Today marks the 27th anniversary since one of our favourite singers tragically took her own life. Here to tell us what made her so amazing is one of our BFFs Bob Henderson.
DALIDA by Bob Henderson
Hear Bob spin Dalida and more at Voyage Voyage.
Full disclosure: I’m obsessed with music sung in languages I’m not capable of speaking – which is to say all of them except English. Listening to a song you’re incapable of understanding means certain consonants clash rhythmically, vowels stretch in unfamiliar places and melody is EVERYTHING. And in some cases you can simply feel a vocal; the human condition from a human mouth in a strange tongue. Which is definitely the case with my love of French singer Dalida. And you can add two more ingredients; an unquestionable appreciation of glamour and a life soaked in tragedy.
The archetypal self-made diva was born in Egypt, though left to find fame in France which she conquered in a way that modern popstars can only dream of. Breaking through in the 1950’s she covered a variety of songs mostly in French, although dabbled in numerous languages as her fame rose in Italy, all over Europe, Japan or her home country and the Middle East.
Her 60’s pop found her new fans in a teenage generation and she became an avid reader, a devotee of Freud and bought chateau in Montmartre where she would return after world tours, and in later interviews express her interesting in keeping a home – even though it was often alone. As the showbiz cliche goes, while her success on the stage was stratospheric, her private life was a mess. Her string of failed relationships is only trumped by the shocking amount of her ex-lovers and associates who committed suicide. These include her Italian co-recording artist and lover Luigi Tenco, ex-husband Lucien Morisse, lover Richard Chantry and one of her close friends, the troubled Israeli singer Mike Brant.
All these factors go someway to explain why Dalida is our go-to when we want to bathe in self-pity. When you’ve gone through the most horrific break up, drawn the curtains, got a bottle of whiskey, smashed your phone and put Je Suis Malade on, desperately searching for some cigarettes which you gave up. And try not to think too much about the suicide note she left the world on 2 May 1987. “Life has become unbearable for me… Forgive me.”
Now just before you get to the Britney-”Everytime”-stage, take heed of her other many appealing charms. Firstly, that steely determination to carry on, and face the stage with unrelenting professionalism. Just like Joan Crawford who could grin and grit her painfully capped teeth through anything. And finally, her beyond-camp disco phase. She must have inspired many a drag queen (and still does) with a flick of the eyeliner, before Amy Winehouse was even conceived. The late 70s/80s boom in TV specials allowed Dalida to showcase her classics like Laissez Moi Danser (Monday, Tuesday), along with her penchant for sequins, lamé and a plunging neckline – the glittery icing on a beautiful, bittersweet cake.
