Dalida

Biography

Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti (Italian: [joˈlanda kriˈstiːna dʒiʎˈʎɔtti]; 17 January 1933 – 3 May 1987), professionally known as Dalida (French: [dalida], Italian: [daliˈda]; Arabic: داليدا), was an Italian naturalized French singer and actress. Throughout her international career, Dalida sold more than 140 million records worldwide. Some of her best known songs include "Bambino", "Ciao amore, ciao", "Gigi l'amoroso", "Il venait d'avoir 18 ans", "Laissez-moi danser", "Salma ya salama", "Helwa ya baladi", "Mourir sur scène", and "Paroles, paroles" featuring spoken word by film star Alain Delon. Initially an actress, she made her debut in the film A Glass and a Cigarette by Niazi Mustapha in 1955. A year later, having signed with the Barclay record company, Dalida achieved her first success as a singer with "Bambino". Following this, she became the top-selling recording artist in France between 1957 and 1961. Her music charted in many countries in Europe and Latin America. She collaborated with singers such as Julio Iglesias, Charles Aznavour, Johnny Mathis and Petula Clark. Although she made a few films during her career as a singer, she effectively reconnected with cinema with The Sixth Day, a film by Youssef Chahine released in 1986. In France, although the film was hailed by critics, it was a commercial failure. Dalida was deeply disturbed by the suicide of her partner Luigi Tenco in 1967. Despite this, she forged ahead with her career, forming the record label International Show with her brother Orlando, recording more music and performing at concerts and music competitions. After struggling with bouts of depression for many years, Dalida died by suicide from a drug overdose in 1987.

== Early years ==

=== Childhood in Cairo ===

Dalida was born Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti in Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt, on 17 January 1933. Her father Pietro Gigliotti (1904–1945) and mother Filomena Giuseppina (née d'Alba; 1904–1971) were both born in Serrastretta, Calabria, Italy, and were then taken by their emigrant parents to Egypt. Pietro studied music at school and played the violin in taverns; Giuseppina was a seamstress and homemaker. By birth, Dalida automatically gained Italian nationality through jus sanguinis of both Italian parents. It has been suggested that Dalida had Jewish roots, with her family's hometown of Serrastretta having been founded by Spanish Jews and her grandfather Enrico claiming Algerian Jewish ancestry. The year they were married, the Gigliottis settled in the Shubra district of Cairo, where, between the births of Iolanda's older brother Orlando (1930–1992) and younger brother Bruno (1936), the Gigliotti family became well established in the community. In addition to earnings from Giuseppina's work, their social status benefited when Pietro became primo violino at Cairo's Khedivial Opera House, and the family bought a two-storey house. At 10 months old, Gigliotti caught an eye infection and had to wear bandages for 40 days. Her father would play lullabies on the violin to soothe her. She underwent eye operations between the ages of three and five. Having to wear glasses throughout elementary school, for which she was bullied, she later recalled: "I was [sic] enough of it, I would rather see the world in a blur than wear glasses, so I threw them through the window." Gigliotti attended the Scuola Tecnica Commerciale Maria Ausiliatrice, an Italian Catholic school located in northern Shubra. In 1940, Allied forces took her father and other Italian men from their quarter to the Fayed prison camp in the desert near Cairo. When Pietro was released in 1944, 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." Gigliotti was twelve when Pietro died of a brain abscess in 1945.

=== Modelling, acting === 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 1951, 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. When Gigliotti unexpectedly won second prize and Miranda won second runner-up, they were photographed and the photographs were published in newspapers Le journal d'Égypte and Le progrès égyptien. 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 (1954) and Niazi Mostafa cast her in a supporting role in A Glass and a Cigarette (1954), on posters for which she appears with her newly adopted stage name Dalila (which she would soon change to "Dalida") because, as she explained in 1968, "it was a very frequent name in Egypt and I liked it a lot."

=== Relocation to Paris and decisive 421 dice game === On 25 December 1954, Dalida left Egypt for Paris. Her first residence was a room in an apartment belonging to Gastyne's friend, the impresario Vidal. 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. Dalida's difficulty in finding acting work throughout 1955 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 Dalida responding even more loudly. Their lessons sometimes ended with her slamming the door, but she always returned the next day. Seeing her progress, Berger arranged for her to perform in the cabaret Le Drap d'Or on Champs-Élysées, where she was spotted by Jacques Paoli, the director of another cabaret, La Villa d'Este. Paoli engaged her for a series of performances that proved to be popular, and Dalida received her first attention from the public in France, among whom was Bruno Coquatrix, the director of Olympia, who invited her to perform in his singing contest Les Numéros 1 de demain. Coquatrix later said: "[H]er voice is full of colour and volume, and has all that men love: gentleness, sensuality and eroticism." Dalida was also spotted by author and screenwriter Alfred Marchand, who advised to change her name to Dalida, since her pseudonym too closely resembled the Biblical character as depicted in the movie Samson and Delilah. She immediately followed the advice. On 9 April 1956, Dalida participated in the singing contest Les Numéros 1 de demain, performing "Etrangère au Paradis". Prior to the competition, Eddie Barclay, the owner of the largest record label in France, Barclay, and Lucien Morisse, the artistic director of the newly established radio station Europe n°1, met in Bar Romain (now Petit Olympia) and discussed what to do that evening. 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 421, a dice game, which Morisse won. Together with their friend Coquatrix, they were greatly impressed after Dalida won the contest, and arranged a meeting with her. 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.

== Career ==

=== Les années Barclay – The Barclay years ===