Vicky Leandros wants to say goodbye to the stage after more than 50 years of hit career. She begins her last tour in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.
With a beaming smile, Vicky Leandros greets her audience at the start of her farewell tour in Hamburg. The 70-year-old sings her biggest hits in the sold-out Elbphilharmonie on Saturday, including “I am how I am” and “Tango d’Amour”. The concert marks the start of her “I love life” tour, which will be the last of the pop singer should be.
As the listeners have been used to from Vicky Leandros for a good 57 years, she fills the entire hall with her presence. She stands on the stage in a floor-length glitter dress, apparently in top form. She explains why she still wants to draw the line after the Germany tour: “I had the feeling that now would be the right time. I don’t want to get to the point where I can no longer reach you with my voice. “
Supported by band and string quartet, Leandros plays “I saw love” and “Paradise lost”. “Après toi” is not missing either – with the song she won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1972. But the most celebrated on Saturday is “I love life”.
Leandros sold around 55 million records
“I always have a problem with this song,” says the singer in the announcement. “I always need a choir for that.” Of course, the audience agrees, the singer even lets two men in the front row use her microphone for a short time during “Blau wie das Meer”.
At the end there is thunderous applause and flowers, the first bouquet is presented by scooter singer HP Baxxter, with whom Leandros recorded “C”est bleu” in 2011. The last concert of the tour is planned for March 24 next year in Nuremberg. Until then the hit star wants to appear in 17 other cities in Germany.
With numerous platinum awards and around 55 million records sold worldwide, Vicky Leandros can look back on a career that has made her very happy, she says. She could only laugh at the criticism of a journalist at the beginning of her career on Saturday – the man called her “a flash in the pan” at the time.
