Dalida – Great French star

‘Ciao amore, ciao’ a hit

SBy Cezary Owerkowicz

he took the stage by storm, the screens lit, the articles in the daily newspapers and even the periodicals saw her bright side, she lit everything. She was the Great French Star - Dalida.

Frankly speaking she was French by choice and although she passed away 30 years ago in 1987, for many and even for music lovers her name remains anonymous.

One hundred and twenty million copies of her records were sold when she was alive and 20 million after her death. Of late the Europeans made an interesting movie about her life and music, under the title ‘Dalida’.

The movie was directed by Lisa Azuelos, daughter of another wellknown French singer Marie Laforet. She, together with Dalida’s younger brother, Orlando, was also the screen writer.

The title role was performed by the beautiful Italian model, Sveva Alviti, who especially for that purpose had learned French. I’m not sure if the movie will come to the Kuwaiti theaters though. Is it worth remembering a great star such as Dalida? You judge for yourself, but for me she was one of the legends of French songs.

Dalida was the nick name of Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, the Italian girl born and brought up in Cairo. Her father, Pietro Gigliotti, originally from Calabria, was the first violinist of the Cairo Opera.

She was the middle child between two brothers, Orlando and Bruno. As a four-year-old girl she underwent three risky ophthalmic surgeries because of the danger of infection. When she was nine, she had to wear sunglasses and even her colleagues at school and college laughed at her and often called her ‘four eyes’!

The girl attended the Italian Catholic School and studied Italian, Arabic, French and English. She learned singing and took part in plays at school theatre. However, she didn’t dream of stage career because she wanted to be a model. Her mother who did not entertain such dreams said the job of a secretary would just suit a good girl like her.

In 1940, when she was seven, her father was arrested by the police of King Farouk because he was Italian and was suspected of being a sympathizer of the fascist regime of Mussolini.

After spending four years in a camp he returned a total human wreck. Within one year he died of a heart attack. Iolanda mourned his death for a long time and years later she wrote a song ‘Il y a toujours une chanson’ in memory of her father.

Owerkowicz

Transformed

Seventeen years old Miss Gigliotti took off her sunglasses and from an ugly duckling transformed into a beautiful swan. To prove it she participated in the ‘conspiracy’ beauty contest as Miss Ondine and won it.

However, her mother was in total despair. To calm her nerves she began work as an office secretary but after work attended the ‘dummy-model’ duties at Fashion House ‘Donna’. It was not her dream but then she tried her luck at a beauty contest and won it with spectacular success and went on to become Miss Egypt. Instead of a fashion model proposal she was invited to face the camera and dubbed the voice for Rita Hayworth in two movies.

One of the movie producers convinced her saying, ‘don’t worry in Paris you will be made a star! On Christmas Eve in 1954, against the wishes of her family, Iolanda left the Shubra district in Cairo and took a flight to Paris. ‘On the plane I felt like a hero,’ she remembers.

First she changed her first name to Dalila, the Philistine lover of King Samson she played at a school theatre. One day at the club she sang for the script writer Alfred Machard who convinced her to change letter ‘l’ for ‘D’ to make it sound more French and this is how the Parisian Dalida was born.

In 1955 Bruno Coquatrix - impresario and musician - restored to life Olympia, the famous concert hall from the 19th century. At the end of WW II Olympia offered free of charge concerts or movies for winners, alliance soldiers.

The concerts started from four national anthems and were completed obligatory by can-can. Mr Bruno was a born creator of the stars. Soon he birthed stars such as Gilbert Becaud, Johnny Hallyday, Edith Piaf or Yves Montand.

One of the first was until now unknown Dalida, promoted as a ‘support star’ of Charles Aznavour. Coquatrix found her at that club and invited her to his Radio program. Dalida sang ‘Etranger au paradis’ (Stranger at the Eden) and conquered the hearts of Program Director Lucien Morisse and producer Eddie Barclay: She is ‘magnifique’ (magnificent)!

The third Dalida single stormed into the hearts of the fans. Edited in 1956 ‘Bambino’, became a hit. The radio broadcasted it several times each day. The song was soon hummed by entire France and almost half of Europe. The record has a status of Golden Plate and sold 3 million copies - the best result in the history of France. One year later when she arrived for her exclusive recital at Olympia a crowd of thousands of fans gave her standing ovation. Her face smiles on every magazine cover.

The series of hits continued: ‘Gondolier’, ‘Come Prima’, ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’ and in 1957 won the top award, ‘Song’s Oscar’ by Radio Monte Carlo, consecutively for seven years. On top of the list she won even with the Jacques Brel and legendary Edith Piaf.

Making use of the languages she learned at school, she recorded music and sang in German, Spanish, Dutch and even Japanese, awaking enthusiasm in Tokyo. (In US she sings one of her songs the ‘Americans like only their rock and roll.’)

All songs are about love, her life and her movies too. During her stage career she loved her protector, Lucien Morisse, who was already married and was not so keen to break his ties. Finally they married and a few weeks later, at the famous Cannes Festival she noticed the lovely face of a painter and aristocrat, Jean Sobieski.

Lucien became crazy and promised to destroy her career but Dalida decided to stay with Jean. She remembered Lucien as a lover, friend and like father figure in her song, ‘Les hommes de ma vie’ (The People of My Life): ‘In Paris where I was a stranger he took my hand as a father...’ Navel-string is cut...

The press thought it was the end of her career. At the moment of opening the solo recital at Olympia she received a parcel with a garland signifying ‘mourning’ with this inscription: ‘This evening we will assist the death of Dalida’. She opened the curtain of lights and started to sing ‘Je me sens vivre’ (I like to live...). The astonished audience was breathless and exploded in a frenetic applause later. The next month every evening two thousand people attending the event did the same.

The house on Parisian hill Montmartre, just behind the Basilica Sacre Coeur resembles a bit of the Castle of Sleeping Beauty. From there you can have a beautiful view of the Paris panorama. She bought it as an asylum after the next divorce. She brought to live with her, her family from Cairo and made her cousin her secretary and brother Orlando, her manager.

‘Cleopatra of the song, lady of charming beauty, with profile of the Etruscan Goddess’ I followed her two weeks on concert tour, admired her talent, diligence and responsibility. It happened that we moved from town to town during high hit five or six hours (communication was a bit different than nowadays!).

If she had a concert the same day she never went first to the hotel, always straight to the concert hall. She checked the arrangements, the machinery, talked to electricians and made acoustic rehearsals. So long that sometimes there was no chance to reach the hotel before the concert!’ says one of the top critics (by chance I knew him personally).

All the time she read a lot, studied, developed her knowledge and intellect. ‘I suppose I changed, but for sure developed,’ she confessed during an interview. Finally she conquered the US. Only her personal life was her major problem, in spite of her beauty, popularity and many relationships with the most attractive people of her époque (including at last not the least actor Alain Delon). Maybe when she found real love it cost her, her life?

‘Ciao, amore, ciao’ was the title of her next great hit. In October 1966 the Italian record company RCA introduced her to a young musician, Luigi Tenco, 29-year-old author of that song and proposal to present it during the renowned song festival in San Remo in January 1967.

The rules say the song has to be presented by two artistes - one native and one foreigner. The song is about a lost young man... The debutant was really lost and provoked a scandal and ended with a shot to the head in the hotel.

Dalida planned their wedding in April... Her last hit I ‘Died on the Stage’ (Mourir sur scene). May 2, 1967 she released her helper, makeup man, hair dresser and swallowed 120 sleeping pills and went to bed. On the table she left the letter: ‘Life became unbearable for me... Forgive me...’

‘Ciao, amore...’

Editor’s Note: Cezary Owerkowicz is the chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Philharmonia and talented pianist. He regularly organises concerts by well-known musicians for the benefit of music lovers and to widen the knowledge of music in Kuwait. His email address is: cowerkowicz @ yahoo.com and cowerkowicz@ hotmail.com