Who Was Dalida?
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90th Birthday
Ever heard of Dalida? Well you should! Today would’ve been her 90th birthday. How do I know of her? She was my father’s favorite singer back during his college days and he introduced me to her music when I was a little girl. She had such a classic yet contemporarily bewitching voice and sound style, so I naturally became interested in her music too. And frankly, it saddens me that not more people in the Western Hemisphere (including the United States) know of her.
This Egyptian-Italian songstress was more than a triple threat—her facility with languages allowed her to have cross-over success internationally. Celine Dion reminds me of her to some extent, but Dalida had that femme fatale meets ethereal yet earthy goddess thing going on.
Honours and Decorations
If you’ve travelled through Paris and stopped by the famous cemetery there where many of the most famous people in the world are buried, you’ll have found her honorary place there, where her memory was honored on December 5, 1996, when Paris City Hall created the “Place Dalida.” A bronze bust of the singer was added on April 24, 1997, to mark the 10th anniversary of her death.
- Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic.
- 1962: Calabrian Citizen of Honour.[170]
- 1968: Godmother of Montmartre street urchins.
- 1980: Graulhet Citizen of Honour.
She is much revered as a music icon in France at the same level as American singers like Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, etc.
Her Story
Her life story mirrors legends like Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo. But sorely underrated in America, a market that she didn’t pursue, one that has a history of being ageist and xenophobic anyway. Perhaps that’s why she didn’t try harder. If Sophia Loren could cross-over, Dalida totally could’ve made it here, if the conditions were in her favor.
A Dalida movie about her life came out in 2016, which was decent in my opinion, but videos of the real Dalida more clearly show what made her so intoxicatingly magical in person and sonically. But the movie will give you some idea of the enormity of her star and significance in world pop culture none the less.
Greatest Hits
If you want a crash course on Dalida that’s more fun, I highly recommend this duet Dalida performed in 1978 called “Génération 78”, a song which is a potpourri of DALIDA’s great hits, with French teen pop singer Bruno Guillain.
This is the official website for her: https://dalida.com.
Americana
“Americana, Americana,
— Stephanie Jevtić Pyrzynski (@stephpyrzynski) February 28, 2017
Joue ta musique fais moi danser.” – #Dalida https://t.co/akCI0cd4GM #America #French #Music #iconic pic.twitter.com/0DFL06VSfc
And here is a graphic I made before I became a mom, inspired by one of my favorite deep cuts of hers, called, Americana (1979). As I said earlier, Dalida didn’t pursue the Western hemisphere and North America much. But she dabbled, and I think this classic disco tune is worth adding to your patriotic playlist for American national holidays. It’s a celebration of America from an immigrant or foreigners perspective, and captures the emphemeral seduction of the old American Dream. This lyric from the song is the hook for me:
“Joue ta musique (play your music), fais moi danser (make me dance).”
— Dalida
Americana Lyrics (French and English)
Original French
Americana c’est un mot qui craque dans la nuit
Americana c’est un peu de rêve et de folie
Americana c’est un mot qui parle de géant
Americana a la fureur de vivre en noir et blanc
L’avion se pose en silence comme un goéland qui vient de France
Sur la ville qui sommeille, l’ombre d’une statue se réveille
Du ciel gris de l’Atlantique, au soleil brûlant du Pacifique
C’est une île qui vagabonde, une lie jusqu’au beau milieu du monde
Americana, Americana
C’est l’Amérique, qui fait rêver
Americana, Americana
Joue ta musique fais moi danser
Manhattan, centième étage accroché son cœur dans les nuages
Quand San-Francisco s’affolent aux rythmes des amours qui s’envolent
On se saoîle de musique sur des mots souvent mélancolique
Las Vegas et ses machines et ses filles sorties des magazines
Americana, Americana
C’est l’Amérique, qui fait rêver
Americana, Americana
Joue ta musique fais moi danser
Americana c’est un mot qui craque dans la nuit
Americana c’est un peu de rêve et de folie
Americana c’est un mot qui parle de géant
Americana a la fureur de vivre en noir et blanc
Et moi qui suis d’ici d’ailleurs de nul part
Je refais souvent le voyage, ce voyage
Depuis que j’ai vu l’Amérique
Ces plages au parfums d’Acapulco
Plongées d’avenues au numéros
Et ses boulevards plus longs que des villes (America)
Ces quartiers qui parlent en Italien
Restaurants Chinois ou Parisiens
Où chacun retrouve un peu de son pays
Americana c’est un mot qui craque dans la nuit
Americana c’est un peu de rêve et de folie
Americana c’est un mot qui parle de géant
Americana a la fureur de vivre en noir et blanc
Americana, Americana
C’est l’Amérique, qui fait rêver
Americana, Americana
Joue ta musique fais moi danser
Americana c’est un mot qui parle de géant
Americana a la fureur de vivre en noir et blanc
Americana c’est un peu de rêve et de folie
Americana c’est un mot qui claque dans la nuit
English Translation
Americana is a word that creaks in the night
Americana is a bit of dream and madness
Americana is a word that speaks of giant
Americana has a rage to live in black and white
The plane lands silently like a seagull coming from France
On the sleeping city, the shadow of a statue wakes up
From the gray skies of the Atlantic, to the burning sun of the Pacific
It’s a wandering island, a dreg in the middle of the world
Americana, Americana
It’s America, which makes you dream Americana, Americana
Play your music make me dance
Manhattan, hundredth floor hung its heart in the clouds
When San-Francisco panics to the rhythms of vanishing loves
We get tired of music on often melancholy words
Las Vegas and its machines and its girls out of the magazines
Americana, Americana
It’s America, which makes you dreamAmericana, Americana
Play your music make me dance
Americana is a word that creaks in the night
Americana is a bit of dream and madness
Americana is a word that speaks of giant
Americana has a rage to live in black and white
And I who am from here from elsewhere from nowhere
I often make the trip again, this tripSince I saw America
These beaches with the scents of AcapulcoAvenue dives at numbers
And its boulevards longer than cities (America)
These neighborhoods that speak in Italian
Chinese or Parisian restaurants
Where everyone finds a bit of their country
Americana is a word that creaks in the night
Americana is a bit of dream and madness
Americana is a word that speaks of giant
Americana has a rage to live in black and white
Americana, Americana
It’s America, which makes you dream
Americana, Americana
Play your music make me dance
Americana is a word that speaks of giant
Americana has a rage to live in black and white
Americana is a bit of dream and madness
Americana is a word that slams in the night
Songwriters: Kathy Wakefield / Robert Costandinos / Erich Bulling
Americana lyrics © Yell Music Limited, Erich’s Music, Erich S Music
Listen to it on Apple Music or wherever you stream your tunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/r%C3%A9volution/210531541?i=210531556
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