Twisted Tales: International Pop Superstar Dalida Spreads a Suicide Curse

Posted on Jan 22nd 2010 5:00PM by James Sullivan
Comments

Her first single was called 'Madonna.' She was considered a saint, yet she left a trail of dead lovers in her wake. One of the most popular recording artists of the 20th century, she sang in several languages and had No. 1 hits in more than a dozen countries, yet fame in America eluded her. The singer's name was Dalida.

Born in January 1933 in Cairo to an Italian family, Yolanda Gigliotti would become one of the biggest stars in French music history. A childhood eye infection caused her a lifetime of vision problems, requiring repeated surgery. To her family's surprise, the quiet girl threw away her glasses and entered a beauty contest. In 1954, she was crowned Miss Egypt.

On Christmas Eve she defied her family and moved to Paris to become an entertainer, taking the stage name Dalida. As a rising cabaret act, she caught the ear of some influential men, including Bruno Coquatrix, a starmaker who was then opening the city's famed Olympia Theatre. The ingenue's early single 'Bambino' became a smash hit, spending nearly a year in the French Top 10. With the help of her manager (and secret lover) Lucien Morisse, Dalida embarked on a string of successes that would soon lead to her being dubbed, upon her triumphant return to Egypt, the "Voice of the Century."

But a tour designed to make her a superstar in America fizzled. Meanwhile, Dalida's young life was already full of anguish. After carrying on her affair with her manager, they were married in 1961, but Dalida left him for another man just weeks after the wedding. She moved into a huge home like a Disney castle, overlooking Montmartre, and changed her style from music hall to the pop-oriented "yé-yé," France's answer to rock 'n' roll. Later in the decade her new fiance, Italian singer Luigi Tenco, shot himself in the temple after a duet at the San Remo Music Festival. Distraught after finding the body, Dalida unsuccessfully attempted her own suicide by swallowing a bottle of pills.

In 1970, her ex-husband and manager, Morisse, himself committed suicide. The turmoil in her personal life led the singer through a period of searching, during which she took an Indian guru and declared herself finished with vapid pop songs. Concerns that her commitment to more "serious" music would sabotage her career went unfounded when her single 'Il Venait d'Avoir 18 Ans' took the No. 1 spot in nine countries.

Approaching her fourth decade in pop, Dalida appeared at Carnegie Hall and went disco with a medley called 'Generation '78.' As the 1980s began, she was well on her way to selling more than 100 million records. But whispers about her close relationship with incoming French president Francois Mitterand triggered another personal crisis. Still another of Dalida's ex-lovers, a celebrity magician who claimed he could turn lead into gold, committed suicide in 1983, and the singer underwent two more eye operations in 1985.

Two years later, Dalida finally gave up, overdosing on barbiturates. The beloved singer left behind a note that read, "Life has become unbearable... Forgive me."