Dalida

Dalida (1933 - 1987)

Born Lolanda Cristina Gigliotti in Cairo Egypt of Italian origins, her father was first violinist at the Cairo Opera House. Her parents agreed that a career as a secretary would suit her, but she had other ideas. In 1950, she won a beauty pageant and began working as a model. In 1954, she was crowned Miss Egypt. French director Marc de Gastyne spotted her at the pageant and she moved to Paris that same year to pursue a career in film. Dalida spoke fluent Italian, Egyptian Arabic and French. 

Her film career was lacking in luster and she took singing lessons. In 1956, she had a huge hit single called Bambino. With 46 weeks in the French top ten, it launched her into stardoms. It remains one of the biggest selling French singles to date. 

In 1957, Dalida was on the covers of multiple magazines and had a gold disk album. She married her agent Lucien Morisee. The relationship turned sour as her husband pushed her too hard with work and she feel in love with Jean Sobieski (father of the actress, Leelee Sobieski), divorcing her husband.

Having lost her father at a tender age--he was killed in a prisoner of war camp during WWII--and having had a difficult relationship with him that was never resolved, Dalida looked for her father in the men she was with, leading to complicated and tempestuous relationships. 

In 1967, the new man in her life, Luigi Tenco, committed suicide by barbiturates and alcohol. Devastated, Dalida herself attempted to end her life, happily, this did not happen. In 1970, her ex-husband killed himself in their old apartment, shooting himself in the head. She recorded the song, He Must Have been 18, which recounts the tale of her falling pregnant with an eighteen year old; her consequent abortion was botched and left her sterile. In 1975, her great friend and fellow singer, Mike Brant, also killed himself. In 1983, her boyfriend of nine years, Richard Chanfray, put an end to his life as well as that of his new girlfriend by inhalation of gas. It was then, at the age of 50 that Dalida was persuaded she was bad luck to the men in her life. 

Throughout all of this horrible tragedy, Dalida remained the consummate professional and her career skyrocketed. She sought to understand herself and her problems by becoming passionate about Freud, studying yoga and undergoing Jungian psychoanalysis. 

In 1973, she got together with her longtime friend and ex-lover, Alain Delon, and they recorded Paroles Paroles. 

Alain Delon

The lyrics are just fabulous, listen closely.

Click here for the lyrics in English--it's too much!

In the 70's, she became a worldwide star, a professional showwoman wearing sexy gowns split up the side and filling concert halls all over the world. She did television variety shows. She was greatly appreciated in Arabic countries with her Egyptian folk song hit Salma Ya Salama, which she recorded in five different languages. In 1978, she played to a packed house in Carnegie Hall where the crowd went wild. 

Dalida threw herself into the new craze: disco. Her single J'attendrai version 75 was the first French disco single. In 1978, she filmed the first French music video with her hit Génération 78. 

Here is a video of her hit Soleil. It's so camp and fabulous, I can hardly stand to watch it. Love it!

But my all time favorite Dalida song is her version of the Nancy Sinatra hit Bang Bang. Pure heaven with an excellent montage of photos.

Overworked, cut off from her public during preparations for the musical theatrical role of Cleopatra, traumatized by the recent suicide of her old boyfriend, Dalida fell into a profound nervous depression.

On May 7, 1987, she took her own life by ingesting an overdose of barbiturates in her home in Montmartre district of Paris, leaving behind a note which read, "Pardonnez-moi, la vie m'est insupportable." (Forgive me, my life is unbearable.)

Since her death, Dalida has become a cult figure. She came in second behind Général de Gaulle in the 1988 Encyclopaedia Universalis poll on popular French people. A place was named after her in Paris. In 2002, a postage stamp was made in her memory and Universal Music Group released a special digitally remastered set of CD's of her recordings. Dalida sold 130 million records from 1956 to 2006. Many of her songs have been remixed in techno form, topping the charts today.

Gros bisous d'une personnalité et tallant extraordinaire et a bientôt.

Love, Charley