| "L'amour est bleu" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single byVicky Leandros | |
| Language | French |
| B-side | "Le Soleil A Quitté Ma Maison" |
| Released | 1967 |
| Length | 2:59 |
| Composer(s) | André Popp |
| Lyricist(s) | Pierre Cour |
| Eurovision Song Contest 1967 entry | |
| Country | |
| Artist(s) | |
| As | Vicky |
| Language | |
| Composer(s) | |
| Lyricist(s) | |
| Conductor | Claude Denjean |
| Finals performance | |
| Final result | 4th |
| Final points | 17 |
| Entry chronology | |
| ◄ "Ce soir je t'attendais" (1966) | |
| "Nous vivrons d'amour" (1968) ► | |
"L'amour est bleu" (French pronunciation:[lamuʁɛblø]; "Love Is Blue") is a song recorded by Greek singerVicky Leandros with music composed byAndré Popp and French lyrics written byPierre Cour. Itrepresented Luxembourg in theEurovision Song Contest 1967 held inVienna, placing fourth.
It has since been recorded by many other musicians, most notably French orchestra leaderPaul Mauriat, whose familiarinstrumental version –recorded in late 1967– became the first number-one hit by a French lead artist to top theBillboard Hot 100 in the United States.
"L'amour est bleu" was composed byAndré Popp with French lyrics byPierre Cour. It describes the pleasure and pain of love in terms of colours (blue and grey) and elements (water and wind). The lyrics of the English version ("Blue, blue, my world is blue …") focus on colours only (blue, grey, red, green, and black), using them to describe components of lost love.[1]
TheCompagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT) internally selected "L'amour est bleu" asits entry for the12th edition of theEurovision Song Contest, and a Greek-born 17-year-oldVicky Leandros as its performer asVicky.[2]
In addition to the French-language original version, she recorded the song in English –as "Colours of Love" with lyrics by Bryan Blackburn–,[3] German –as "Blau wie das Meer" with lyrics by Klaus Munro–, Italian –as "L'amore è blu"–, and Dutch –as "Liefde is zacht"–,[1] that were released in nineteen countries.[4][5]
On 8 April 1967, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at theGroßer Festsaal der Wiener Hofburg inVienna hosted byÖsterreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), and broadcast live throughout the continent. Vicky performed "L'amour est bleu" as the second song of the evening. Claude Denjean conducted the event's live orchestra in the performance of the entry.[6]
At the close of voting, It had received 17 points, placing it fourth in a field of seventeen, behind "Il doit faire beau là-bas" (France), "If I Could Choose" (Ireland) and the winning song, "Puppet on a String" (United Kingdom).[7] It was succeeded as Luxembourgian representative at the1968 contest by "Nous vivrons d'amour" by Chris Baldo & Sophie Garel.
Vicky Leandros went on to win Eurovision five years later with the song "Après toi", again representing Luxembourg.
"L'amour est bleu" achieved greater success through cover versions of the song by other artists. Some forty years after its original release, "L'amour est bleu", along withDomenico Modugno's "Nel blu dipinto di blu" (better known as "Volare") andMocedades' "Eres tú", still counts as one of very few non-winning Eurovision entries ever to become a worldwide hit. The song has since become a favourite of Contest fans, most notably appearing as part of a medley introducing the semi-final of theEurovision Song Contest 2006 inAthens, one of only three non-winning songs to be involved (the others being "Dschinghis Khan" and "Nel blu dipinto di blu").
The song was a modest hit in Europe, and had some success in Japan and Canada (No. 40).[8]
| Chart (1967–68) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[9] | 18 |
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[10] | 45 |
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[11] | 40 |
| Japan[12] | 15 |
| West Germany (GfK)[13] | 27 |
| "Love Is Blue (L'amour est bleu)" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byPaul Mauriat | ||||
| from the album Le Grand Orchestre de Paul Mauriat – Volume 5 | ||||
| B-side |
| |||
| Released | January 1968[14] | |||
| Recorded | Late 1967 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:31 | |||
| Label | Philips | |||
| Songwriter(s) | André Popp,Pierre Cour | |||
| Paul Mauriat singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
According toPaul Mauriat, who conducted/recorded an orchestral "easy listening" version of "Love Is Blue", he chose the song because it was published by his label,Philips Records even though he was not fond of the song. A DJ inMinneapolis played the recording and asked the audience to respond, and was inundated with phone calls about the song, and interest in the song then quickly spread around the country.[18]
The song became anumber-one hit in the USA for five weeks in February and March 1968, the first recording by a French artist to top theBillboard Hot 100. (It remained the only French song to top the chart until 2017, whenDaft Punk was a featured artist onCanadian artistThe Weeknd's number-one hit "Starboy".) Mauriat's version became agold record, and its five-week run at the top is the second longest of any instrumental of the Hot 100 era, after "Theme fromA Summer Place". The song also spent 11 weeks atopBillboard's Easy Listening survey, and held the longest-lasting title honours on this chart for 25 years.Billboard ranked the record as the No. 2 song for1968.[19] It is the best-known version of the song in the United States. The Mauriat recording also reached No. 2 in Canada[20] (No. 12 Year End),[21] and No. 12 on theUK Singles Chart.[22] The Mauriat album containing "Love Is Blue",Blooming Hits, also reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top LP's and Tapes chart for five weeks. The song sold fewer than 30,000 units in France, but 2 million singles and 800,000 LPs were sold in the US.[18]
| Chart (1968) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia[25] | 1 |
| Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[26] | 19 |
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[27] | 45 |
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[28] | 2 |
| Ireland (IRMA)[29] | 16 |
| Italy (Musica e dischi)[30] | 4 |
| Japan[31] | 18 |
| Malaysia (Radio Malaysia)[32] | 1 |
| Netherlands (Single Top 100)[33] | 15 |
| New Zealand (Listener)[34] | 4 |
| Norway (VG-lista)[35] | 6 |
| South Africa (Springbok Radio)[36] | 1 |
| UK Singles (OCC)[37] | 12 |
| USBillboard Hot 100[38] | 1 |
| West Germany (GfK)[39] | 31 |
| Chart (1958-2018) | Position |
|---|---|
| USBillboard Hot 100[40] | 174 |
...[easy listening] changed the same way the rest of pop music did. And there's a world of difference between "Calcutta" and Paul Mauriat's "Love Is Blue"...
