Though Vicky Leandros (born Vasiliki Papathanasiou) spent the first five years of her life in Greece living with her grandmother, she considered Hamburg, Germany, her hometown, reflected somewhat in the fact that the majority of her hits throughout her extensive career have been in German (her father, Leandros Papathanasiou, who as an artist went by Leo Leandros, wrote many of his daughter's songs). Just 13 when her first single was released, soon Vicky Leandros became a recognized name on German airwaves, and the next year her debut album, Songs und Folklore, came out, followed in 1967 with L'Amour Est Bleu. In 1972, representing Luxembourg, she won the annual Eurovision Song Contest with "Aprčs Toi," and three years later, Across the Water, her first American record, was released. Signed to CBS, the young Leandros moved to Hollywood to continue her career there and try to conquer the U.S. as she had much of Europe, but she soon began to miss her home and decided to move back to Germany. The subsequent decades saw the release of dozens of albums (in German, Spanish, French, Greek, and English, among others), including 1978's Ich Bin Ein Mädchen, 1981's Love Is Alive, and 1988's Ich Bin Ich, as well as numerous best-of collections and reissues. In 2005 Ich Bin Wie Ich Bin, new recordings of some of Leandros's most famous songs and personal favorites, came out, and was followed the next year by a tour celebrating her 30 years in the music business. ~ Marisa Brown, All Music Guide