Dalida
Yolanda Christina Gillotti is known to few. But the stage name of this French singer and actress of Italian origin, Dalida, is known throughout the world. For those who love French chanson, Dalida is a real icon. After all, not every pop artist can boast 170 million sold discs.
Read a brief biography of Dalida and many interesting facts about the singer on our page.
short biography
Yolanda Gillotti's hometown is Cairo. Parents of the future celebrity - Italian immigrants. Most likely, Yolanda owes his musical talent to his father. Pietro Gigliotti is a professional musician. For many years he served as the first violin in the orchestra of the Cairo Opera. Yolanda's mother, Giuseppina, had a profession that was far from music. She worked as a simple seamstress. In total, the family Gillotti grew three children. Older brother Yolanda called Orlando, younger Bruno. The latter was later destined to become the manager of his stellar sister.
The girl is not yet one year old when she caught an eye infection. Perhaps the disease would not have so much affected the vision, if not the serious mistake of the local doctors, who prescribed it for forty days, without removing it, to wear a special bandage. As a result, the girl developed strabismus. Up to the age of 18, Yolande performed three operations, but his vision was not fully corrected. A long stay in total darkness when wearing a bandage in infancy, apparently, caused psychological trauma. Until the end of her life, the singer was afraid of the dark and only slept with the lights on.
After graduating from the Maria Asilyatrice Catholic School, Yolanda took a job as a secretary in one of the pharmaceutical companies. However, the career of a simple employee did not suit her. At age 18, she took part in the beauty contest "Miss Ondine", where she became the second, and in 1954 received the title "Miss Egypt". She was noticed, and soon Yolanda changed the profession of a secretary to the profession of a fashion model. The path to glory was open. The truth was not done without a fly in the ointment: after the girl’s mother and neighbors saw a photo of her in swimsuits in one of the fashion magazines - we had to forget about the wedding with one of the locals. The groom turned out to be a strict manners and terminated the engagement.
However, there was no time for Yolanda to suffer about a failed marriage. In addition to the publishers of fashion magazines, the directors noticed a beauty with a colorful appearance. The girl received several invitations at once (while she was offered bit parts). It was for filming Yolanda and came up with a pseudonym for himself, but at first it sounded like Delilah. In 1954, a young model starred in two films at once: "Tutankhamen's Mask" and "Glass and Cigarette". The second film gave an impetus to the beginning of Yolanda's singing career - in it she sang the song "Immediate Desire" (Desiderio di un ora).
At the end of the same year, with difficulty persuading the mother, the girl leaves her father's house and moves to Paris.
Initially, the world capital of fashion met Yolanda very inhospitable. Due to poor knowledge of French, the young model could not get a job for a long time. The girl really got involved in vocal and began to attend singing lessons with Roland Berger. Soon at a party in the club "Villa d'Este" a meeting of the beginning singer with the writer Alfred Mashar took place. It was he who advised her to slightly change the pseudonym. Thus, Delilah turned into Delilah. The girl had no idea that in just a few years this fictitious name would become famous all over the planet.
A year after moving to the French capital, Delilah became a participant in the "Number One Tomorrow" contest. The song “The Stranger in Paradise” performed by her did not go unnoticed by two influential people at once: Eddie Barclay, owner of Barclay Records, and Lucien Moriss, director of Europa-1 radio. Fortune smiled broadly at Yolande! She signed a contract with "Barclay Records" and recorded the single "Madonna", only he went unnoticed.
However, the first failure did not embarrass Delilah. In 1956, her new song "Bambino" was released. After this, Delilah turned into a celebrity. The song "Bambino" lasted in the top ten songs of France for about 10 months (45 weeks) and became popular far beyond the borders of the country. By the beginning of the next year 300,000 copies of the plate had been sold. Delilah was handed the Golden Disc.
New songs - "Gondolier", "As before", "Farewell, Farewell, Baby" - made Delilah even more famous. Her pictures were printed in popular editions, music awards followed one after another. The singer successfully tours first in the cities of France, and then in other European countries.
The year 1958 was marked for the singer by a series of successful performances in the United States of America.
In April 1961, Delilah married the director of Europe-1 radio station Lucien Moriss. However, as it turned out, the wedding was the beginning of the end of their relationship, which lasted more than 5 years. At one of the concerts, Delilah met an artist from Poland, Jean Sobieski. Between them there was a romance that her husband found out about. He could not forgive his wife treason. Soon the couple divorced.
The 60s became for the singer extremely saturated both for good and for tragic events. In addition to numerous concerts in France, Delilah successfully toured South Asia. In 1963, on the initiative of the French government, the singer became the owner of the honorary title “Commander of the Order of Arts and Literature”. However, soon fate brought Delilah an unpleasant surprise, which almost turned into a tragedy. In the mid-sixties, the singer met Luigi Tenko - a little-known writer and performer of songs. An affair began. In 1967 they performed a duet at the festival in San Remo. Luigi's composition “Farewell, Love, Farewell” frankly did not like either the audience or the jury. She was not allowed into the final stage of the competition. For the author, this was a real blow. After the announcement of the voting results, Tenko shot himself.
The body of Luigi in the hotel room found Delilah. Perhaps this pushed her to the first suicide attempt. The singer drank a deadly dose of sleeping pills, then fell into a coma. Doctors fought for her life for about four days. They managed to save Dalida from death.
After recovering, Delilah continued to delight fans with performances. In 1968 she was awarded the Medal of the City of Paris and the Medal of the President of the Republic, which the singer took from the hands of Charles de Gaulle.
The beginning of the 70s was marked by another blow: the former husband of the singer - Lucien Moriss - could not stand the long depression and shot himself.
1973 was a very fruitful for Dalida. Together with actor Alain Delon, she performed the song "Paroles, paroles", which for many decades continues to be a hit. Another creative success was the composition "He just turned 18 years old", which took the best lines of the charts in nine countries.
The next year, 1974, was marked by the recording of a new hit. "Gigi in Love" was recognized as the best song at once in eleven states.
Dalida brought even greater success to the performance of the Egyptian folk song "Salma ya Salama". At the end of 1977, the composition won the highest ranks of pop parades in seventeen countries at once.
In the 1980s, a new facet of Dalida’s talent emerged. In the spring of 1981 in the concert hall "Olympia" the premiere of the play created by her was held. The premiere coincided with another great event: for 80 million sold records, the singer was presented with a diamond disk.
1983 - another tragedy. The singer finds out about the death of Richard Chanfre - a man whom they met for 9 years - from 1972 to 1981. And again suicide. This was already the third closest person to Dalida, who took the score from life. After this news, the star again began to have vision problems. She could not tolerate the light of stage spotlights. In the spring of 1985, the singer was operated twice, but the surgical interventions did not bring due relief. The star had to abandon active performances.
Nevertheless, she continues to create. The year 1986 was marked by the release of the next, as it turned out later, the last disc "Face of Love". Also, the star played the lead role in the movie "The Sixth Day".
1987 - the last in the life of a celebrity. From the outside, for everyone, everything is as usual: Delilah takes part in popular TV shows, sings at concerts, she is seen at the Cesar award ceremony and the annual meeting with members of her fan club. Star offer a leading role in the musical "Cleopatra". At the same time, Dalida has a deep depression: she is already over forty, but no one is near her — not a loved man, not children, the meaning of life is lost.
At night, from the 2nd to the 3rd of May, the singer again drinks a huge dose of sleeping pills and drinks it down with a solid portion of alcohol. They could not save her. On May 7, she was buried in the Montmartre cemetery. For the French, the death of Dalida was a huge loss. After 10 years, the great singer discovered a monument in Paris. An exclusive wine is produced in her memory, and a special postage stamp has been issued. In 2016, the premiere of the film about the life of the singer - "Delilah. Love and Passion."
Interesting Facts
- The origin of the pseudonym Yolanda Gillotti is associated with the biblical story about a seductress named Delilah (by the way, in the Russian synodal translation Delilah sounds exactly like Delilah), which deprived Samson of the life force. In life, it happened that the same happened to Yolanda’s beloved men: three of them committed suicide.
- Delilah is the first French singer to perform a disco song.
- Dalida's repertoire consists of compositions performed in many languages. Among them: French, English, Greek, Italian, Spanish and many others.
- After moving from Egypt to Paris in 1954, Delilah lived on Jean-Mermoz Street. Her neighbor was still completely unknown Alain Delon.
- Megopopulyarnaya composition "Paroles, paroles", brilliantly recorded by Delilah and Alain Delon in French in 1973, originally had other performers. A year earlier, the song was performed by the Italians Alberto Lupo and Mina.
- Another myth goes about the predilection of Dalida for alcoholic beverages. Most likely, he appeared in connection with the brilliant performance of the hit "Je suis malade", where these words were present: "I drink every night ...".
- Another legend is connected with the singer Bruno Guillain, who together with Dalida performed the song "Generation 78". They said that he - the illegitimate son of the singer. However, this also turned out to be untrue. The singer never had children.
- Dalida’s concert in Morocco in 1965 ended in a major scandal. The singer was not informed that it was forbidden to perform songs in Hebrew in the country. When the star began to sing "Havanaguila", unrest began in the hall - the Arabs found out their relationship with the Jews. The incident could turn into arrest, but everything was fine.
- In 2007, on the 20th anniversary of the singer's death in the French capital, an exhibition was held for several months, at which personal belongings of Dalida, her photos and stage costumes were presented.
- Creativity Dalida continues to be extremely popular. This is confirmed by 20 million discs released after the singer's death.
Best songs
"Ciao amore ciao" - one of the most touching and tragic works, performed by a star for a creative career. The composition was too different from the other compositions presented to the jury of the San Remo festival in 1967. The unrecognized songwriter, Luigi Tenko, shot himself, after which Delilah also tried to escape from life. She was rescued, but the singer always remembered this tragedy and performed “Goodbye, love, goodbye” with special sadness and feeling.
"Ciao amore ciao" (listen)
"Il venait d avoir 18 ans" - The work of novice composer Pascal Sevren. The song tells the story of a young 18-year-old boy and a lady who is much older. The composition has become an international hit.
"Il venait d avoir 18 ans" (listen)
"Salma ya Salama" - one of the most famous compositions of Dalida. In Egypt and a number of Middle Eastern states, the song performed in Arabic sounded like a kind of national anthem that called for forgiveness and reconciliation. Delilah was called the second Cleopatra of Egypt. And indeed, after the performance of this song, the singer is not much inferior in popularity to the famous ancient queen.
"Salma ya Salama" (listen)
Personal life
Rumor attributes to the singer a huge number of love affairs. According to rumors, Delilah managed to get married 8 times. However, according to official data, the singer had only one husband - the director of the Europe-1 radio station Lucien Moriss. Their relationship lasted 5 years, but the spouses stayed in marriage not for long. Lucien learned that Delilah had betrayed him with the Polish artist Jean Sobieski and could not forgive this. Interestingly, the singer initiated the divorce.
The fate of Dalida can not help but worry. How many meetings, how many events, how many bright and how many sad minutes! The singer's biography is a series of white and black stripes. She fully knew love and passion. She went through death and the absence of love ... And she could sing equally well both about grief and about happiness ...
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