Conception "Après toi" was composed by Leandros' father Leandros Papathanasiou, known as
Leo Leandros under his
pseudonym Mario Panas, and German composer , with French lyrics by . It is a dramatic
ballad, with the singer telling her lover what will happen to her once he has finally left her for someone else: "After you I will be nothing but the shadow of your shadow".
Eurovision Originally, the song was written with German lyrics as "Dann kamst du" and was submitted to the
German Eurovision national selection process. When the song did not qualify for that competition, Yves Dessca, who had co-written the lyrics of the winning song "
Un banc, un arbre, une rue", penned French lyrics and the (CLT) internally selected it as for the of the
Eurovision Song Contest. Dessca remains the only author/composer ever to score back-to-back Eurovision victories. In addition to the French version,
Vicky Leandros recorded the song in English as "Come What May", in Italian "Dopo te", German "Dann kamst du", Spanish "Y después", Greek "Móno esý" , and Japanese "Omoide ni ikiru" . By the close of voting, the song had received 128 points, placing it first in a field of eighteen, and winning the contest, ahead of the
British entry "
Beg, Steal or Borrow", performed by
The New Seekers. "Après toi" was succeeded as contest winner in by "
Tu te reconnaîtras", sung by
Anne-Marie David, also for .
Aftermath In the Eurovision fiftieth anniversary competition
Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 22 October 2005 in
Copenhagen,
Anne-Marie David performed the song as part of the interval acts. ==Chart performance==