L'amour est bleu
| L'Amour Est Bleu | |
|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 1967 entry | |
| Country | |
| Artist(s) | Vassiliki Papathanassiou |
| As | Vicky |
| Language | |
| Composer(s) | André Popp |
| Lyricist(s) | Pierre Cour |
| Finals performance | |
| Final result | 4th |
| Final points | 17 |
"L'Amour Est Bleu" (English translation: "Love Is Blue") is a song written by André Popp (music) and Pierre Cour (lyrics) in 1967. First performed in French by Vicky Leandros (appearing as Vicky) as the Luxembourgish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967, it has since been recorded by Paul Mauriat, Jeff Beck, Claudine Longet, The Dells, Ed Ames, Johnny Mathis, Al Martino, and Chara.
The song describes the pleasure and pain of love in terms of colours (blue and grey) and elements (water and wind).
At Eurovision
The song was performed second on the night (following the Netherlands' Thérèse Steinmetz with Ring-Dinge-Ding and preceding Austria's Peter Horten with Warum es hunderttausend Sterne gibt). At the close of voting, it had received 17 points, placing 4th in a field of 17, behind "Il Doit Faire Beau Là-Bas" (France), "If I Could Choose" (Ireland) and the winning song, "Puppet on a String" (United Kingdom). "L'Amour est bleu" was one of very few non-winning entries to become a hit.
Greek born Vicky Leandros recorded the song both in French and English, and had a modest hit in Europe with it, but in Japan and Canada she had a big hit with this song. Further to this Vicky Leandros recorded the song in Greek, German, Italian and Dutch as well. 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 two non-winning songs to be involved (the other being Dschinghis Khan).
It was succeeded as Luxembourgish representative at the 1968 Contest by Chris Baldo & Sophie Garel with Nous Vivrons D'Amour.
Subsequent History
In late 1967 an orchestral "easy listening" version was recorded by Paul Mauriat and was a number-one hit in the USA for five weeks in February and March 1968. It was the only number-one hit by a French artist to ever top the Billboard Hot 100. Jeff Beck recorded a "rock" interpretation of this version in 1968.
In 1969 The Dells had a top-thirty hit with their soul version, "I Can Sing A Rainbow/Love Is Blue". Frank Sinatra also recorded this lyricised version of this tune. Lawrence Welk was one of many artists who covered the song in the late 1960s.
Now-a-days the song "L'Amour est bleu" is noted as one of the most covered and biggest selling Eurovision Songs ever. It has become familiar to millions of Soviet TV viewers as a tune that accompanied weather forecasts in the daily news program Vremya. In 2006 an instrumental of the song's chorus was used in a television advert for Lynx Dry anti-perspirant in the UK and Australia. The song was played in the Michael Moore documentary Sicko, during in the scene where a French doctor makes house calls at night, driving a SOS Médecins car with a flashing blue beacon.
Paul Mauriat's instrumental version was featured repeatedly in an episode of the science fiction television series "Millennium", titled "A Room With No View" (originally aired on April 24, 1998 on the Fox Network). During the episode, the omnipresent melody is used to mentally torture a group of youths, by their kidnapper. Mauriat's version is also briefly heard in The Simpsons episode "There's No Disgrace Like Home".