. She was born in Corfu on August 23, 1949 and immigrated to Germany with her parents in 1959. From a very young age she took guitar, vocal, ballet and dance lessons. At the tender age of 16, she released her first single entitled “Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht” (Knife, Fork, Scissors, Light) managing to climb to number 16 in the German charts. It didn’t take long for her first album “Songs und Folklore” to be officially released a year later, in which she sang compositions by Bob Dylan and Manus Hadjidaki.
The international career started with her first participation in the competition Eurovision in 1967 with “L´ amour est bleu” while a few years later she won the prize of the song contest for Luxembourg with the song “Aprés toi” an international success for her with sales exceeding 7 million copies. In Germany, her career took off with the release of “Theo, wir fahr´n nach Lodz” in 1974. The song topped the German charts for several weeks, and remains a mystery to this day. who is Theo. Another huge success for the German-speaking public was the release of her album entitled “Ich liebe das Leben” (I love life). Dozens of records in German, English, French, Dutch, Japanese, Spanish and Greek followed, while she has countless awards and distinctions to her credit.
Her charitable character
The popular singer between her artistic activities developed an intense charity activity. In 2015 she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her contribution to the fight for young accident victims and against drugs. But he didn’t just stop there. In 2006, he rejected a bid by the Christian Democratic Party to be elected to the Berlin House of Representatives because of a tour, and five years earlier he was nominated for Hamburg’s culture minister.
But her latest success is not related to singing, but to the writing of a cookbook entitled “Ein Hoch auf das Leben: Meine Küche für Familie und Freunde” (To the health of life: Recipes for my family and friends). He has been married twice. In 1982 with Greek businessman Ivan Zisiadis, with whom they had a son, and in 1986 with Baron Enno Freiherr von Ruffin, with whom they had two daughters.
At the peak of her career, Viki Leandros gave up singing for 9 years to raise her children. However, she does not consider that she paid dearly for her success. “If what you’re doing is your passion, then you don’t feel like you’re missing out,” she underlines, to continue: “There were always setbacks, not everything went as planned, but what counts is not to lose my courage and I work with myself.” She now lives permanently in an estate in Schleswig-Holstein near Hamburg, which belongs to her second husband – only as a divorced and proud grandmother.
DW / Stefan Dege / Editor: Iosifina Tsagalidou
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