Description
Vicky – L’Amour Est Bleu
Label: Philips – 244
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single
Country: Greece Hellas
Released: 1967
Genre: Pop
Style: Chanson
A L’Amour Est Bleu
Written-By – A. Popp*, P. Cour*
2:59
B Les Amoureux ——–> unique B side song
3:19
Arranged By, Directed By – Claude Denjean
Vocals – Vicky*
Vicky Leandros Real Name: Βασιλική Παπαθανασίου (Vassiliki Papathanasiou)
Profile: Thanks to her international roots, Vicky Leandros saw herself early on as a musician who is at home not only in Germany and her birthplace Greece, but all over the world. In 1972 Vicky Leandros won the “Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson” for Luxembourg with her song “Après toi”. Vicky Leandros released more than 400 albums in over 50 countries. This makes Vicky Leandros the most successful German-speaking artist of all time. It sells over 55 million records and celebrates successes in Japan, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Holland, Belgium, France, England and many other countries.
Vicky Leandros repeatedly dares to venture into other genres. In the successful TV show “The Masked Singer” (ProSieben) she made it to the semifinals in 2020. Vicky Leandros has received multiple awards: She has received over 80 gold and platinum records.
L’amour est bleu” (French pronunciation: [lamuʁ ɛ blø]; “Love Is Blue”) is a song recorded by Greek singer Vicky Leandros with music composed by André Popp and French lyrics written by Pierre Cour. It represented Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 held in Vienna, placing fourth.
It has since been recorded by many other musicians, most notably French orchestra leader Paul Mauriat, whose familiar instrumental version –recorded in late 1967– became the first number-one hit by a French lead artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.
Background
Conception
“L’amour est bleu” was composed by André Popp with French lyrics by Pierre Cour. It describes the pleasure and pain of love in terms of colours (blue and grey) and elements (water and wind). The lyrics of the English version (“Blue, blue, my world is blue …”) focus on colours only (blue, grey, red, green, and black), using them to describe components of lost love.
Eurovision
The Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT) internally selected “L’amour est bleu” as its entry for the 12th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, and a Greek-born 17-year-old Vicky Leandros as its performer as Vicky.
In addition to the French-language original version, she recorded the song in English –as “Colours of Love” with lyrics by Bryan Blackburn–, German –as “Blau wie das Meer” with lyrics by Klaus Munro–, Italian –as “L’amore è blu”–, and Dutch –as “Liefde is zacht”–, that were release in nineteen countries.
On 8 April 1967, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Großer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg in Vienna hosted by Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), and broadcast live throughout the continent. Vicky performed “L’amour est bleu” as the second song of the evening. Claude Denjean conducted the event’s live orchestra in the performance of the entry.
At the close of voting, It had received 17 points, placing it fourth in a field of seventeen, behind “Il doit faire beau là-bas” (France), “If I Could Choose” (Ireland) and the winning song, “Puppet on a String” (United Kingdom). It was succeeded as Luxembourgian representative at the 1968 contest by “Nous vivrons d’amour” by Chris Baldo & Sophie Garel.
Aftermath
Vicky Leandros went on to win Eurovision five years later with the song “Après toi”, again representing Luxembourg.
“L’amour est bleu” achieved greater success through cover versions of the song by other artists. Some forty years after its original release, “L’amour est bleu”, along with Domenico Modugno’s “Nel blu dipinto di blu” (better known as “Volare”) and Mocedades’ “Eres tú”, still counts as one of very few non-winning Eurovision entries ever to become a worldwide hit. The song has since become a favourite of Contest fans, most notably appearing as part of a medley introducing the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, one of only three non-winning songs to be involved (the others being “Dschinghis Khan” and “Nel blu dipinto di blu”).
Chart history
The song was a modest hit in Europe, and had some success in Japan and Canada (No. 40).
Weekly charts Chart (1967–68) Peak position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) 18
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia) 45
Canada Top Singles (RPM) 40
Japan 15
West Germany (GfK) 27
