Vicky. That goes well with everyone. Leandros too, that’s what her dad’s first name was. And because that means “man of the people” in German, it could be taken as a good omen for the stage name of a popular female singer named Vicky Leandros from Corfu. Because the Germans never wanted to bother with the real, very complicated Vassiliki Papathanasiou from Paleokastritsa.
No, our Vicky is Greek, but actually German. Because just six years after her birth in 1952, the family moved to Hamburg-Wandsbek, very close to a bakery with delicious rum balls – without rum. And in Hamburg, albeit more noble, she still lives with both passports – after a ten-year escape from Berlin after the second divorce. And of course at Gut Basthorst in the Lauenburger Land.
Because Vicky Leandros has kept her real name, Freifrau von Ruffin, even after the rather casual separation in 2005, as well as the country dormitories. The estate has long been taken over by their daughter Milana from Papa Baron Enno. And while the markets, dog fairs, musical dinners, horse shows, concerts, company seminars, wedding celebrations around the property are organized there, Mama is just pulling the plug on her hit career: “I want to stop as long as my voice can still touch my audience.”
So the German favorite Greek has had enough of the stage. She is 71 years old and will soon have had six decades of shenanigans. Now we’re going on tour again. “I love life” is the logical title of the final concert tour after one of their eternal hits. Additional appointments had to be booked. In Hamburg alone, the Elbphilharmonie says three times in two days: “Sold out”. 17 more concerts will follow, from Bad Vilbel to Nuremberg, where then on March 24, 2024 in the Meistersingerhalle finished should be. The little lady in the little black dress with the characterful swing of the right arm (also with finger snaps out of the wrist), she wants it that way.
The German Greek is forever Nana Mouskouri. Although she was only allowed to sing in German here, she is so much more creative in other languages. The German incorporated Greek was Costa Cordalis. And the German Greek, who did not come as a guest worker, but as a wanderlust craftswoman, is Vicky Leandros. Perfect! Because jungle king Costa tasted a little like oily tavern, the classy ageless Vicky is boutique hotel on Santorini.
At first she cheated on French a little – competed twice for Luxembourg at the Grand Prix, 4th place in 1967 and then victory in Edinburgh in 1972 with Papa’s song “Après toi” – as “Dann kamst du” is still a Vicky classic. Then she was able to rock the Aegean wave wonderfully in the seventies, because Greece, after Italy and Spain, was catching up as Germany’s favorite holiday destination. And Leandros, who was chirped around sharply by bouzoukis, was always the finest olive in the sound salad at the blue and white after-holiday party with her soft southern dance hits.
The German medium-sized companies with no experience of the Elbphi: Rather old, cruise optics in Ulla Popken and Gerry Weber
One lost oneself behind thick eyelashes in the sweet melancholy of her black, moist eyes. A Madonna’s face framed by lots of curls. That was the early Vicky Leandros, often colorful in a batik kaftan, singing folklore. But the uniform-like, yet timeless Diseusen outfit quickly followed, along with hair that was becoming smoother and always worn half-length, beneath which creoles sparkled. Leandros clips on YouTube are difficult to narrow down in terms of time: from the late seventies, she always looks the same – without much fuss and stage show. Only the nostrils of this ethereally slim goddess from Schlager Olympus became narrower and higher.
Of course, before the concert begins, the rain whips from the Elbrechts around the Kehrwiederspitze, the quacking bagpipe player on the Baumwall somehow seems out of place. Under the umbrellas, the mostly inexperienced German middle class makes a pilgrimage to the farewell concert. Rather old, cruise optics in Ulla Popken and Gerry Weber. male couples rejuvenate. Extraordinarily many mother-son combos (also with a peacock t-shirt) and tweed jacket country gentry from Lauenburg. Former mayor Ole von Beust comes with a large appendix (“I’ve ordered water champagne for the break, but more champagne”). When it’s already dark, Baron Enno scurries into the fifth row.
Ten musicians and one singer are called upon, including a string quartet, for the first two songs even a 30-strong amateur choir. La Leandros darts in, wordless, blowing kisses. The little black dress this time is a floor-length, gold-black dress with a high slit, which is still excellent. It begins in Greek, Mikis Theodorakis, “O Kaymos”, and then continues in German, “I’ve seen love.” She clears her throat, her voice is still thin with nervousness, and quickly increases. She also sounds seemingly ageless, girly. It can shriek, especially with the hard, bright Greek vowels. Most of the time, she only penetrates extremely focused, with the highest, simple artistry.
You don’t want to call Vicky Leandros an icon. But she lacks personality, wit and quick wit, as you can tell throughout the two-and-a-half-hour evening in all the wooden, amiable conferences. But she has one of the most tasteful and consistent voices in German hits.
In Germany, despite selling 55 million records and twenty top 20 hits, she only had one number one seller, the 1974 gossip hit song “Theo, wir fahr’n nach Lodz”, which was embarrassing even for the Greeks. In the final curve of her career, however, Vicky Leandros would now like to be taken seriously as an internationally active chanson singer, with at least 454 records released worldwide in seven languages; the gentleman in the front row who lives in Schkeuditz and chairs their fan club keeps meticulous records about it.
That’s why she briefly sings her first teenage hit “Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht”, as well as past Japanese numbers, warbles against war and climate change (“Paradise Lost”, already 1982) and for emancipation and the “Tango d’amour “. She sings a lot of English, French, even more Greek – also Grönemeyer’s “Men”.
There is hardly anyone like it: durable, tough, timeless, reliable
She digs out her gay song, which was first discarded by the record company, from the “Valentin, blows me away with his melodies” played above her in the apartment and sings it with her band members. Then she drinks coffee from a thermos (“said to be good for the voice”) and invites you to karaoke for “L’amour est bleu”, “but better in German”, i.e. “Blau, blau like the sea”, a few unanimously death-defying one. That would almost be embarrassing if it weren’t meant so warmly.
Here there is simply no pedestal between the star and his audience. When finally “The Bouzouki rang through summer night” stirs up the longing, she wanders back through the row waving her arms. Pure nostalgia pours out from the tiers of the suddenly very intimate Elbphilharmonie, the Hamburg residents, who were only reserved at first, flow away waving cell phone lights. Vicky is one of them, pan-German – she was in “Ein Kessel Buntes” early on – singer memory reservoir. There is hardly anyone like her. Durable, tough, timeless, reliable. Just German, not Greek. Then again Andrea Berg and Helene Fischer.
Vicky Leandros is as eternal as Attica, Schlager nobility, Germany DNA. Long forgotten are the two and a half years in politics as the second mayor of Piraeus, as well as the silly CDU attempt to recruit her as Berlin culture senator in 2006 alongside mayoral candidate Friedbert Pfluger. She had better things to do, like raising two daughters, which she retired for ten years in the 1980s. That’s why you still like to hear them. In the future she wants to write another cookbook and her biography, be a grandmother and plan a hotel in Athens.
When she finally belted out “I love life” at the official end of the concert, she had also sung it without tears with changed text at the funeral of Guido Westerwelle, the hall could no longer be held. A last, blissful “La, lalalalalei” sing-along chorus, now she wipes her eyes after all. Song number 20 is Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” after two and a half hours of honest concerts. And “Theo” was not sung by Vicky Leandros this time.