Biography
Dalida(1933 - 1987) -Dalida was her artistic name, Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti ws her real name- was a French singer, of Italian origin, born in Egypt, with great appeal in Europe, the Middle East, Japan.
She was born on January 17, 1933 in Cairo, Egypt where her Italian parents had immigrated; her father was the violinist of the Cairo Opera House. She had two other brothers, one of whom later became her manager. She began her career in 1951 as a model and in 1955 she was crowned Miss Egypt in beauty pageants, which paved the way for her first role in a motion picture. She left for Paris with the intention of making a film career, finally and without giving up acting, she turned mainly to singing In 1957 she released her first major album entitled "Son nom est Dalida" (Her name is Dalida), in 1958 she became the "singer of the year" in Germany, having already started recording in German and Italian, as well as touring outside the French border. The French-language version of Manos Hadjidaki's "Children of Piraeus" became her biggest hit in the early 1960s, and in the following decades she would record songs in more than 10 languages, sell 90 million copies of her records; she also stared in 11 films and 2 autobiographical documentaries.
Her personal life was marred by a series of suicides. In 1967, her singer friend Luigi Tenko, with whom she had sung at the San Remo festival, committed suicide. A month later Dalida was in danger of losing her life from a drug overdose, spending five days in a coma and several months recovering. In September 1970, her ex-husband (1956–1961) Lucien Morisse committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. In April 1975, her close friend, singer Mike Brant committed suicide by jumping from an apartment in Paris. In July 1983, her partner from 1972 to 1981, Richard Chanfrey, committed suicide by inhaling his car's exhaust fumes.
Dalida in 1987 was going through severe depression and on May 3, 1987, she was found dead in her apartment in Paris, having taken a large dose of barbiturates. She had left a note that read: "Life is unbearable for me...please forgive me."