Carla's Digital Playground (Vicky Leandros

Amy and Vicky on one pillow

Vicky Leandros as a starguest at the Schlagerfestival, Kerkrade the 5th of April 2010

On the second day of last Easter Vicky Leandros performed at the schlager festival in Kerkrade, and of course my wife Carla, our friends John and Linda and I went there. It was already a while since we saw Vicky live performing and this performance was a great succes. Vicky was celebrated ... The usual medley of hits came by, ‘Apres toi’, ‘Ich hab' die Liebe geseh'n', 'Verlorenes Paradies’, ‘Rot ist die Liebe’, ‘Auf Wiedersehn, Ihr Freunde mein’. For us ‘Möge der Himmel ' was the unexpected bouncer, an R&B song from her latest CD from 2009.

Such a schlagerfestival is a real cult event, quite amusing. Rows of fans standing outside, friendly chatting with each other in the cold wheatear. Many of them sung loudly Vicky-songs. As Vicky-fans we got a lot of questions. ‘Is she live still as good as ever before?, ‘Have you ever met her and How is she for real?’ Etc.

After waiting of more than 1.5 hours, they let us finally in "en masse", and so began the festival. There were two broadcasting recordings. At the matinee, a recording for the German TV and in the evening a recording for the Dutch TV (MAX). A lot of popular German artists, including many unknowns for us, passed in review. Striking in this regard was an apparent popular, simple and monotonous rhythm, which many songs seamlessly joined in a row. The veterans and Eurovision Song contest-celebrities formed a really welcome change. Lena Valaitis, Johnny Logan and even Hein Simons still understand how to bring strong melodies in a professional way.

Because of the happening, a lot of camera crews were around and soon our friends were interviewed for RTL +. Moments later, even Carla and I the West-Deutsche Rundfunk (WDR) interviewed us. ‘For which artist did we come?, how long are we fans? Why do we like Vicky? And what did we thought of her new music style?’ Carla, who always likes some controversy, told the interviewer immediately that she wasn’t a fan at all, she just came with me and had to make pictures of Vicky. This was considered remarkable, and the interviewer asked her which artists she likes. 'Amy Winehouse', Carla answered. To which the interviewer put the comment that we must have a remarkable marriage, with Amy and Vicky on one pillow ... ‘And this marriage still works for over 19 years," Carla laughed at this.

A final bouncer came to us after Vicky's performance. During her performance she gestured that she liked us to meet. The organizer of the festival, Chantal, who’s is also an excellent singer made this possible for us. We have a nice chat with Vicky and spoke about her new CD, that will be released in next June. For this CD Vicky selected French songs which will be translated in German. We also spoke about the songs she’ll choose for her next concert, at May 30th at her former estate ‘Gut Basthorst’ in Germany. Milane, Vicky's youngest daughter was also there. This friendly women, who is just like her mother, remain outside the public, unlike her sister Sandra who’s currently working as an actress.

Fulfilled after all the nice impressions we went for a nice dinner and back home. We look forward to the next meeting with Vicky!

The photo's on this page are copyrighted!The copyright of these pictures is owned by Carla Meijsen, the high resolution versions of the photo's are in my possession. It is forbidden to use these photo's without the written consent of Carla Meijsen.
Copyright, Carla Meijsen, 2010