Apres Toi - Vicky Leandros

It is always interesting how a song can trigger emotions we had not thought about in a long time. In 1972, the beautiful young singer Vicky Leandros, representing Luxembourg, won the Eurovision Song Festival with the song " Apres Toi ". I was 15, and the song sent shivers down my spine the first time I heard it. My adolescent heart was spell bound. I am not sure what made me think of the song all these many, many years later. I listened to it just this week, and it still has that spell binding effect on me. As it turned out, my heart's history can relate to the content of betrayed love on more than one level, considering my family history, for one. But the song also still draws me in, on a purely musical emotional level, which made me smile. The heart apparently does not age, even if the rest of us has no choice in the matter. When it comes to being moved at an early age by certain songs, it is almost a spiritual experience, like our heart knows ahead of time that it will be challenged, betrayed and broken, guaranteed, at one time or another, hence the chills down the spine. If we are lucky, our hearts also get to experience the happy side of love and life, as I have, and we feel the circle complete as our lives progress. In that sense, "Apres Toi " is a song that still moves me, but that now also brings a contented smile to my face. And I am grateful for that. Melancholy seems to be an inevitable ingredient as summer comes to an end and the first dry leaves start twirling down on a chilly breeze. So, I am grateful that as my life progresses that with the bitter is also the sweet, as I sing along with the sad and beautiful lines of the gorgeous song that moved me so deeply 40 years ago. "Apres toi, ... je ne serai que l'ombre de ton ombre... apres toi". I am glad I found my identity back, but there is no denying it was a hard and lonely way back to the sunny side of the street.