Eurovision’s enduring star
QUESTION What happened to Vicky Leandros after she won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1972?
Vicky Leandros, aka Baroness von ruffin, is the Greek-born singer who won the 1972 eurovision song contest, hosted by edinburgh, representing Luxembourg with the ballad apres Toi.
The Uk came second with the up-tempo Beg, steal or Borrow by The new seekers.
apres Toi was one of the most successful eurovision songs ever, selling six million copies globally. The english version, come What May, reached no 2 in the Uk charts that May.
a follow-up single, The Love in your eyes, only reached no 40 in early 1973 and her final Uk single, When Bouzoukis Played, limped to no 44 in July.
However, despite this lack of success in the Uk, Leandros became one of the biggest selling continental solo artists of the seventies, recording in english, French, German, Greek, dutch, spanish and even Japanese.
after her 1972 win, Leandros became a regular in the dutch and Belgian charts and a much bigger star in Germany, finally reaching no 1 in 1974, with Theo, Wir Fahr’n nach Lodz.
an attempt to crack the american market in 1975 with the U.s.-recorded album across The Water was unsuccessful.
in 1980, Leandros had a son, Leandraki, and was married to his father, ivan Zissiadis, a Greek businessman, from 1982-86. The family made the news when ivan abducted the child after he and Vicky split up.
she gave birth to daughters Milana and sandra in 1985 and 1987, marrying their father, Baron enno von ruffin, in 1986. The couple lived on his impressive country estate near Hamburg, until they separated in 2005.
Leandros made a successful singing comeback in the nineties, releasing several albums, one of which, Gefuehle (1997), was much acclaimed.
she made a third attempt at eurovision in 2006 with the song don’t Break My Heart, but it failed in the German heat. However, with more than 50 years in the international spotlight and numerous awards, including Woman of the year (2005) in Greece, commander of the order of Merit of the Grand duchy of Luxembourg (2011) and the highest order from the Greek orthodox church for her charity work in africa, Vicky Leandros is certainly a high achiever. John Rutherford, Sevenoaks, Kent.
QUESTION What is the origin of the term ‘bucket list’, used to describe a number of experiences a person hopes to have during their lifetime?
THe phrase was probably first used in this context, and popularised by, the 2007 film The Bucket List, conceived and written by Justin Zackham and starring Jack nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two terminally ill men who escape a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.
only one possible reference has been discovered before this, when it was used in this context in 2004 in Patrick M. carlisle’s book, Unfair and Unbalanced: The Lunatic Magniloquence of Henry e. Panky: ‘so, anyway, a Great Man, in his querulous twilight years, who doesn’t want to go gently into that blacky black night. He wants to cut loose, dance on the razor’s edge, pry the lid off his bucket list!’
QUESTION
T. Randle, Gloucester.
Is there any record of a submerged submarine torpedoing and destroying another submerged submarine during hostilities?
THe only known occasion when one submerged submarine was torpedoed by another took place on February 9, 1945.
it was when the German Type iXd2 boat U864, commanded by korvettenkapitan ralf reimar Wolfram, was successfully attacked by the British V class boat HMs Venturer, commanded by Lt James Launders, in the north sea west of Bergen.
U864 was carrying out a special operation, codenamed ‘caesar’, which involved the transportation of a cargo of mercury and Junkers Jumo jet engine parts to Japan.
on the basis of enigma decrypts, Venturer had been dispatched to the area with orders to intercept U864.
Launders stalked U864 for more than three hours, as they pursued zig-zag underwater courses.
Finally, at 12.12 hours, Launders, having calculated the probable pattern of U864’s zig-zag, launched a spread of four torpedoes, of which the last struck the German sub amidships, breaking her in two and sinking her in 490 ft of water.
as a result of this unique achievement, the 25-year-old Launders received a bar to the dsc he already held.
Geoff Hewitt, Preston, Lancs.