Vicky Leandros
She had admired Mikis Theodorakis since her youth
Vicky Leandros, here during a performance, remembers Mikis Theodorakis.
© imago images / POP-EYE
Vicky Leandros spoke about the death of Mikis Theodorakis. She describes the Greek composer as a “legend”.
The composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021) died in Athens on September 2nd at the age of 96. In his native Greece he is celebrated as a folk hero. The German-Greek singer Vicky Leandros also had a special relationship with Theodorakis, who wrote her hit “I saw love” for her. In the “Bild am Sonntag” she says goodbye to him.
“I have admired Mikis Theodorakis since I was young – for his cleverness, his art and his compositions,” explains Leandros. “His music made me feel so close to him, he was familiar to me.” Theodorakis is a “Greek legend” and is revered all over the world – but especially “for his ability to unite people”.
She met Theodorakis in the 1970s
It was only later that Leandros got to know the composer personally in the 1970s. During the 2004 Summer Olympics in particular, they had “spent a lot of time together”. She was at his house every day. There the two would have selected 16 of his songs, which she later recorded. “We sang first, and then, when we couldn’t go on, […] we listened to music instead of made and drank good wine with it, “explains Leandros.
Theodorakis was not only “a particularly warm person, but also a particularly good host”. That the composer “now leaves us alone in this world”, she says sadly. At each of her concerts she sings the song “I saw love”. From now on she always wanted to sing the song for him.