Dalida was born Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti in Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt, on 17 January 1933. Her father Pietro Gigliotti (1904–1945) and mother Filomena Giuseppina (née d’Alba; 1904–1971) were born in Serrastretta, Calabria in Italy. Pietro studied music in school and played violin in taverns; Giuseppina was a seamstress.

In 1940, Allied forces took her father and other Italian men from their quarter to the Fayed prison camp in the desert near Cairo. When Pietro was released in 1944, he returned home as a completely different person, so violent that Iolanda and other children in the neighbourhood were scared of him. She later recalled, “I hated him when he beat me, I hated him especially when he beat my mom and brothers. I wanted him to die, and he did.” Iolanda was twelve when Pietro died of a brain abscess in 1945. That trauma influenced her search for a male partner the rest of her life.

In her teen years, Iolanda developed an interest in acting due to her uncle’s job as a projectionist for a local cinema, and often participated in school performances at the end of the semester, becoming popular in the neighborhood. She graduated in 1951, but eventually started working as a copy typist in a pharmaceutical company in the same year. While required to work to financially help her family, Iolanda still had acting ambitions as she continued searching for an opportunity for a breakthrough.

On 25 December 1954, Dalila left Egypt for Paris. Her first residence was a room in an apartment of Gastyne’s friend, the impresario Vidal. She met with a number of directors, auditioned for movie roles, but failed each time. Vidal relocated her to a smaller apartment where her first neighbour was Alain Delon (then still unknown to the wider public), with whom she had a brief relationship.

Shortly thereafter, her best friend Miranda introduced her to Miss Ondine, a minor Cairo beauty pageant which she joined under two conditions: to be the minor one and that her mom Giuseppina must not find out. When Iolanda won the second prize and Miranda second runner-up, they were unexpectedly photographed and came out in newspapers Le journal d’Égypte and Le progrès égyptien. The next day when Giuseppina found out, she forcibly cut Iolanda’s hair short. Eventually, her mother gave up on her principles and Iolanda left her job to start modelling for Donna, a then famous Cairo-based fashion house. On her 21st birthday, Giuseppina gave her blessing for to join the Miss Egypt 1954 competition. Held during spring in the salons of the L’auberge des pyramides, she made a sensation of appearing in a two-piece panther-print bikini. The judges were overwhelmed and Iolanda won the title, automatically becoming the representative of Egypt on Miss World 1955 in London.

On 9 April 1956, Dalida participated in the singing contest Les Numéros 1 de demain, performing Etrangère au Paradis. Prior to the competition, Eddie Barclay, owner of the largest producing house in France, Barclay, and Lucien Morisse, artistic director of the newly established radio station Europe n°1, met in Bar Romain (now Petit Olympia) and discussed what to do that evening. Barclay wanted to watch a film, whereas Morisse wanted to attend the competition, which was being held at Olympia, then the largest venue in Paris. They settled their disagreement by playing 421, a dice game, which Morisse won. Together with their friend Coquatrix, they were greatly impressed after Dalida won the contest and arranged a meeting with her. That event was later perpetuated in biopics and books, and became regarded as fateful for Dalida’s career. The three men went on to play a large part in launching her career.

After the performance in Les Numéros 1 de demain, Lucien handed Dalida his card to meet in his office as soon as possible, which she accepted without hesitation. Few days later, on the second floor of the building at 26 rue François ler, she performed Barco Negro, a recent hit by Amália Rodrigues, humming the a cappella verses and tapping the fingertips on a corner of Morisse’s desk. Visibly satisfied, his interlocutor demanded more work on mini-flaws, for a new audition in front of Eddie Barclay in person. On 2 May 1956 in Barclay’s office at 20, Rue de Madrid, Dalida signed renewable one-year contract, with a modest percentage on record sales, with the promise of increasing it if the expected success is accomplished. While Morisse was responsible for radio promotion, Coquatrix has developed strategy to reach the headline. He planned to promote her through a series of concerts, including two concerts at the Olympia, two weeks in Bobino, and a tour of the provinces.

Her first song “Madona” was recorded in June and was first released in August on EP with three other songs. “Madona” was played on 28 August 1956 on Radio Europe n°1, which was Dalida’s first radio appearance. The record achieved sufficient success and was followed by second EP Le Torrent a month later which received an equally encouraging welcome. Dalida continued performing live throughout the latter part of 1956, while her promoters worked on developing a song that would make her a star; Morisse asked lyricist Jacques Larue to write a French language version of “Guaglione”, the winning song of recent fifth Festival di Napoli, which would become Bambino.

As Dalida again recorded simultaneously to her concerts in course of 1964, releases like “Ce coin de terre”, “Ne t’en fais pas pour ça” and “Chaque instant de” were poorly promoted through TV, eventually entering only top twenty. “Là il a dit” peaked at number six in Canada earlier in the year, but finishing the tour in November, Dalida came back to the studio to record “Amore scusami”, the orchestral pop sentimental ballad which was a completely new genre to her repertoire. The song was rushed into release and swiftly became hit at the end of the year, earning Dalida another gold disc, the first in two years since “Le jour le plus long”. Following the success of “Amore scusami”, an album of the same name was released and on 17 September. Dalida was awarded with a platinum disc for surpassing sales of over 10 million records since her debut in 1956. Specifically created for her, it was a first time in music industry that a term “platinum disc” was used.

Bambino was released in early December only as a promo single, but quickly receiving more public interest than all of her previous recordings, Morisse started to heavily promote it and it was placed as title song to Dalida’s debut album Son nom est Dalida that was issued by the end of same month. The album was immediately followed with a third EP titled “Bambino”. After debuting at number seven in January 1957, Bambino reached number one and went on to become the biggest-selling and one of the most beloved pop standard hits of the ’50s in France, Belgium, Canada and Switzerland. As the song knocked Doris Day’s “Whatever Will Be, Will Be” off the top of the French charts, women began to emulate Dalida’s makeup, resulting in the explosion of Rimel sales, while the men saw in her a talent, sensuality and sexiness. Coquatrix then named her “the first sex-symbol of the song”. “Bambino” was Dalida’s first number-one hit, and through 1957 it became the longest-running number-one in the world history, with a total of 39 consecutive weeks, still holding a record. It made Dalida an overnight star and gained her first gold disc, the very first time such an award had been received by a woman, on 19 September 1957 for sales of over 300,000. As the French music industry was then still in the background, “Bambino” was described in 2007 by Bertrand Dicale of Le Figaro as; “a launch that announced what will happen in the coming decades … a start of really modern times where singer is more important than song”. Promoting it in early 1957, Dalida also made her first TV appearance, and her contract was immediately extended for four years. Then she also received her first criticism from a journalist: “On stage, Dalida appears in beauty and warmth, highlighted by a presentation of extreme sobriety.”

Dalida’s experimenting with exotica resulted with “Gondolier”, released over Christmas in 1957. For the exotica song with accentuated vocals, Dalida delivered a TV appearance where, while sailing the imaginary gondola, her dress’ shoulder strap fell down. The reappearances of the video in the 1970s made the moment famous, and public started considering it iconic as Dalida dared to do such thing on television during conventional times of society. Nevertheless, “Gondolier” debuted at number one on both French and Canadian charts where it spent four months, remained in top twenty for almost a year and became her biggest hit since “Bambino”. Its B side Pardon also proved popular, reaching number one in Canada. Then Dalida also started to perform more frequently in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Her early success with Bambino made Barclay adopt the practice of other producers in the world who had already awarded their singers with golden certifications, so, on 19 September 1957, Bambino became the first record in the history of France to be certified gold. Barclay had not been the official certification association, but has faithfully served its 300,000-copy gold certification award over the years.

In late 1958, Dalida returned to film for her first on-screen role in four years, playing supporting role of singer-spy in the mystery film Rapt au deuxième bureau. A few months later, she appeared alongside Eddie Barclay in Brigade des mœurs, both starring as themselves. These two B movies were also used for promotion of her three songs “Inconnue mon amour”, “L’amour chante”, and “Aime-moi”, and were released in September 1958 and March 1959, respectively.

On 9 October, she again performed at Bobino, this time for three weeks as the headline performer, where she promoted her latest releases “Du moment qu’on s’aime”, that peaked the charts same week, and “Come prima”. Topping charts in January 1959, where it remained during most of winter, “Come prima” proved to be an ultimate holiday hit of France and Belgium, as Dalida could be seen promoting it on a Christmas-themed television set. Record’s B side song “Si je pouvais revivre un jour ma vie” also achieved success topping Canadian charts. According to her biographer Catherine Rihoit, her live television appearances “got her into the palms of society, keeping her position as a favorite singer of all age groups in the francophonie”, and marked an era of late ’50s television shows. On 26 December 1958 Dalida was in New York with Morisse where they met Norman Granz, the American impresario of Ella Fitzgerald, who invited her to Hollywood and offered a fifteen-year contract to launch her career in the USA. She quickly rejected the offer, saying that she wanted to focus on her musical career in France where she was already well-known with a secure fan base.

Dalida toured extensively in 1959, playing sold-out dates in France, Egypt, Italy, and Germany. As her fame spread outside France, she started to record songs in other languages to cater for these new audiences. In February, during a TV appearance, she performed her recent version of “Hava Nagila”. On 2 March, Minister of informations awarded her, alongside Yves Montand, with the Bravos du music hall, the most prestigious music award in France, for the most popular singer in France. During the summer, she covered her own recordings “Ne joue pas” and “C’est ça l’amore” in Flemish as “Speel niet met m’n hart” and “Ik zing amore”, respectively, the only time in her career she sang in Flemish.

In late summer, Dalida was back in the studio to record her first major international hit. In the period from 1958 to 1959, “Le jour ou la pluie viendra” was recorded in three languages, which led Dalida straight to the top three in six different European countries. The German language version “Am Tag als der Regen kam” topped German charts for ten weeks in September and October, earning her another gold disc. It was the best-selling record of the year in Germany, and remained one of the most successful songs in history of the country. During the closing night of the Berlin Film Festival on 28 September 1959, she was presented with a Goldener Löwe award by RTL, for the best-selling musical artist of the year in Germany, and saluted with fanfare playing “Am Tag als der Regen kam” verses. The song was her first international recognition, reaching a half-million accumulated copies and eventually remaining one of her biggest success in Germany.

In the course of 1959, Dalida collected five Top 10 hits in French charts, most notably “Ciao, ciao Bambina” and “Guitare et tambourin”; both earning gold discs. In Italy, RAI awarded her with Oscar di popolarità and Lupo d’oro awards for the best-selling musical artist of the year in the country. Those were her first two foreign awards that furthered her international recognition. Dalida also performed in successful sold out concerts in Berlin, Athens and Cairo, delivering a sentimental performance in front of a crowd in Rivoli cinema that she frequented as a child. On 23 September 1959, Dalida sang in a successful three-week run at Parisian Théâtre de l’Étoile, where a jukebox was installed in recognition of her being named Mademoiselle Jukebox, the most listened to artist on jukeboxes in France. By the end of the year, she released her fifth and sixth albums; Le disque d’or de Dalida and Love in Portofino, and had already sold three and a half million records, highest among all European artists.

Dalida debuted 1960 with “T’aimer follement”, a chart topper in France and Belgium in February. Then she embarked upon her first world tour and reached top of the charts again, with “Romantica” in April. The third release of the year “Les enfants du Pirée” brought Dalida huge commercial success becoming her second big international hit after “Am Tag als der Regen kam”. It reached top two in six European countries and Canada, topping charts in three of them. After its debut atop of French charts in June 1960, where it remained for 20 weeks, it became the first song by a French singer to sell over one million copies internationally, and the tube de l’été expression was invented after it. Dalida eventually recorded it in five different languages and made a video for TV emission Toute la chanson. With a harbor theme, showing Dalida singing and lying on a fishing net and artificial wind blowing, it made journalist Jacques Chancel call it; “the first video in France that really made a shift from the era of outdated videos”.

In January 1961, Dalida covered The Drifters’ “Save the last dance for me” as “Garde Moi la Derniere Danse” that reached top two. It remained her biggest French hit of the year as she busied herself with another year-long world tour which started in Teheran on 18 February, in front of Iranian royal family in their Sa’dabad Palace. With a total of almost 200 dates, the tour’s last leg included Dalida’s first own concert residency at Olympia, premiering on 6 December. Due to her recent love affair, divorce from Morisse and new yé-yé wave, several critics announced it as “attestment of an end and downfall of Dalida”. Indisputably, Dalida “brought the house down” according to Beuve-Méry of Le Monde, as the month long show was a sell-out success with the premiere night broadcast live by Radio Europe N°1. Among other musical legends who attended, she was congratulated by Edith Piaf, who told her: “You are a winner, like me. After me, it will be you.” Dalida also set the record for the biggest public attendance and the longest-running concert residency at the Olympia, with a total of 52,000 spectators in course of 30 days, that would be broken by herself in 1981. At the very end of the year, on 30 December Dalida completed her world tour in Olympia’s Belgian equivalent Ancienne Belgique in Bruxelles.

During 1961, Dalida issued a set of new Italian songs on Canta in Italiano EP, and also scored several top ten hits internationally such as “Nuits d’espagne” and “Tu ne sais pas”. In April she made “Pépé” a number one hit both in Austria and Germany, and “24 mille baisers” separately in Austria and France. She also issued two albums Dalida internationale and Loin de moi. During spring in Italy, Dalida signed with film director Giorgio Simonelli and revived her film career with the first film in which she plays the main role. Originally filmed as Italian movie Che femmina… e che dollari!, it was revoiced and retitled for French audience as “Parlez moi d’amour”, after one of tracking songs. The movie also features several other recordings by Dalida, including posthumously released “Ho trovato la felicità”. Contrary to her other previous movies, Che femmina… e che dollari! was not a commercial failure as the moderate gross eventually surpassed the low budget. Rihoit described: “sealing her appearance of the early 60’s, since it is also her first color film, all the power and acting potential that Dalida carries in herself and transmits to the screen is clearly visible”.

Although Dalida filmed her first scopitone in 1961 for the song “Loin de moi”, starting a string of music videos followed by almost all yé-yé newcomers, her best critically and commercially received scopitone was recorded in September 1962 for song “Le jour le plus long”, in which she paid tribute to Allies’ disembarkation in Normandy on 6 June 1944. Under the direction of young Claude Lelouch, who later became one of most acclaimed French directors, Dalida was dressed as a soldier, walked through a war-torn forest in the middle of the bombs and had accompanied real scenes from the Second World War. An unusual image of Dalida found its public and was a hit in cafes. Alongside Dalida’s performance of the song on 26 September, in front of a crowd of 2,000 people on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, “Le jour le plus long” topped charts in France for two weeks and earned her another gold disc.

By birth, she automatically gained Italian nationality through jus sanguinis of both Italian parents. In 1961, she replaced it with French nationality through marriage to a French citizen.

In January 1963 at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Dalida was awarded with the Oscar Mondiale del Successo dei Juke Box award for the most listened artist on the jukeboxes in Europe. Later the same month, she made a shift from yé-yé covering Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” as “Tu croiras”, which was followed by an equally more melancholic string of recordings such as “Le jour du retour”, a summer number one hit in Canada, and “Eux” that later peaked at number two in Argentina and was recorded in five languages. “Eux” was awarded with the Oscar mundial du success du disque for drawing the most international sales by a French artist in 1963, and Dalida named her fourteenth studio album after it.

The 1963 world tour was prolonged into 1964 only with several short breaks. The tour’s French leg started on 11 April 1964, after which Dalida traveled 30,000 kilometers solely by car during its five-month run, with a public attendance over 200,000. “The most iconic moment of tour” as said by her brother Orlando, was a concert at Draguignan on 14 August when “Dalida appeared with blond hair for the first time, and shocked the crowd that that didn’t recognized her at first glance”. After the concert in Pont-sur-Yonne on 2 September, Dalida accepted the local truck drivers’ offer to become their godmother of honor. The tour was emulated with concert residency in Olympia two days later when Dalida and other celebrities; Charles Aznavour, Francoise Hardy, Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan, were brought to the Olympia’s entrance by the same drivers on their roofless trucks, making a parade alongside the streets of Paris. The event threw even more attention to the sold-out three-week residency that already received a huge media coverage. During the television transmission of the crowd at the entrance, a teenage fan said: “We can hardly wait for her [Dalida] to appear, we’ve been screaming for an hour and the atmosphere is so crazy”, on which the reporter turned to the camera: “the whole Paris came to see [parade], only in front of Olympia there are at least 2,000 people waiting in the street”.

In 1964, from the hands of Barclay, Dalida received the certification of a Platinum Disk for Accumulated Sales of over 10 million discs sold in the previous seven years of her career. It was the first time in world history that the term “platinum disk” was used and awarded to a singer. It is also the first time that a disk certification for lifetime achievement/accumulated sales was awarded.

Refusing to perform at Sanremo Music Festival, Dalida instead released EP Sanremo 65 that included her latest Italian top ten hit “Ascoltami”. Delivering new performances at Bobino and Tete de l’Art in following months, she was in top ten in France and Belgium with a cover of Rita Pavone’s “Viva la pappa” that gained Dalida huge interest among children’s public. The B side La sainte totoche, written and composed by Charles Aznavour, peaked at number six in Turkey and was applauded by prestige critic Lettres françaises that wrote “Sainte Totoche enters the calendar” as it “evokes the women neglected by their husbands”. Back on world tour in 1965, Dalida held concerts in Fort-de-France where she was welcomed by more than 20,000 enthusiastic Martinicans who caused a stagnation in the city. France-Antilles reported “Only the President of the Republic had ovation of this scale, during his visit in March 1964”. The next day, Dalida herself rewarded Juliana Brown, the winner of Dalida Song Contest which was established in her honour. A poll conducted by IFOP on 24 April 1965, voted Dalida as the favourite French singer of the decade, ahead Edith Piaf.

In June 1965, Dalida recorded “La danse de Zorba”, a song from 1964 comedy movie Zorba the Greek, which became her biggest international success since “24 mille baisers” in early 1961. The song once again brought Dalida to seven international charts, entering the top three in six and topping in two countries. Surpassing a million copies, it also earned Dalida two more golden discs; in France, and in Brazil where it was also awarded with the Cico Viola award for the best selling record of the year. With daily appearances on television dancing to song on a Sirtaki, Dalida marked the summer period of 1965 and “La danse de Zorba” received title of that year’s tube de l’ete, alongside Christophe’s Aline and Hervé Villard’s Capri c’est fini.

1966 was marked by an extensive year-long world tour that started on 13 February in Paris, and ended on 31 December in Toulouse. With more than 150 dates, Dalida toured Canada, Latin America, Arab states and across Europe. The year debuted with a number-one hit in Latin America, El Cordobes, which was a product of friend collaboration with bullfighter Manuel Benitez, to whom Dalida dedicated the song as they had a brief affair. In the same period, Dalida also started employing family members, with her cousin Rosy as her secretary, and brother Bruno as her artistic director. Until the end of year, they produced the successful Italian album Pensiamoci ogni sera and three more EPs. “Parlez moi de lui” did not achieve commercial success but became one of her first power ballads, based on experiences in her own life, and made famous in US by Cher as The way of love. On the contrary, Bang Bang was the number one hit in Argentina and Italy where it was also the best selling record of the year. “Petit homme” charted internationally and was accompanied with Dalida delivering energetic live performances with tambourine. Dalida also returned to wide screen, with a supportive role in French satiric movie La Morale de l’histoire that included the unreleased song “Je sortirais sans toi”. During summer in Rome, on RAI set she was introduced to a new avant-garde cantautor Luigi Tenco as they also retrospectively sang “La danza di zorba” in duet. Later in September, her Italian managers suggested that she participate with Tenco at the next Sanremo Music Festival. Although in previous years she declined the festval, she accepted this time as she was in a secret relationship with Tenco.

With Mama in January 1967, Dalida had success in France and Turkey, and was back on top of Italian charts later the same year. “Ciao amore, ciao”, written and composed by Tenco, was released alongside as they chose it for their competing song at Sanremo Music Festival. The festival premiered on 26 January and they both separately sang their own version. Under the influence of stage fright and alcohol, Tenco delivered a very bad interpretation while Dalida concluded the evening with ovation, but eventually they were eliminated in the first round. The following night ended tragically when Tenco was found dead by Dalida in their hotel room. It was reported that the suicide letter explained how he died by suicide due to elimination, as protest to hoax and bribed jury, but the major suspicion emerged how actually the mafia was involved. Although the public did not know anything about their relationship, the event greatly affected Dalida and the next concert in Boulogne-Billancourt scheduled for 31 January was cancelled. The following week on 7 February, she appeared on TV show Palmares des chansons dedicating her rendition of “Parlez moi de lui” to Tenco. Wearing the same dress she wore when she found his body, the performance was highly sentimental but she showed nothing of a verging depression. On 26 February, Dalida attempted to take her life, ended up in a hospital and spent five days in a coma. The truth broke out about her engagements with Tenco, leaving her worldwide public stunned. Her career was put on hiatus for three months.

While Dalida was professionally very successful, her private life was marred by a series of failed relationships and personal problems. In January 1967, she took part in the Sanremo Festival with her new lover, Italian singer, songwriter, and actor Luigi Tenco. The song he presented was “Ciao amore ciao” (“Bye Love, Bye”), which he sang together with Dalida but Tenco failed despite Dalida’s performance. Tenco died by suicide on 27 January 1967, after learning that his song had been eliminated from the final competition. Tenco was found by Dalida in his hotel room with a bullet wound in his left temple and a note announcing that his gesture was against the jury and public’s choices during the competition. Prior to Tenco’s suicide, Dalida and he had become engaged. One month later, Dalida attempted to take her life by drug overdose at the Prince de Galles hotel in Paris. She spent five days in a coma and several months convalescing. Dalida returned to the stage the following October.

In December 1967, she became pregnant by a 22-year-old Italian student, Lucio. She had an abortion that left her infertile.

As the election was attended by three film directors, the victory opened her the doors of the Egyptian cinema; Marco de Gastyne cast her in The Mask of Tutankhamun (1954) and Niazi Mostafa for leading role in A Glass and a Cigarette (1954), on which posters she appears with her newly adopted stage name Dalila because, as she explained in 1968, “it was a very frequent name in Egypt and I liked it a lot.” The third offer was a longer period contract by an Egyptian film producer that she turned down after Gastyne advised her to try her luck in Paris. Thus, Dalila also decided to not represent Egypt on Miss World 1955, but Egypt did not compete that year because of the Suez Crisis.

After competing for four months at Canzonissima, then the most popular TV show in Italy, in January 1968 Dalida won with “Dan dan dan” that reached number two in Italy. Dalida also came back to film for her first main role in five years, in Italian romantic drama Io ti amo, acting as stewardess Judy alongside Alberto Lupo. The movie was a minor success, but as it was filmed in colour and several of her new songs appeared in, it provided critically acclaimed music video for her latest Italian chart topper and gold certified L’ultimo valzer. After the filming, Dalida embarked upon a two-year-long world tour that extended until early 1970. With more than 300 live performances it was Dalida’s longest tour up to that moment and, as a part of it, in summer 1968 she participated in a popular Italian summer festival Cantagiro and won the main prize. In 1969, during the third leg that started on 9 January in Milan, for the first time in career Dalida performed in Yugoslavia and in lower parts of Africa. After Gabon in December and in Tahiti in January 1970, the tour ended in Iran in February.

On 5 December 1968, in Paris city hall Hôtel de Ville, Dalida received the Medal of the president of the Republic from hands of General de Gaulle who summarized the “success, kindness and modesty of this woman” saying: “By giving you this medal, I wanted to honor a quality, a great lady of France.” In France, she remains the only person from show-business to receive such distinction. During same event, Dalida became a Parisian citizen of honor, receiving the Medal of the city of Paris by the Council of Paris, and was also named the Godmother of Montmartre pulbots, the old name for poor children of the quartier where she lived.

Spending 1969 on tour and private travelings to India, Dalida released several less successful recordings like “Zoum zoum zoum”, “L’an 2005” and “Les violons de mon pays”, all poorly promoted on TV and radio attracting some success in Turkey and France. “Oh lady Mary” was released in autumn and remained her last Italian hit. Returning to German TV, Dalida danced casatchok on her new song Petruschka, which was followed with release of three new albums; Canta in Italiano, In Deutsch and Ma mère me disait, a sales topper in Poland. Dalida was also awarded with MIDEM, award for the best selling artist of the year in Italy, and her first Radio Luxembourg singer of the year award, which she went on to win for several more times.

Dalida and her brother Orlando were already planning for some time to form their own record house as a vehicle to release and to control her musical output. Dalida’s last record released under Barclay label was Concerto pour une voix, an EP released on 15 April 1970. On 1 July Dalida signed a contract International Shows, recently established by Orlando, making him one of only several independent producers of French show business. Their first record Darla dirladada was also the first success of a very long series. Already played on radios for a month, the Greek folklore song was released as single on 15 July. “Darla driladada” was an overnight hit, selling 75,000 copies within the first week and setting a record for largest weekly sales in France. The song became Dalida’s another tube de l’été, staying three weeks atop of French sales charts during summer and gaining gold certification in a month. Soon after, Dalida released her second record under her new label; Ils ont changé ma chanson, a cover of “What have they done to my song ma”, reflecting a drastic change of her repertoire in past years. It was a moderate sales success, but it won her second Radio Luxembourg award. That was followed with Pour qui pour quoi, her last record in EP format, and Ils ont changé ma chanson, the first album issued under International Show.

In September 1970, her former husband (1956–1961) Lucien Morisse, with whom she was on good terms, died by suicide, shooting himself in the head.

In October 1971, Dalida intended to book herself at Olympia for her big Parisian comeback after four years. Bruno Coquatrix did not believe in her change of style and refused to produce the show so Dalida rented and paid the venue by herself. On 24 November, announced by posters thirty meters long and four meters high on the Champs-Élysées, Dalida premiered a sold-out three-week-long concert residency, with Mike Brant as opening act. Dalida again triumphed, with public and critics plebiscite new repertoire nicknaming her “the queen of the theater” and “a modern Phaedra”. Seeing the success, Coquatrix offered “Dali” to return whenever she wants “without having to pay a single cent”. Premiere night was both recorded on video and as live album Olympia 71, published a year later alongside Il faut du temps, while the video was first issued in 2012.

Through 1971 and 1972 Dalida held a series of successful worldwide concerts in Asia, Canada, Europe, Lebanon and Latin America. She continued to choose her new songs only for their poetic value, but still paid less attention to their commercial promotion, again traveling to Asia to develop a better understanding of herself. Each time Dalida would appear on TV performing “Comment faire pour oublier”, “Si c’était à refaire” or “Avec le temps”, as Jacques Pessis said: “masses of crazed fans were chanting “Dali” for the first time, their new nickname for her. She shaped her early 1970s image without even trying… just expressing natural emotions she carried in that period”. Inspired by Jesus Christ Superstar, Dalida also experimented with religious themes in songs “Jésus bambino” and “Jésus Kitsch”. She came back to high sales in September 1972 with “Parle plus bas”, a cover of Godfather’s title song. Peaking at number two and with over one-half million copies sold, it became a gross hit in France by the end of year and received gold certificate.

Other hit performances of Dalida include “The Lambeth Walk”, sung in English and French. The song “Je suis malade”, written and originally performed by Serge Lama was made into a success by Dalida during 1977 although she released it in 1973. In 1979, Dalida recorded her biggest disco hit, “Monday, Tuesday… Laissez-moi danser” (Monday Tuesday … let me dance). The song was a smash hit, peaking at number 1 on the French charts. By the end of 1979, she released the semi-biographical song “Comme disait Mistinguett” where she, through music, speaks about herself in a fun way. Her debut of 1980 was marked by the release of a big disco hit, “Rio do Brasil”. Then she released the album Gigi in Paradisco, named for the title song, which was a sequel to her previous hit “Gigi l’amoroso”.

By the end of 1973, Dalida released the promotional single A-side Il venait d’avoir 18 ans with B side Non ce n’est pas pour moi. In that same time, she released the album Julien that gathers most of her 1973 songs. The song Il venait d’avoir 18 ans quickly started gaining success and it was again released in the beginning of 1974 but as B-side to single A-side Gigi l’amoroso. Il venait d’avoir 18 ans peaked number 3 in Quebec, number 4 in Belgium, number 13 in Germany,’ and number 37 in Italy while Gigi l’amoroso beat the record held by Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night from 1966 for the most sold single in Benelux and charted number 4 in France and number 1 in Switzerland, number 2 in Netherlands, number 1 in county of Flanders, number 3 in Quebec, number 2 in Spain and number 59 in Italy. The first performance of both songs was during her concerts in Olympia 1974. The whole four weeks were sold out and a triumph for the singer and was followed again with a live album Olympia75.

At the end of 1975, Dalida released a new album that gathered some songs from singles released in 1974 and ’75 plus some new material. Most of the songs were from the same genre except for the disco-genre song “J’attendrai”. This song, released as a single in January 1976, reached number 1 on the French charts and was both first disco hit in France and disco hit in French language. Achieving that, Dalida holds the title of the inventor of French disco. Around the same time, the popularity of the variety show was increasing in France and Dalida started making television appearances on a weekly basis there and across Europe.

In February 1975, French music critics awarded the singer with the Prix de l’Académie du Disque Français. Touring from 1974 to 1975 would follow this period of unprecedented sales. During 1975, she released duet Et de l’amour de l’amour with her partner Richard. This single peaked number 16 in France.

In April 1975, her close friend, singer Mike Brant leapt to his death from an apartment in Paris. He was 28. Dalida had contributed to his success in France when he opened concerts for her in 1971 at l’Olympia.

In 1976 RIAA introduced a new platinum award. The inspiration for the name came after this Dalida’s achievement 12 years earlier.

Following her disco success, in mid-1976 she released a new album with completely new songs, most of them disco. The most notable one was Besame mucho (number 7 in France and number 10 in Turkey). 1977 was a successful year for Dalida both in her private and professional life. She released three albums. One of them was live Olympia77, released following her again four-week triumph at Olympia in 1977. The other two were albums with completely new songs. Salma Ya Salama became the first Raï hit in the world. Originally sung in Arabic, the song was translated into French, Italian, and German. Part of the lyrics are based on an old Egyptian folk song about homesickness and celebrating the Egyptian nation.

Dalida continued touring the world, including the USA, for the second time since the 1950s, by playing two nights in New York’s Carnegie Hall in November 1978. The New York Times review of the Carnegie Hall concert praised Dalida’s performance and noted its intimacy and intensity after she began to converse midway through it, revealing her personality. Most of the audience were French citizens. The concerts were almost sold out, but nevertheless, it was another triumph for her. Due to the concert, she was offered for the second time a contract to perform in the USA, but she refused it again. In February, during her 1977 Canada tour, an obsessed fan tried to kidnap her by using a hammer but did not succeed.

By the beginning of 1987, Dalida was entering into severe depression while trying to overcome it. Although no new songs had been recorded, she toured internationally from Los Angeles to the Middle East. Being part of the music spotlight in 1978, many of her songs appeared daily on TV, as well as many notable TV appearances on talk shows from 1986–1987. Her last live TV appearance was hosting the Nuit des César on 7 March 1987. Her last live performance took place in Antalya, Turkey from 27 to 29 April 1987, just before her suicide. Her performance was not recorded by the national television of Turkey which was the only TV channel in the country.

In 1979, Dalida met Lester Wilson. Agreeing to work together he became her choreographer for the upcoming spectacle in the Palais des Sports, booked for January 1980. In total, Dalida performed for three hours per day for fifteen days with ten costume changes and twelve dancers in front of an audience of around 90,000 people. Palais des Sports of Paris was the largest playing venue in Paris and one of the biggest in France, there was much the same triumph as in Olympia.

Following the spectacle, Dalida released the double live album Le spectacle du Palais des Sports 1980 and organized a new European tour and a small World tour. She toured in the whole Western and Eastern Europe except Yugoslavia and the USSR. Also, she held concerts in Brazil, USA and Canada. When she came back, she organized a tour across the whole of France delivering more than 20 sold-out concerts monthly across the French towns and cities. In 1980, problems in her private life appeared again and were reflected in the song “À ma manière”.

In 1981, Dalida celebrated 25 years of her career. On 18 March, the first night of her seventh and last Olympia concert residency, Orlando awarded Dalida with a Diamond Disk for Lifetime Achievement and 45 million units sold. The event was a live transmission. It is also the first time in world history that the term “diamond disk” was used and awarded to a singer. In 1999, RIAA introduced a new diamond award, inspired by Dalida’s achievement.

At the beginning of 1982, she had many TV appearances singing still unreleased songs, followed by the release of a new dance album, Special Dalida. The most remembered songs of the album are the dance songs “Jouez bouzouki”, “Danza” and the moody “Nostalgie”. Dalida launched a new world tour in 1982 and spent most of 1982 to 1984 playing sold-out concerts from Rio de Janeiro across Europe to Asia. She made a lot of TV appearances in the 1980s almost every second week. In the summer of 1982, during the FIFA World Cup, like many other singers, Dalida released a song for the French team, “La chanson du Mundial” (#17 in France).

In July 1983, her lover from 1972 to 1981, Richard Chanfray, died by suicide by inhaling the exhaust gas of his Renault 5 car.

By the beginning of 1984, her personal difficulties escalated again; she could not dedicate as much time to her career as she would have wanted. However, she recorded a new collection of mainly dance songs including “Soleil” and “Kalimba de Luna”. In mid-1984, she recorded the album Dali, a collection of all her songs released that year. To promote the album, a television special was later released on VHS named Dalida Idéale; it was filmed in 1984, and directed by the then highly rated Jean-Christophe Averty. It includes Dalida singing in seven languages and dancing her way through a huge number of her earlier hits with the best video effects available at the time and wearing more than 40 outfits from the best French and international fashion designers, maintaining her “Glamour” and “DIVA” trademarks gained during the disco era in the late seventies.

Dalida’s eye problems returned. She underwent two major eye operations in 1985 and put her career on hold as the stage lights started to become difficult for her to endure. She released Reviens-moi, a cover of George Michael’s “Last Christmas”. During early 1985, she occasionally did live performances, as well as many TV appearances. When her eyes recovered in mid-1985, she accepted the role of a young grandmother in the Youssef Chahine film The Sixth Day. As she always wanted to become an actress, she temporarily disregarded her singing career and fully devoted herself to the movie. She returned to France to promote the movie in late 1985.

In 1986, she released Le Visage de l’amour with more new recordings and some singles from the album, which would become her last ever album. Le temps d’aimer and Le Vénitien de Levallois were songs that failed to hit the charts upon their release. She did promote the album but not as well as she used to do previously, due to issues in her private life which had never been worse since 1967. Dalida, therefore, spent more and more time in her house alone or going out with friends in an attempt to amuse herself, again neglecting her career. Dalida ceased to create new material in the recording studio, instead devoting herself to perform concerts. Once again organising a lot of concerts on a monthly basis and singing her previously-known hits, Dalida was then known for the amazing “show” performances, wearing her wardrobe from 1980–1982. She sang glamorous disco-dance songs from same period such as Je suis toutes les femmes, Gigi in paradisco, Il faut danser reggae, Monday, Tuesday…, Comme disait la Mistinguett.

From April to July Dalida toured across Italy and Vietnam. In Saigon, her popularity led to traffic congestion when she performed, but the local authorities interrupted her show during a rendition of “La Leçon de Twist” because the song was considered to be a political act. In May Dalida was back on top of international charts with “Le petit Gonzales”, a cover of “Speedy Gonzales”, which peaked in France, Belgium, Canda and Spain the following month and remained known as “one of the most memorable and nostalgic recordings of yé-yé era”, as said by Le Parisien in 1987. The album of the same name was issued by the end of the year.

Since her death, Dalida has become a cult figure to a new generation of fans. In 1988, the Encyclopædia Universalis commissioned a poll, published in the French newspaper Le Monde, that aimed to reveal the personalities who had the greatest impact on French society. Dalida polled second, behind Général de Gaulle.

In 2003, for the award “Greatest Singer of the Century” in France (based on three criteria: numbers of album and single sales, number of radio airplays and chart positions), Dalida was placed third after Madonna and Céline Dion, which means that she remained the number one favorite artist in France.

Her output has also been the subject of various remix albums. Since her death, many of Dalida’s hits have been remixed to modern techno and dance beats. In 2009, Lara Fabian said that Dalida had influenced her the most.