Dalida Egyptian Singer and Actress Born 1933 in Shobra

Early life

Dalida was born Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti on 17 January 1933 in the Shubra district of Cairo. Her parents were of Italian descent, with roots in Calabria, and her father played the violin at the Khedivial Opera House. She attended an Italian Catholic school in northern Shubra and, after finishing her studies in 1951, worked as a typist at a pharmaceutical company.

An entry in a minor Cairo beauty contest, in which she placed second, led to modelling work for a local fashion house and then to film roles. She appeared in productions by Egyptian and French directors in 1954, using the stage name Dalila, which she soon changed to Dalida. On 25 December 1954 she left Egypt for Paris to pursue acting. When roles proved hard to find, she turned to singing, took daily lessons with the teacher Roland Berger and began performing in cabarets on the Champs-Élysées.

Career

On 9 April 1956 she won the contest Les Numéros 1 de demain at the Olympia in Paris. Among those watching were Eddie Barclay, head of the Barclay label, and Lucien Morisse, artistic director of the radio station Europe n°1. She signed a one-year contract with Barclay on 2 May 1956. Her song "Bambino", released in December 1956 and based on the Neapolitan "Guaglione", reached number one in France in 1957 and stayed there for 39 consecutive weeks. She gave her first Olympia concert on 27 February 1957 as the opening act for Charles Aznavour.

Through the late 1950s she had a run of French hits, among them "Gondolier", "Histoire d'un amour" and "Dans le bleu du ciel bleu", and in 1958 she had five songs in the French top ten at once. Her German-language version of "Le Jour où la pluie viendra", titled "Am Tag als der Regen kam", topped the German charts for ten weeks in 1959. She came to record in many languages and performed her songs in eleven, including German, Arabic, English, Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Italian and Japanese.

The 1960s combined international touring with a shift in style. "Les Enfants du Pirée" and "Itsi bitsi petit bikini" were major successes in 1960, and "La Leçon de Twist" followed in 1962. In 1961 she gave a month-long residency at the Olympia that drew about 52,000 spectators. "La Danse de Zorba" and "Il silenzio" in 1965 and "Le Temps des fleurs" in 1968 extended her run of hits. In 1970 she and her brother Orlando founded the production company International Show, and her first release there, "Darla dirladada", sold 75,000 copies in its first week. In 1971 she rented the Olympia herself for a sold-out comeback residency.

The early 1970s brought two of her best-known songs. "Paroles, paroles", a duet with the actor Alain Delon, topped charts in France, Japan, Mexico and Portugal in 1973, and she recorded Serge Lama's "Je suis malade" that same year. "Gigi l'amoroso" and "Il venait d'avoir 18 ans" followed in 1974. In 1976 "J'attendrai" reached number one in France and is regarded as a first French-language disco hit. "Salma ya salama", sung in Egyptian Arabic, appeared in 1977. She played two nights at Carnegie Hall in New York in November 1978, and in January 1980 she performed a run of shows at the Paris Palais des Sports with a large troupe of dancers. "Monday, Tuesday... Laissez-moi danser", written by Toto Cutugno, reached number one in France in 1979.

Her 1980s output moved toward slower and dance-pop material, including "Mourir sur scène" in 1983. After taking a pause from music, she accepted a role in Youssef Chahine's film The Sixth Day, released in 1986, a project she had long wanted to pursue. Her last studio album, Le Visage de l'amour, appeared that year, and her last live performances took place in Antalya, Turkey, at the end of April 1987. Her screen credits include ten films, among them Vice Squad (1959), Menage all'italiana (1965) and Io ti amo (1968). Dalida died on 3 May 1987.

Recognition

In 1959 she received the Bravos du music hall, then described as France's most prestigious music prize, and the same year German broadcaster RTL presented her with a Golden Lion as the country's best-selling artist. In 1965 she was given a platinum disc for passing ten million records sold, and at the opening of her April 1981 Olympia run she received a diamond disc, honouring sales then put at 45 million. Charles de Gaulle presented her with the Medal of the President of the Republic in December 1968, and she was named an honorary citizen of Paris at the same ceremony. She held the rank of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.

Personal life

Dalida was married to Lucien Morisse, the radio executive who had helped launch her career.