Les années Barclay – The Barclay years First contract and overnight success with "Bambino" After the performance in , Morisse handed Dalida his card so that they could meet in his office as soon as possible, which she accepted without hesitation. A few days later, on the second floor of the building at 26 , she performed "", a recent hit by
Amália Rodrigues, humming the a cappella verses and tapping her fingertips on a corner of Morisse's desk. Visibly satisfied, he demanded that she work on minor imperfections before a new audition in front of
Eddie Barclay in person. On 2 May 1956 in Barclay's office at 20 , Dalida signed a renewable one-year contract, with a modest percentage on record sales, with the promise of increasing it if the expected success was accomplished. While Morisse was responsible for radio promotion, Coquatrix had developed a strategy to grab the headlines. 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. "Madona" was played on 28 August 1956 on Radio Europe n°1, which was Dalida's first radio appearance. The record achieved sufficient success and was followed by a second EP, Le Torrent, a month later, which received an equally encouraging welcome. Dalida continued performing live throughout the latter part of 1956, 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 the
Neapolitan song "", which had won at the recent inaugural and would become "". The album was immediately followed by a third EP titled . After debuting at number seven in January 1957,
Bambino reached number one and went on to become the biggest-selling and one of the most beloved pop standard hits of the 1950s 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, 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". "Bambino" was Dalida's first number-one hit, and through 1957 it became the longest-running number one in world history, with a total of 39 consecutive weeks, a record that it still holds. It made Dalida an overnight star and gave her her first gold disc, the very first time that such an award had been received by a woman, on 19 September 1957 for sales of over 300,000. Promoting it in early 1957, Dalida also made her first TV appearance, and her contract was immediately extended for four years. Then she also received her first criticism from a journalist: "On stage, Dalida appears in beauty and warmth, highlighted by a presentation of extreme sobriety."
First Olympia concert, new success with "Gondolier", tourings and return to film On the night of 27 February 1957, Dalida held her first concert at the Olympia, as the opening act for
Charles Aznavour, and was widely applauded. Then, in April, she performed a successful two-week series of concerts at Bobino, and in the summer a fan club was established, the first such club to be devoted to a female artist. As well as live performances, the prolonged success of "" through 1957 was followed with new recordings such as "Miguel" and "", which eventually replaced "" as number one in France in October. Dalida came back to the Olympia in September as the opening act for
Gilbert Bécaud; the newly renovated Olympia having just acquired its red neon facade sign. A future iconic symbol of the hall, Bécaud and Dalida became the first two names to appear on it. After her second success there, Dalida released her second album
Miguel and returned to the studio in mid-October to record what was to become one of her old standards, "". Staying in the top ten for eight months, it earned Dalida a second gold disc. Dalida's experimentation with exotica resulted in "", released for Christmas 1957. 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. The reappearance of this video in the 1970s made the moment notable, and the public started to consider it iconic that Dalida dared to do such a thing on television during such a conventional time in society. Nevertheless, "" debuted at number one in both the French and Canadian charts, where it spent four months, remaining in the top twenty for almost a year and becoming her biggest hit since "". Dalida then also started to perform more frequently in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. By the end of April 1958, a radio programmer heard Dalida recording "" 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. As the song replaced "Gondolier" as number one in France, Dalida scored a still-current chart record in France of five songs simultaneously in the top ten. It was followed by her receipt of RMC's singer of the year award, which she went on to win for six consecutive years. In June she embarked upon her first "" tour (
Tour de France with Dalida), with a daily appearance in the city hosting each stage of the
1958 Tour de France, which she repeated several time in future decades. 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. During this summer Dalida released her third album , and also recorded several new songs such as "", "" and ""; all of which were sales successes, each earning Dalida a gold disc. With "", Dalida started French
rock 'n' roll and also paved the way for foreign rock artists to enter the market, such as
Paul Anka. In late 1958, Dalida returned to film in her first on-screen role in four years, playing the supporting role of a singer-spy in the mystery film . A few months later, she appeared alongside Eddie Barclay in , both starring as themselves. These two B movies were also used for promotion of her three songs "", "", and "", and were released in September 1958 and March 1959, respectively. On 9 October, she again performed at Bobino, this time for three weeks as the headline performer, where she promoted her latest releases "", which peaked in the charts the same week, and "". Topping the charts in January 1959, where it remained over most of the winter, "" proved to be an ultimate holiday hit in France and Belgium, as Dalida could be seen promoting it on a Christmas-themed television set. On 2 March, the
Minister of informations awarded her, alongside
Yves Montand, with the Bravos du music hall, the most prestigious music award in France, as the most popular singer in France. During the summer, she covered her own recordings "" and " " in
Flemish as "" and " ", respectively, the only time in her career that she sang in Flemish. During the closing night of the
Berlin Film Festival on 28 September 1959, she was presented with a Golden Lion award by RTL as the best-selling musical artist of the year in Germany, and was saluted with a fanfare playing the verses of "". On 23 September 1959, Dalida sang in a successful three-week run at Parisian , where a jukebox was installed in recognition of her being dubbed "Mademoiselle Jukebox", the most listened-to artist on
jukeboxes in France. By the end of the year, she had released her fifth and sixth albums, and
Love in Portofino (titled after her hit song "
Love in Portofino"), and had already sold three and a half million records, the highest sales of all European artists.
"Les Enfants du Pirée" and "Itsi bitsi petit bikini"; transition to yé-yé and first Olympia concert residency Dalida began 1960 with "", which became a chart-topper in France and Belgium in February. She then embarked upon her first world tour and reached the summit of the charts again with "" in April. Her third release of the year "" brought Dalida huge commercial success, becoming her second biggest international hit after "". It reached the top two in six European countries and in Canada, topping the charts in three of them. After its debut at the top of the French charts in June 1960, where it remained for 20 weeks, it became the first song by a French singer to sell over one million copies internationally, and the expression ("hit of the summer") was invented after its success. The success was followed by her second Italian award and a Golden Wolf as the best-selling musical artist of the year. Dalida realized that she would have to make a drastic change to retain her image, and in September she covered the US hit "". Now one of her signature songs, it became the first big yé-yé hit in France and became the second song to receive the title , displacing "" from the top of the charts. Securing her position as a leading singer in France, "" 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. Dalida then completed a year-long world tour, performing in countries across Europe, in Canada and in several Arab states. In December, she issued an EP collecting four of the best-known holiday carols in French, and her New Year's show broke the record for a TV audience, with nearly six million viewers. Among other musicians who attended, she was congratulated by
Édith Piaf, who told her: "You are a winner, like me. After me, it will be you." She also issued two albums and . 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 , it was revoiced and retitled for a French audience as , after
one of the soundtrack songs. The movie also features several other recordings by Dalida, including the posthumously released "". In contrast to her other previous movies, was not a commercial failure, with the moderate gross income eventually surpassing the low budget. Rihoit wrote: "sealing her appearance of the early 60's, since it is also her first color film, all the power and acting potential that Dalida carries in herself and transmits to the screen is clearly visible". "" was followed by another success in the same genre "", with the lyrics "Oh dad, buy me a jukebox, to listen to
Elvis Presley,
Les Chaussettes Noires, and
Johnny Hallyday – And Dalida? But what is she doing here, they still listen to her?", Dalida was making a joke at her own expense referring to the current situation in France where the young people were fond of young singers, despite her success during the yé-yé era. The record spent two weeks at number one during the spring. The
album of the same name was issued later in the year. Although Dalida had filmed her first
scopitone in 1961 for the song "", starting a series of music videos that were followed by almost all yé-yé newcomers, her best critically and commercially received scopitone was recorded in September 1962 for the song "", in which she paid tribute to the
Allies' disembarkation in Normandy on 6 June 1944. In January 1963 at
Cortina d'Ampezzo, Dalida was awarded with the Oscar Mondiale del Successo dei Juke Box award for the most listened artist on
jukeboxes in Europe. Later the same month, she made a shift from yé-yé in covering
Ben E. King's "
Stand by Me" as "", which was followed by an equally melancholic string of recordings such as "", a summer number one hit in Canada, and "" which subsequently peaked at number two in
Argentina and was recorded in five languages. "" was awarded the Oscar mundial du success du disque for the most international sales by a French artist in 1963, and Dalida named her fourteenth studio
album after it. The event generated even more interest in the sold-out three-week residency, which had already received a huge amount of media coverage. 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 2,000 people waiting in the street". Following the success of "", an
album of the same name was released on 17 September. Dalida was awarded with a platinum disc for surpassing sales of over 10 million records since her debut in 1956. Specifically created for her, this was the first time in the music industry that the term "
platinum disc" had been used. The B side "", written and composed by Charles Aznavour, peaked at number six in Turkey and was applauded by , who wrote "Sainte Totoche enters the calendar" as it "evokes the women neglected by their husbands". The next day, Dalida herself rewarded Juliana Brown, the winner of the
Dalida Song Contest which had been established in her honour. In a poll conducted by
IFOP on 24 April 1965 Dalida was voted the favourite French singer of the decade, ahead of Édith Piaf.
"La Danse de Zorba" and "Il silenzio" In June 1965, Dalida recorded "", a song from the 1964 movie
Zorba the Greek, which became her biggest international success since "" in early 1961. 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 alongside
Ugo Tognazzi and, making her debut,
Romina Power, and released one of her first records in single format, "". In the same period, Dalida also started employing family members, with her cousin Rosy as her secretary, and brother Bruno as her artistic director. By the end of the year, they had produced the successful Italian album and three more EPs. "" did not achieve commercial success, but became one of her first power ballads, being based on experiences in her own life, and became a commercial success in the US when recorded by
Cher as "
The Way of Love". In contrast, "
Bang Bang" was a number one hit in Argentina and Italy, where it was also the best-selling record of the year. During the summer in
Rome, she was introduced to the new avant-garde singer-songwriter
Luigi Tenco on an RAI set and they sang "" as a duet. 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.
Sanremo and Olympia 67; "The new Dalida is born!" With "Mama" in January 1967, Dalida had success in France and Turkey, and was back at the top of the Italian charts later the same year. "", written and composed by Tenco, was released alongside as it had been chosen as their competing song for the
Sanremo Music Festival. The festival premiered on 26 January and they both separately sang their own version. 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. With the lyrics "I was afraid that everything would be foreign to me, but nothing seems changed, it's good to open the gates of my house" the song was directly dedicated to her return to life, pointing at her
Montmartre house. At the same time, her Italian album
Dalida became a chart success and "" topped several international charts, earning Dalida another gold disc.
"Le Temps des fleurs" After competing for four months in , then the most popular TV show in Italy, in January 1968 Dalida won with "Dan dan dan" that reached number two in the country. Dalida also came back to film for her first main role in five years, in Italian romantic drama , acting as
stewardess Judy alongside
Alberto Lupo. 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 "". After the filming, Dalida embarked upon a two-year-long world tour that extended until early 1970. With more than 300 live performances it was Dalida's longest tour up to that moment and, as a part of it, in summer 1968 she participated in a popular Italian summer festival and won the main prize. In 1969, during the third leg that started on 9 January in
Milan, for the first time in career Dalida performed in
Yugoslavia and in Africa. After Gabon in December and in Tahiti in January 1970, the tour ended in Iran in February. Returning to German TV, Dalida danced
casatchok on her new song "", which was followed with release of three new albums: , and , a sales topper in Poland. Dalida was also awarded with MIDEM, award for the best selling artist of the year in Italy, and her first
Radio Luxembourg singer of the year award, which she went on to win for several more times. In October 1971, Dalida intended to book herself at Olympia for her big Parisian comeback after four years. Bruno Coquatrix did not believe in her change of style and refused to produce the show so Dalida rented and paid the venue by herself. On 24 November, announced by posters thirty meters long and four meters high on the
Champs-Élysées, Dalida premiered a sold-out three-week-long concert residency, with
Mike Brant as opening act. Dalida again triumphed, with public and critics plebiscite new repertoire nicknaming her "the queen of the theater" and "a modern
Phaedra". Seeing the success, Coquatrix offered "Dali" to return whenever she wants "without having to pay a single cent". Premiere night was both recorded on video and as live album
Olympia 71, published a year later alongside , while the video was first issued in 2012. Through 1971 and 1972 Dalida held a series of successful worldwide concerts in Asia, Canada, Europe, Lebanon and Latin America. She continued to choose her new songs only for their poetic value, but still paid less attention to their commercial promotion, again traveling to Asia to develop a better understanding of herself. She came back to high sales in September 1972 with "", a cover of
Godfathers
title song. Peaking at number two and with over one-half million copies sold, it became a gross hit in France by the end of the year and received gold certificate. The single released on 17 January with B-side "", topped charts in France, Japan, Mexico and Portugal, and had a fair performance in several other countries. Receiving a triple gold certification, it also spawned a dozen of international covers, inspiring foreign singers to record it in their native languages. After the release and two performances, her version became a hit, but Lama's original also drew public attention. Dalida's gestures and facial expressions while performing "" were a natural expression of her personal connection to lyrics that deal with abandonment and despair. The renditions of the song during the future years left a huge impact on French society and shaped an image of Dalida, described by
Vanity Fair as "ultimate drama queen". Both Lama and composer of the song
Alice Dona frequently credited solely Dalida for being the one who made the song a success, and for boosting Lama's career. Eventually, covered by several singers mostly as tribute to Dalida, "" also became a song frequently sung at competitions.
1973–1975: Zenith – "Gigi" and "18 ans" By the end of 1973, Dalida released the promotional single A-side "" with B-side "". In that same time, she released the album
Julien that gathers most of her 1973 songs. The song "" quickly started gaining success and it was again released in the beginning of 1974 but as B-side to single A-side "". "Il venait d'avoir 18 ans" peaked number 3 in
Québec, number 13 in Germany, and number 37 in Italy while "" beat the record held by
Frank Sinatra's "
Strangers in the Night" from 1966 for the most sold single in
Benelux and charted number 4 in France and number 1 in Switzerland, number 2 in
Netherlands, number 1 in
Flanders, number 3 in Québec, number 2 in Spain During 1975, she released duet "" with her partner . This single peaked number 16 in France. Around the same time, the popularity of variety shows increasing in France and Dalida started making television appearances on a weekly basis there and across Europe. Following her disco success, in mid-1976 she released a new album with newly recorded songs, most of them disco. The most notable one was "" (number 7 in France and number 10 in Turkey). hit in the world. Originally sung in Egyptian Arabic, the song was translated into French, Italian, and German. Part of the lyrics are based on an old Egyptian folk song about homesickness and celebrating the Egyptian nation. Dalida continued touring the world, including the US, for the second time since the 1950s, by playing two nights in New York City's
Carnegie Hall in November 1978.
The New York Times review of the Carnegie Hall concert praised Dalida's performance and noted its intimacy and intensity after she began to converse midway through it, revealing her personality. Most of the audience were French citizens. The concerts were almost sold out, but nevertheless, it was another triumph for her. Due to the concert, she was offered for the second time a contract to perform in the US, but she refused it again. In February, during her 1977 Canada tour, an obsessed fan tried to kidnap her by using a hammer but did not succeed. Other hit performances of Dalida include "
The Lambeth Walk", sung in English and French, and aforementioned "", released in 1973 achieving success in 1977. In 1979, Dalida recorded her biggest disco hit, "", written by
Toto Cutugno. The song was a smash hit, peaking at number 1 on the French charts. By the end of 1979, she released the semi-biographical song "" where she, through music, speaks about herself in a humorous way. Her debut of 1980 was marked by the release of a big disco hit, "". Then she released the album
Gigi in Paradisco, named for the title song, which was a sequel to her previous hit "". Following the spectacle, Dalida released the double live album and organized a new European tour and a small World tour. She toured in the whole Western and Eastern Europe except Yugoslavia and the
Soviet Union. Also, she held concerts in Brazil, the US and Canada. When she came back, she organized a tour across the whole of France delivering more than 20 sold-out concerts monthly across the French towns and cities. In 1980, problems in her private life appeared again and were reflected in the song "".
1981–1987: Diva trademark years Dalida left disco and started singing slower, moody, deep-minded songs with typical 1980s instruments. From March to April 1981, she gave a month of sold-out concerts at the Olympia in Paris, emulating her successful 1980 tour. Her last concert of April 1981 at the Olympia became her last concert at that venue, because the following year, the Olympia went bankrupt (it re-opened in 1989). On the night of her inaugural performance, she became the first singer to be awarded a diamond disc, in recognition of her record sales which had reached 45 million. Olympia was followed up by the release of her last named Olympia album,
Olympia 81, but this time, it was not recorded live. She refused to be a model for
Marianne of France. Instead of disco, Dalida started to record dance songs, which had soon replaced disco in French clubs. At the end of 1981, she starred in a New Year TV spectacle called
Special Dalida. She co-hosted and sang her songs. At the beginning of 1982, she had many TV appearances singing still unreleased songs, followed by the release of a new dance album,
Special Dalida. The most remembered songs of the album are the dance songs "", "" and the moody "". Dalida was growing older, yet she launched a new world tour in 1982, spending most of the years from 1982 to 1984 playing sold-out concerts Rio de Janeiro to Europe and Asia. She made a lot of TV appearances in the 1980s almost every second week. In the summer of 1982, during the
FIFA World Cup, like many other singers, Dalida released a song for the French team, "" (number 17 in France). Dalida's eye problems returned. She underwent two major eye operations in 1985 and put her career on hold as the stage lights started to become difficult for her to endure. The latter would become a commercial failure in France despite very favorable media criticism, especially from intellectuals. Little more than 50,000 entries would be made. As she always wanted to become an actress, she temporarily disregarded her singing career and fully devoted herself to the movie. She returned to France to promote it in late 1985. In 1986, she released with more new recordings and some singles from the album, which became her last album. "" and "" were songs that failed to hit the charts upon their release. She did promote the album but not as well as she used to do previously, due to issues in her private life which had never been worse since 1967. Dalida, therefore, began spending more and more time alone at home or going out with friends to pass the time, further neglecting her career. Dalida ceased to create new material in the recording studio, instead devoting herself to perform concerts. Once again organising a lot of concerts on a monthly basis and singing her previously known hits, Dalida was then known for the amazing "show" performances, wearing her wardrobe from 1980 to 1982. She sang glamorous disco-dance songs from same period such as "", "Gigi in paradisco", "", "Monday, Tuesday...", "". By the beginning of 1987, Dalida was falling into a severe depression. A vacation offered no relief, and despite her struggles, she managed to mask her pain, giving the glamorous appearance of someone who still loved life. Although no new songs had been recorded, she toured internationally from
Los Angeles to the
Middle East. Being part of the music spotlight in 1978, many of her songs appeared daily on TV, as well as many notable TV appearances on talk shows from 1986 to 1987. Her last live TV appearance was at the
César Awards night of March 7, 1987. Her last live performance took place in
Antalya, Turkey from 27 to 29 April 1987, just before her suicide. Her performance was not recorded by the
national television of Turkey which was the only TV channel in the country. == Personal life and death ==