1965–1974: Modelling and the Swinging London period had a profound impact on Lear's painting career as well as her personal life. Amanda Lear was introduced to the eccentric Spanish surrealist painter
Salvador Dalí in Paris. She has since described their close and unconventional relationship as a "spiritual marriage" and remained Dalí's confidante, and closest friend through the next 16 years. She spent every summer with Dalí at his home at
Port Lligat in Catalonia, Spain, and accompanied him and his wife on trips to Barcelona, Madrid, Paris and New York. She also took part in his art projects, posing for a number of Dalí's drawings and paintings, including
Angélus de Millet - Amanda (1968),
Roger Freeing Angelica (St. George and the Damsel) (1970),
Bateau Anthotropic (1971), and
Exploding Head (1982). Dalí and Lear would later collaborate on a giant seven-foot-wide by four-foot-high collage fan. Lear can be found as
Temperance in
Salvador Dali's Tarot, in which she claimed to have assisted Dalí in the completion of the collages. In 1965, Lear moved to London and began working as a cabaret artist. A July 1965 newspaper report about a robbery at her home described her as the strip-tease artist "Amanda Tapp, professionally known as Peki d'Oslo". An American newspaper described her in October 1965 as "one of the leading stripping stars on the European cabaret circuit". On 11 December 1965 in the UK, she married Morgan Paul Lear, an architecture student, and adopted his name. Amanda Lear was a runway model for Lagerfeld and met Catherine Harlé, the head of a modelling agency, who offered her a contract. With her modelling assignment, she walked for rising star
Paco Rabanne in 1967. Just as Harlé had predicted, her looks were very much in demand. Soon after her debut Lear was photographed by
Helmut Newton,
Charles Paul Wilp and Antoine Giacomoni for magazines such as
Beau (1966),
mr. (1966),
Le Nouveau Candide,
Cinémonde (1967),
Scandal,
Marie France,
Nova,
The Daily Telegraph,
Stern,
Bravo and
Vogue. She modelled for fashion designers including
Yves Saint Laurent and
Coco Chanel in Paris and
Mary Quant,
Ossie Clark and
Antony Price in London. After some time, Lear dropped out of art school to model full-time and went on to lead a bohemian and flamboyant life in the
Swinging London of the 1960s. Lear's acquaintances included
the Beatles and fellow top models
Twiggy,
Pattie Boyd and
Anita Pallenberg. In late 1966, she began dating
the Rolling Stones'
Brian Jones, whom she first met prior through
Tara Browne. Pallenberg, cited as "Jones'
mistress", also connected Lear with him. She became a "stalwart of London's
demimonde", an exotic name on the nightclub circuit and a regular fixture in the gossip columns. Lear was arrested in 1967 by the police with drugs belonging to the Rolling Stones. Lear was sent naked to a prison cell "because you don't denounce a Rolling Stones", she said and was later fined for it. and in 1968 played a minor role in the French comedy film
Ne jouez pas avec les Martiens and also in the 1968 British psychedelic film
Wonderwall. After Jones' death, Lear moved with hippie friends to
Elvaston Place,
South Kensington, in London. Lear recalled: "We smoked joints, took
LSD,
Jimi Hendrix came by when he had no place to sleep." In 1971, Lear modelled for a special Christmas issue of the French edition of
Vogue, edited entirely by Salvador Dalí, and was photographed by
David Bailey. She performed in a short-lived play along with the singer
P.J. Proby in an
Islington pub in London and 1972 saw her first on-stage appearance when she introduced
Roxy Music and
Lloyd Watson at the
Rainbow Theatre in London in August. Lear also made a cameo appearance modelling in
A Bigger Splash. Lear has been briefly engaged to
Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music and was famously depicted posing in a skintight leather dress leading a black panther on a leash on the cover of the band's art rock album
For Your Pleasure, released in March 1973, an image that has been described as "as famous as the album itself". After the release of
For Your Pleasure, Lear appeared on stage at
Camden Palace during Roxy Music concerts; "
Freddie Mercury and
Elton John thought I was great", she said. However, Bowie's wife
Angie supported Lear. Lear then contributed to the
Dalí Museum, opened in the painter's home town
Figueres in September 1974, by producing a series of
collages decorating the doors of the museum, and was offered writing a monthly gossip column by the British magazine
Tatler. Lear was also one of the four
gossip columnists for
Ritz Magazine.
1974–1983: The disco period with Ariola Records In 1974, disillusioned by a shallow and conservative fashion industry and encouraged by her boyfriend Bowie, who paid for singing and dancing lessons, Lear decided to launch a career in music. Bowie recommended a Hungarian voice coach Florence Wiese-Norberg, with whom he also worked, and the pair subsequently recorded a demo track called "Star", which remains unreleased to date. Lear's debut single, "
Trouble", a pop-rock cover of
Elvis Presley's 1958 classic, was released unsuccessfully by minor label
Creole Records in the United Kingdom. A French-language version of the track, "
La Bagarre", was released on
Polydor in France and while equally unsuccessful there, it became a minor disco hit in West Germany in early 1976. The track caught the attention of the singer, composer and producer
Anthony Monn and label
Ariola, which offered her a seven-year, six-album recording contract for a sum of money that Lear since has described as "astronomic". In 1978, Lear continued her line of disco hits with
Sweet Revenge, an album that opens with a concept medley about a
Faustian fairy tale of a girl who sells her soul to the devil for fame and fortune, and in her eventual revenge over the devil's offer finds true love. The first single from
Sweet Revenge, "
Follow Me", powered by Lear's characteristic deep and recitative voice and the theme of the devil, was an instant smash hit. It reached the top 3 in the West German singles chart as well as the top 10 in many European countries, and has been Lear's signature tune ever since. The
Sweet Revenge album was certified
gold in West Germany and France, and went on to sell in excess of four million copies, spawning further European hit singles "
Gold" and "
Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)". Lear took part in three Italian productions in 1978: a war-time parody
Zio Adolfo in arte Führer, a
softporn documentary
Follie di notte directed by
Joe D'Amato, and a six-episode controversial TV show
Stryx. Later in 1978, Lear and Monn teamed for
Never Trust a Pretty Face. The album featured a variety of genre exercises like the dance version of a war-time classic "
Lili Marleen", the interpersonal ballad "
The Sphinx", the cabaret-esque "Miroir", futuristic tracks "Black Holes" and "Intellectually", as well as the hit disco single "
Fashion Pack (Studio 54)". In late 1978, at a fashionable Parisian discothèque
Le Palace, a French equivalent of
Studio 54, Amanda Lear met French aristocrat
Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle, the former lover and then adopted son of diplomat and controversial novelist
Roger Peyrefitte. She married him on 13 March 1979, while on a trip to the United States. The marriage lasted 21 years, until Malagnac's death on 16 December 2000, when he was killed by smoke in a fire at their farmhouse in
Saint-Étienne-du-Grès. He died just six weeks after Peyrefitte. This marriage is not official for the French state. Dalí and his wife Gala both strongly disapproved of the relationship and attempted to persuade Lear to have the marriage annulled. As a consequence of this, and also the time taken up by Lear's successful career in music and television, she and her mentor began drifting apart. They sporadically kept in touch via letters and telephone through the early and mid-1980s, especially after Gala's death in 1982. Lear visited Dalí one last time at
Púbol, Spain, a few years before the painter died. In the early '80s, she had her first art exhibition in Paris. According to Lear, it happened in 1979.), producing hits "
Fabulous (Lover, Love Me)" and "
Diamonds", plus regional single releases "Japan", "When" and the
autoerotic "Ho fatto l'amore con me". The album abandoned the Munich disco sound with its lush strings and brass arrangements in favour of an electronic
new wave rock style. Lear spent most of 1980 on European promotional tours for the album and its many accompanying single releases, from Greece to Finland. She also made her first visit to Japan, where both the single "Queen of Chinatown" and the
Sweet Revenge album had charted. Two non-album singles followed the
Diamonds for Breakfast album in late 1980: a pop cover of
Eric "Monty" Morris's early
ska hit "
Solomon Gundie" and the
chanson-esque "Le Chat de gouttière", the latter with both music and lyrics written by Lear and recorded for francophone markets. The Lear/Monn album success saga neared its end in 1981 when Lear had become increasingly uncomfortable with the expectations and pressures of the music business in general and her own record label in particular. At the artistic and commercial peak of her international career, but with the so-called "
anti-disco backlash" beginning to take its toll, she had tentatively started recording tracks for a forthcoming album with producer
Trevor Horn in London. However, Ariola did not approve of the material and informed Lear that she was to return to Munich and provide the company and the market with another Monn product. The result of these sessions was
Incognito, only partly co-written by Lear, with new wave material fueled with rock and electronic elements.
Incognito generated only one minor hit, the French language ballad "
Égal", and still met with relative success in Scandinavia. It was also her breakthrough album in South America, with three tracks recorded in Spanish: "Igual", "Dama de Berlin", and "Ninfomanía". Another non-album single followed in early 1982, a
synthpop take on the pop classic "
Fever". This was Lear's final collaboration with producer Anthony Monn. Shortly thereafter, she took legal action against the Ariola label on the grounds of artistic differences to be released from her recording contract. The lawsuit was unsuccessful, and she remained with Ariola until the end of 1983, as stipulated in the original contract. In 1982, another Italian language single, the ballad "
Incredibilmente donna", was released on the greatest hits compilation
Ieri, oggi. The double A-side single "
Love Your Body"/"Darkness and Light", released in the spring of 1983, was produced by Monn's sound engineer Peter Lüdemann rather than Monn. These were Lear's final Munich recordings for Ariola and her final promotional appearance on West Germany's most important music TV show at the time,
Musikladen, in June 1983. Lear's international career momentum was slowing and effectively ended in December 1983 with her sixth and final Ariola album under contractual obligation.
Tam-Tam, a collaboration with Italian composers and producers, was a modern and minimalist early 1980s synthpop album with a soundscape dominated by
Roland TR-808 drum machines and sequencer-programmed synthesizers. Lear again wrote all the English lyrics for the album. Although she performed some of the songs from the album on the popular Italian TV show
Premiatissima, she did not promote
Tam-Tam in West Germany or any other parts of Europe and neither did the record company. As a consequence,
Tam-Tam passed by unnoticed by the international record-buying public.
1983–1999: Television career and comeback attempts Lear launched a very successful and lucrative career as a TV presenter in Italy, thanks to the future prime minister
Silvio Berlusconi, soon becoming a household name in that country. She hosted many successful TV shows there, including
Premiatissima and
W le donne (the latter adapted in France as
Cherchez la femme), where she frequently promoted her music. The singer recorded a string of dance singles for various European labels: "
Assassino" and "
Ritmo Salsa" in 1984, followed by "
No Credit Card" and "
Women" in 1985. A mini album titled
A L, with four covers of classic songs, including
Marilyn Monroe's "Bye Bye Baby" and "
As Time Goes By" from the film
Casablanca, was recorded for Five Records and released in 1985. Her music career, however, had waned by that point, and she had failed to find chart success with her recordings at that time. In late 1985, Lear appeared in a series of TV spots for
Fiat. She had written her first book, the autobiography
My Life with Dalí, about her long relationship with the famous painter. Originally published in French, the book was translated into other languages in the second half of the 1980s. After several years as a TV entertainer in Italy on
Canale 5 and France on
La Cinq, Lear returned to music. Her next album,
Secret Passion, a post-disco
Hi-NRG affair produced by
Christian De Walden, was recorded in Los Angeles and Rome for major French label
Carrere Records. The album was to be her comeback in Continental Europe, Scandinavia, the Eastern Bloc, South America and Japan, as well as a breakthrough attempt in English-speaking countries. These were the only major markets that Lear had not conquered during the Ariola years. The launch was planned for January 1987, however, just before promotion began, Lear was seriously injured in a near-fatal car accident and took months to recover, unable to promote the record properly.
Secret Passions commercial success was less than hoped for, and the lead single "
Wild Thing" was ultimately released in a few countries such as France, Italy and Greece. While in hospital, Lear began writing a novel, , a surrealistic tale of the torments of a woman doomed to eternal youth and beauty. Watching everyone else grow older and eventually losing all her loved ones, the woman is still as beautiful but unable to stop the merciless passage of time. in 1990 A series of re-recordings of her old hits appeared on the market in the late 1980s, starting with a synthpop take of the biggest hit, "Follow Me", in 1987. The following year, Italian band
CCCP Fedeli alla linea recorded a cover of her song "Tomorrow", retitled "Tomorrow (Voulez-vous un rendez-vous)", for which Lear contributed guest vocals. The single was a minor hit in Italy and Amanda's first chart success in that country in six years. In 1989, DJ
Ian Levine remixed "Follow Me" and "Gold" in a Hi-NRG fashion, while Lear hosted
Ars Amanda on
Rai 3, an Italian chat show where she interviewed both Italian and international celebrities and politicians in bed. From the late 1980s, Lear has been a regular participant in the popular French radio show
Les Grosses Têtes on
RTL, televised on
Paris Première. To maintain her popularity in Italy, she recorded
Uomini più uomini, an all-Italian-language album, which included mainstream pop material written among others by
Giorgio Conte,
Paolo Conte's brother No single was released to promote the album and it turned out a commercial failure. The same year, Amanda re-recorded some of the songs in French and cut the dance single "Métamorphose" for the French-Italian re-release of the album ''
Tant qu'il y aura des hommes''. In 1990, she released an up-tempo, promotional-only single, "Do You Remember Me?" and took part in
Thierry Mugler's fashion show. Lear continued to record more dancefloor-friendly repertoire in the 1990s, starting with the 1992 song "Fantasy", which became a hit in European clubs.
Cadavrexquis, her next album, was released in 1993 and featured heavily club-oriented material, including "Fantasy" and re-recordings of three songs from the disco era. Both the single and the album failed to enter any mainstream charts. Meanwhile, Lear hosted the TV show
Méfiez-vous des blondes on
TF1 and appeared in 's TV drama
Une Femme pour moi in France. In 1994, she modelled for the fashion house
Grès in Paris and again for Thierry Mugler in Berlin the following year. In May 1995, Lear debuted her new, erotic
late night TV show
Peep! in Germany, also known as
Beware of the Blondes, which she hosted for one year. The show, which used her song "Peep!" as the opening music theme, became remarkably popular in Germany, achieving over 50% of the market share. During her November 1996 concert at Le Palace in Paris, the singer announced her definitive departure from touring and performing live, and although she sporadically gave concerts in the following years, her live acts have been limited mostly to short TV appearances. Lear released
Back in Your Arms in Spring 1998, an album consisting of re-recordings of her own 1970s disco hits and remixed versions of tracks from the 1995 album
Alter Ego. The album failed to make much impact on the market, but the re-recordings have been featured on many mid-price compilations in Europe.
Back in Your Arms was re-released with a slightly different track list and title, and a remix of "Blood and Honey" was released as the single. Her next acting and television ventures were the French movie
Bimboland, in which she starred alongside
Gérard Depardieu, and an Italian
makeover TV show Il brutto anatroccolo. The theme tune to the latter was "Nuda", a cover version of
Melina Mercouri's 1960 recording "
Never on Sunday", which Lear recorded but never released commercially. On the set of
Il brutto anatroccolo Lear met model and actor , some 30 years her junior. Lear and Casella began a long-term relationship and were featured prominently in the
tabloid press in France and Italy, before splitting in 2008.
2000–present: Recent career Lear contributed vocals for a cover of
Giorgio Moroder's 1970s hit "
From Here to Eternity", recorded in 2000 with
Eric D. Clark. In the morning of 16 December 2000, a fire broke out in Lear's house in
Saint-Étienne-du-Grès, killing her husband Alain-Philippe, and his friend Didier Dieufis. At the time of the accident, Lear was in Milan, where she was hosting a TV show. The fire left the house in ruins, destroying personal memorabilia and a number of Dalí's paintings. As a result of the accident, she fell into depression, but soon returned to work and put on an art exhibition titled
Not a. Lear. At the end of 2001, she returned with the album
Heart, dedicated to the late husband. The album offered a cover of "
Love Boat", the title song from the 1970s
TV series of the same name, and the club-friendly track "I Just Wanna Dance Again", both issued as singles featuring remixes by some prominent names in the world of French dance music, such as
Laurent Wolf and
Junior Vasquez. In 2002, Lear starred in
Le Défi, a musical movie written and directed by choreographer
Blanca Li about an 18-year-old dropout who dreams of becoming a star in
breakdancing and the ensuing conflicts with his conservative mother. Lear played the mother's understanding and encouraging best friend. She cut the title song for her Italian TV show ''Cocktail d'amore'' in which she interviewed some of Italy's most famous 1980s music stars, and released the single "
Beats of Love" with the Belgian boy band Get Ready! Both tracks were included in the 2003 re-release of
Heart, retitled
Tendance. Next year, Lear dubbed the voice of
Edna Mode in the French and Italian versions of the
Disney/
Pixar's blockbuster
The Incredibles, and her 1978 song "Enigma" enjoyed success in Central and Eastern Europe after exposure in the
Kinder Bueno TV advert. In 2005, the singer became a judge on
Ballando con le stelle, the Italian version of
Dancing with the Stars, and released two dance singles, "
Paris by Night" and the remake of
Barry Manilow's "
Copacabana", as well as two compilations,
Forever Glam! and
Sings Evergreens. In 2006, Lear opened an art exhibition in New York, titled ''Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's Amanda Lear'', and was decorated with the
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture
Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres in recognition of her contributions to French arts and sciences. In 2009, Lear accepted the part of Cécile in the comedy
Panique au ministère, which debuted at the
Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris. The show turned out to be a huge success and was taken on tour. The same year, she dubbed the voice of Fish in the German movie
Lacoma directed by Christopher Roth. and was taken on tour. Her album ''
I Don't Like Disco'' was released in January 2012, and the single "
La Bête et la Belle" sparked controversy due to its
erotic imagery. In September 2012, Lear appeared as a catwalk model on
Jean Paul Gaultier's fashion show in Paris and in 2013 started playing the leading part in the play
Divina at the
Théâtre des Variétés in Paris. In Spring 2014, she released
My Happiness, a tribute album with covers of
Elvis Presley's songs, promoted by the single and video "
Suspicious Minds". In 2015, she recorded the duet "Mai più" with Italian singer for his album ''L'universo elegante''. The pair then teamed for the ballad "Prima del tuo cuore" for Lear's next album
Let Me Entertain You, released in May 2016. Her play
La Candidate, a sequel to
Panique au ministère, opened in 2016 at the
Théâtre de la Michodière and was subsequently taken on tour across France. At the time of an interview in the Italian program
Domenica in on 16 October 2016, Lear had planned a retirement immediately after completing the
La Candidate tour in Spring 2017, however, she had to cancel a number of final dates due to health issues. In 2018, she worked on the dubbing for French and Italian versions of
Incredibles 2, hosted the TV show
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ? on
Cielo, and released another book,
Délires. In 2019, Lear joined the judging panel of the Italian TV show
Sanremo Young on Rai 1. In 2020, Lear starred in
Si Muore Solo Da Vivi directed by Alberto Rizzi and in
Miss directed by
Ruben Alves. In 2021, she appears in TV drama '
in France. In September, Lear returned to theatre to play Joan Crawford in ', a play about
Bette Davis and
Joan Crawford in the war they fought on the set of
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? The play was directed by
Michel Fau at the
Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris. She released a new album called
Tuberose in 2021. She is portrayed by
Andreja Pejić in the film
Dalíland, released in 2023. The 2025 documentary
Enigma compares and contrasts the life stories of
April Ashley and Amanda Lear and includes a new interview with Lear conducted by the director
Zackary Drucker. The interview focuses on Lear's own version of her personal history and gender identity, and how it contrasts with the accounts of her contemporaries. The film screened at the
Sundance Film Festival in January 2025 and premiered on
HBO Max in May. ==Gender identity==