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Dalida. Photo from

Top 10 Incredible Facts about Dalida

Dalida, a pop singer, is relatively unknown outside of Europe and Asia. However, if you ask any French person who the pop singer Dalida is, they will most likely know!

This should come as a surprise given that Dalida has sold 170 million albums worldwide. She’s regarded as one of the world’s most popular singers, and was the first singer to receive a diamond disk. She had over 70 gold records and recorded songs in French, German, Arabic, and Italian.

Dalida committed suicide by overdosing on barbiturates on the night of May 2-3, 1987.  She left a note that stated, “Life has become unbearable for me.  Please forgive me.”

Dalida was laid to rest in the Montmartre Cemetery, 18th Division, Chemin des Gardes.

1. Dalida was her stage name 

Lolanda Cristina Gigliotti was her real name. In her supporting role in A Glass and a Cigarette, on which posters she appeared with her newly adopted stage name Dalila. She explained in 1968 that Dalila was a very common name in Egypt, and she liked it a lot. Lolanda changed her name to Dalida and began to dream of launching an acting career in Paris.

2. She had a troubled childhood

Dalida. Photo from

Her father was taken to the Fayed prison camp by allied forces when she was only seven years old, where he remained for four years. Her father returned a violent individual, and Dalida, her mother, and her brother bore the brunt of the abuse. “I hated him when he beat me, especially when he beat my mom and brothers,” Dalida is quoted as saying.

Dalida’s father died of a brain abscess a year after his release.

3. Dalida was born in Egypt

Dalida was born Lolanda Cristina Gigliotti on January 17, 1933, in Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt. Her parents were born in Serrastretta, Calabria, Italy, to Pietro Gigliotti and Filomena Giuseppina. Pietro studied music and played the violin in taverns; Giuseppina worked as a seamstress. Due to the jus sanguinis of both Italian parents, Dalida was born with Italian nationality.

Unable to make a living in their hometown, the young couple moved to Cairo’s Shubra district the year they married, where the Gigliotti family became well established in the community between the births of Iolanda’s older brother Orlando and younger brother Bruno. In addition to Giuseppina’s earnings, their social standing improved when Pietro was promoted to primo violino at Cairo’s Khedivial Opera House and the family purchased a two-story house.

4. Dalida had eyesight problems as a child

Dalida. Photo from

She got an eye infection when she was 10 months old and had to wear bandages for 40 days. To calm her down, her father would play lullabies on the violin. Between the ages of three and five, she had eye surgeries.

“I was [sic] enough of it, I would rather see the world in a blur than wear glasses, so I threw them through the window,” But it was her glasses that caused her to be mercilessly bullied at school. Lolanda went to the Scuola Tecnica Commerciale Maria Ausiliatrice, a Catholic school in northern Shubra.

5. Her parents were opposed to her modeling career

She joined the drama club at school and secretly entered beauty pageants. When her parents discovered the truth (and saw her in scantily clad swimsuits), they were furious and demanded that Yolanda start studying to become a secretary. 

Soon after, her best friend Miranda encouraged her to enter Miss Ondine, a minor Cairo beauty pageant that she entered on the promise that it was all for fun and that her mother would not find out. When Lolanda unexpectedly won second place and Miranda came in second place, they were photographed and published in the Egyptian newspapers Le Journal d’Égypte and Le Progrès Égyptien.

When her mother found out the next day, she forcibly cut Iolanda’s hair short. Her mother eventually relented, and Lolanda quit her job to begin modeling for Donna, a Cairo-based fashion house. 

Three Egyptian film directors cast Lolanda in their productions:

• Marco de Gastyne, in The Mask of Tutankhamun (1954),
• Niazi Mostafa in A Glass and a Cigarette (1954)
• The third offer was a longer-term contract from an Egyptian film producer, which she declined after Gastyne suggested she try her luck in Paris.

6. Dalida was crowned Miss Egypt

At the age of 21, she competed in and won the Miss Egypt pageant in 1954. She was then chosen to represent Egypt in the 1955 Miss World pageant. She did not compete in the event due to the Suez crisis. But it didn’t matter because she knew her star was rising.

Dalida quickly relocated from Cairo to Paris in search of career opportunities to capitalize on her newfound celebrity. She had appeared in a few Egyptian films in minor roles and planned to pursue an acting career.

7. Dalida was a successful pop star from the get go

Dalida during concert rehearsals. Photo by Reporters Associati.

Dalida quickly got to work recording singles after being discovered by Morisse and Barclay. Her song “Bambino” soared to the top of the charts almost immediately after its release and remained there for 46 weeks! The single sold over 300,000 copies and earned her first gold record. This was only the beginning for Dalida, who later received 70 gold disks!

Dalida continued her career, performing at sold-out shows at the famed Parisian concert hall Olympia and touring Europe and Asia.

She quickly rose to international prominence, with her image appearing on television and in magazines around the world. General Charles de Gaulle even presented her with the Médaille de la Présidence de la République in 1968. In the same year, she received the Medal of the City of Paris, solidifying her ties to her new home in the French capital.

8. She was affectionately christened “Mademoiselle Jukebox”

A jukebox. Photo by Max Tcvetkov.

“Mademoiselle Jukebox” was her affectionate nickname. Due to the fact that her singles were the most popular in France at the time. She had sold over three and a half million records by the end of 1959. This was the highest of any European artist, establishing a new standard for mainstream success.

9. Dalida and her brother Orlando established a record label

This gave her more authority over her own music. The hits became less frequent as the 1970s progressed. In an attempt to relaunch her career, Dalida staged a splashy comeback show in Paris in October 1971.

It paid off, and her willingness to change her music benefited her. In the mid-1970s, she took another risk and released “J’attendrai,” a disco single. She was, in fact, the first mainstream French artist to do so. When the song reached number one, she virtually single-handedly launched the French disco scene.

10. She carried out an abortion

A baby being carried. Photo by Maria Oswalt.

She attempted suicide in February 1967 and ended up in a coma for five days. Her career was put on hold while she battled depression, amid much press speculation. When she returned to the public eye in the summer of 1967, she made a series of emotional television appearances, debuting more profound, soulful material that reflected her recent loss.

However, she became pregnant after a brief affair in December of that year and had an abortion. This rendered her infertile, contributing to her already precarious mental health.