Allez la france dalida biography

When Pietro was released in , he returned home a completely different person, so violent that Gigliotti and other children in the neighbourhood were scared of him. She later recalled, "I hated him when he beat me, I hated him especially when he beat my mom and brothers. I wanted him to die, and he did. In her teen years, Gigliotti developed an interest in acting due to her uncle's job as a projectionist for a local cinema, and often participated in school performances at the end of the semester.

She graduated in , and began working as a copy typist in a pharmaceutical company the same year. While required to work to financially help her family, Gigliotti still had acting ambitions. Shortly thereafter, her best friend Miranda encouraged her to compete in Miss Ondine, a minor Cairo beauty pageant which she entered on the assurance that it was just for fun and that her mother would not find out.

The next day, when her mother found out, she forcibly cut Gigliotti's hair short. Eventually, her mother relented and Gigliotti left her job to start modelling for Donna, a Cairo-based fashion house. Three Egyptian film directors cast Gigliotti in their productions: Marco de Gastyne cast her in The Mask of Tutankhamun and Niazi Mostafa cast her in a supporting role in A Glass and a Cigarette , [ 9 ] on posters for which she appears with her newly adopted stage name Dalila because, as she explained in , "it was a very frequent name in Egypt and I liked it a lot.

On 25 December , Dalila left Egypt for Paris.

Allez la france dalida biography

She met with a number of directors and auditioned for movie roles, but failed each time. Vidal relocated her to a smaller apartment, where her first neighbour was the actor Alain Delon who at this time was still unknown to the wider public , with whom she had a brief relationship. Dalila's difficulty in finding acting work throughout led her to try singing.

Vidal introduced her to Roland Berger, a friend and professor who agreed to give her singing lessons seven days per week for a low fee. He was strict and used to yell, with Dalila responding even more loudly. Coquatrix later said: "[H]er voice is full of colour and volume, and has all that men love: gentleness, sensuality and eroticism. She immediately followed the advice.

Barclay wanted to watch a film, whereas Morisse wanted to attend the singing competition, which was being held at Olympia Hall, then the largest venue in Paris. They settled their disagreement by playing , a dice game, which Morisse won. This event was later revisited in biopics and books, and became regarded as fateful for Dalida's career.

The three men went on to play a large part in launching her career. Visibly satisfied, he demanded that she work on minor imperfections before a new audition in front of Eddie Barclay in person. He planned to promote her through a series of concerts, including two concerts at the Olympia , two weeks in Bobino , and a tour of the provinces. Her first song "Madona" was recorded in June and was first released in August on an EP with three other songs.

Dalida continued performing live throughout the latter part of , while her promoters worked on developing a song that would make her a star; Morisse asked lyricist Jacques Larue to write a French language version of " Guaglione ", the winning song at the recent inaugural Festival di Napoli , which would become " Bambino ". Morisse started to heavily promote it and it was placed as the first track on Dalida's debut album Son nom est Dalida , which was issued at the end of the same month.

After debuting at number seven in January , [ 22 ] Bambino reached number one and went on to become the biggest-selling and one of the most beloved pop standard hits of the s in France, Belgium, Canada and Switzerland. As the song knocked Doris Day 's " Whatever Will Be, Will Be " off the top of the French charts, [ 23 ] women began to emulate Dalida's makeup, resulting in an explosion of Rimmel sales, while men saw in her a talent, sensuality and sexiness.

Coquatrix then named her "the first sex-symbol of the song". On the night of 27 February , Dalida held her first concert at the Olympia, as the opening act for Charles Aznavour , and was widely applauded. Staying in the top ten for eight months, it earned Dalida a second gold disc. Dalida's experimentation with exotica resulted in " Gondolier ", released for Christmas For this exotic song with accentuated vocals, Dalida delivered a TV appearance where, while sailing an imaginary gondola , the shoulder strap of her dress fell down.

By the end of April , a radio programmer heard Dalida recording " Dans le bleu du ciel bleu " in Barclay's Hoche studios in Paris. After immediately asking for a copy of the tape and broadcasting it, the radio station was swamped with phone calls from people asking for the number of the disc and when it would be available. She also performed in Algiers during the summer, supporting the morale of French soldiers fighting the Algerian War , and held a new series of galas in France and Belgium that regularly ended with two hours of autograph signing.

With " Je pars ", Dalida started French rock 'n' roll and also paved the way for foreign rock artists to enter the market, such as Paul Anka. These two B movies were also used for promotion of her three songs " Inconnue mon amour ", " L'amour chante ", and " Aime-moi ", and were released in September and March , respectively. On 9 October, she again performed at Bobino, this time for three weeks as the headline performer, where she promoted her latest releases " Du moment qu'on s'aime ", which peaked in the charts the same week, and " Come prima ".

Topping the charts in January , where it remained over most of the winter, " Come prima " proved to be an ultimate holiday hit in France and Belgium, as Dalida could be seen promoting it on a Christmas-themed television set. She quickly rejected the offer, saying that she wanted to focus on her musical career in France where she was already well known with a secure fan base.

Dalida toured extensively in , playing sold-out dates in France, Egypt, Italy and Germany. In late summer, Dalida was back in the studio to record her first major international hit. The German-language version " Am Tag als der Regen kam " topped the German charts for ten weeks in September and October, earning her another gold disc. It was the best-selling record of the year in Germany, and remains one of the most successful songs in the history of the country.

During the course of , Dalida scored five Top 10 hits in French charts, most notably " Ciao, ciao Bambina " and " Guitare et Tambourin "; both of which earned gold discs. Dalida also performed in successful sold-out concerts in Berlin , Athens and Cairo, delivering a sentimental performance in front of a crowd in the Rivoli cinema that she frequented as a child.

Dalida began with " T'aimer follement ", which became a chart-topper in France and Belgium in February. It reached the top two in six European countries and in Canada, topping the charts in three of them. With a harbor theme, it showed Dalida singing and lying on a fishing net with a wind machine blowing, and journalist Jacques Chancel called it "the first video in France that really made a shift from the era of outdated videos".

Also, since the appearance of new radio programs for youth such as Salut les copains , both music-hall songs and singers, such as Dalida, began to be regarded as obsolete. Securing her position as a leading singer in France, " Itsi bitsi petit bikini " introduced Dalida to a whole new generation of young fans. Topping the charts across Western Europe and in Canada, the record was also her second to sell over a million and gained her a thirteenth golden disc.

This success was followed by " Milord ", a number one in Austria, Germany and Italy, after which her first album issued solely for the Italian public was named. It remained her biggest French hit of the year as she undertook another year-long world tour, which started in Tehran on 18 February in front of the Iranian royal family in their Sa'dabad Palace.

After me, it will be you. During , Dalida issued a set of new Italian songs on the Canta in italiano EP, and also scored several top ten hits internationally such as " Nuits d'Espagne " and " Tu ne sais pas ". During the spring in Italy, Dalida signed with film director Giorgio Simonelli and revived her film career with the first film in which she plays the main role.

Originally titled Che femmina In contrast to her other previous movies, Che femmina After a short break Dalida was back on tour, this time starting in Canada where " Tu peux le prendre had reached number one. Accompanied on the piano by then leading French teen idol Johnny Hallyday , he also taught Dalida the dance moves, about what she said: "he really showed himself, the most friendly of teachers of this new rhythm".

But what is she doing here, they still listen to her? The record spent two weeks at number one during the spring. This unusual image of Dalida found an audience and was a hit in cafes. Alongside Dalida's performance of the song on 26 September, in front of a crowd of 2, people on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower , " Le Jour le plus long " topped charts in France for two weeks and earned her another gold disc.

In Algeria, she became the first artist to appear since the proclamation of independence. Although the movie was a commercial flop, Dalida received favorable reviews. King 's " Stand by Me " as " Tu croiras ", which was followed by an equally melancholic string of recordings such as " Le Jour du retour ", a summer number one hit in Canada, and " Eux " which subsequently peaked at number two in Argentina and was recorded in five languages.

The world tour was extended into with only a few short breaks. The French leg of the tour started on 11 April , during which Dalida traveled 30, kilometers solely by car over its five-month run, and had a public attendance in excess of , During the television transmission of the crowd at the entrance, a teenage fan said: "We can hardly wait for her [Dalida] to appear, we've been screaming for an hour and the atmosphere is so crazy", upon which the reporter turned to the camera, saying "the whole of Paris came to see [the parade], only in front of the Olympia there are at least 2, people waiting in the street".

The song was rush-released and swiftly became s hit at the end of the year, earning Dalida another gold disc, the first in two years following " Le Jour le plus long ". Dalida was awarded with a platinum disc for surpassing sales of over 10 million records since her debut in France-Antilles reported that "only the President of the Republic had an ovation of this scale, during his visit in March ".

In June , Dalida recorded " La Danse de Zorba ", a song from the movie Zorba the Greek , which became her biggest international success since " 24 mille baisers " in early The song found Dalida in seven international charts, entering the top three in six and topping the chart in two countries. During the summer, Dalida performed in Morocco and Algeria, played a supporting role in the Italian comedy movie Menage all'italiana alongside Ugo Tognazzi and, making her debut, Romina Power , and released one of her first records in single format, " Wenn die Soldaten ".

In October, the song " Il silenzio " was released on her fourth EP of the year. It was also a chart-topping hit in Europe, Canada and Latin America, reaching number one in France and Italy, where it was the best-selling record of the year, beating " La Danse de Zorba " and receiving a gold certification. By the end of year, they had produced the successful Italian album Pensiamoci ogni sera and three more EPs.

In contrast, " Bang Bang " was a number one hit in Argentina and Italy, where it was also the best-selling record of the year. Dalida also returned to the wide screen, with a supporting role in the satirical French movie La Morale de l'histoire that included the unreleased song " Je sortirais sans toi ". Later in September, her Italian managers suggested that she participate with Tenco in the next Sanremo Music Festival.

Although in previous years she has turned down the festival, this time she accepted as she was in a secret relationship with Tenco. With "Mama" in January , Dalida had success in France and Turkey, and was back at the top of the Italian charts later the same year. Under the influence of stage fright and alcohol, Tenco delivered a poor performance, while Dalida concluded the evening with an ovation, but eventually they were eliminated in the first round.

The following night ended tragically when Tenco was found dead by Dalida in their hotel room. It was reported that a suicide note explained that he had taken his life owing to the elimination from the contest, as a protest against the corruption and bribery of the jury, but major suspicion of the involvement of the mafia emerged. Wearing the same dress that she had been wearing when she found his body, the performance was highly sentimental but indicated nothing of an emerging depression.

On 26 February, Dalida attempted to take her life, ended up in hospital and spent five days in a coma. Her career was put on hiatus for three months. Returning to television on 8 June, on the verge of tears she made her first TV appearance after four months, interpreting " Les Grilles de ma maison ", a cover of Tom Jones ' " Green, Green Grass of Home ".

The late summer period brought a re-release of " Hava Nagila " from , and a new recording " Je reviens the chercher ", the French version of " Son tornata da te " by Tenco. On the night of 5 October, Dalida premiered her third Olympia concert residency, which ran for a month. She was nicknamed Saint Dalida by the press. The new Dalida is born!

After competing for four months in Canzonissima , then the most popular TV show in Italy, in January Dalida won with "Dan dan dan" that reached number two in the country. The movie was a minor success, but as it was filmed in colour and several of her new songs appeared in, it provided critically acclaimed music video for her latest Italian chart topper and gold certified " L'ultimo valzer ".

With more than live performances it was Dalida's longest tour up to that moment and, as a part of it, in summer she participated in a popular Italian summer festival Cantagiro and won the main prize. It was an instant number one hit with a fair chart performance in several other countries, eventually being recorded in two more languages. With an issue in single format, " Le Temps des fleurs " also announced the end of a long EP era.

During same event, Dalida became a Parisian citizen of honor, receiving the Medal of the city of Paris by the Council of Paris , and was also named "the Godmother of Montmartre pulbots ", the old name for poor children of the neighborhood where she lived. She discovered his dead body. She herself attempted suicide a few days later. Had been Richard Chanfray 's lover for 9 years.

He committed suicide in , three years after they broke up. My cinematographic experience did not leave me any souvenirs, because I was only in very bad films that no one saw! It was better they didn't! In Europe, it is rare for women singers to be in movies. And then, may be that deep within me I didn't really wished to be in movies, for it is my belief that if I really wanted to, I'd be in the movies.

I firmly believe that everybody is able to realise what their wishes, provided that they really want to. Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content. In she married her mentor Lucien Morisse, but the marriage lasted only a few months when she left him for the painter Jean Sobieski later the father of American actress Leelee Sobieski.

A few years later, her still distraught ex-husband died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In her new lover, the Italian singer, Luigi Tenco also took his own life and Dalida too attempted suicide. She was living with the flamboyant and less than reputable, Richard Chanfray referred to as the Comte de St Germain when he took his own life in July Add a New Bio.