Amanda Lear
Encyclopedia
Amanda Lear is a French singer, lyricist
, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist.
Lear began her career as a fashion model
in the mid-1960s and was also the muse
of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí
. She first came to the public attention as the model on the cover of Roxy Music
's album For Your Pleasure
in 1973. In the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, she made millions as a Disco Queen, mainly in Continental Europe
and Scandinavia
with hits such as "Queen of Chinatown
", "Follow Me
", "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)
" and "Fashion Pack
".
In the mid-1980s she positioned herself as one of the leading media personalities in mainland Europe, especially in Italy
and in France where she hosted many long-running TV shows. Since the 1990s her time has been divided between music, television, writing and movies as well as pursuing her career as a painter. Currently she lives in Saint-Étienne-du-Grès
near Avignon
in the south of France.
, before joining St. Martins School of Art
in London in 1964.
Lear's alleged transsexual background has been commented upon in the media and in the biographies of those who recall knowing Lear earlier in her life.
"April Ashley, the transsexual who had once been George Jamieson, a Liverpudlian seaman, has long claimed she worked with Lear in the Fifties at Le Carrousel, a transvestite revue in Paris. In her book, April Ashley's Odyssey , she recalls a man named Alain Tapp, whose stage-name was Peki d'Oslo, later to become Amanda Lear. According to Ashley, Dali met Peki at Le Carrousel in 1959.
. Just as Catherine Harlé had predicted, a girl with Lear's looks was very much in demand; soon thereafter, she found herself being photographed by Helmut Newton
, Charles Paul Wilp
and Antoine Giacomoni for magazines like Elle
, Marie France
, and Vogue
and modelling for fashion designers like Yves Saint Laurent and Coco Chanel
in Paris and Mary Quant
, Ossie Clark
and Antony Price
in London. After some time, she dropped out of art school, began modelling full-time and went on to lead a bohemian and flamboyant life in the Swinging London
of the Sixties, hobnobbing with people like The Beatles
and fellow top models like Twiggy
. She became a "stalwart of London's demimonde
," an exotic name on the nightclub circuit and a regular fixture in the gossip columns, and would later in the 1970s occasionally moonlight as a reporter herself, covering both the London social scene and international celebrities and party animals in David Bailey and David Litchfield
's glossy in-crowd magazine Ritz
.
While clubbing with Brian Jones
of The Rolling Stones
and her then boyfriend, the Guinness
heir Tara Browne
, in a Parisian nightspot named Le Castel in late 1965, she was, again according to her official biography, introduced to a man that was to change her life on many levels. The man was none other than the eccentric Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí
, the self-proclaimed enfant terrible in the world of art, at the time some 40 years her senior. Dalí was not only struck by Lear's looks but also saw a kindred spirit in her; Lear has since described their close and unconventional relationship as a "spiritual marriage". Her biography My Life with Dalí which was first published in French in 1984 (original title: Le Dalí d'Amanda), and had Dalí's approval, gives a detailed insight into the lives of both the artist and his muse
(the factual accuracy of My Life With Dalí, and most specifically the dates, is disputed by several researchers of Dalí's life and work). She accompanied him and his wife on trips to Barcelona, Madrid, New York and Paris and over a period of some fifteen years spent every summer with Dalí at his home at Port Lligat, near Cadaqués
in Catalonia
. Lear posed for some of Dalí's works such as Venus to the Furs and Vogué, took part in several of his film projects and could be seen by his side during press conferences and meetings with the media, events that in the age of flower power
characteristically for its time and at this stage of Dalí's life often turned into happening
s, as spectacular as the art itself, and then frequently with Lear as the central figure. Joining the court of the Dalís she also regularly socialized with celebrities. Dalí served as a mentor to Lear; traveling with him, she discovered the great museums of Europe, Parisian salons and restaurants, New York bohemia and his homeland, Spain, and especially the Catalan culture, while she, in return, introduced him to the younger generation of the counterculture
in art, fashion, photography and music in London.
Although she remained Dalí's confidante, protégée and mistress all through the Sixties and Seventies, Lear was also romantically linked to Brian Jones
, which resulted in the ironic Rolling Stones track "Miss Amanda Jones", included on 1967 album Between the Buttons
. 1972 saw her first on-stage appearance when she introduced Roxy Music
and Lloyd Watson
at Rainbow Theatre in August. In 1973 Lear was also briefly engaged to Bryan Ferry
of Roxy Music, and was that same year famously depicted posing in a skintight leather dress leading a black panther on a leash on the cover of the band's classic rock album For Your Pleasure
, an image that has been described as "as famous as the album itself" and which brought Lear plenty of exposure in the world of rock and roll. She went on to have a year-long affair with the married David Bowie
, with whom she appeared in the live performance of his 1973 hit song "Sorrow" at the 1980 Floor Show stage production which was televised in the United States by NBC
for TV series Midnight Special
on 16 November 1973, an appearance often referred to as the official launch of Lear's career in music. She also acted as the mistress of ceremonies for the show. On 13 March 1979 she however married French bisexual aristocrat Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle
who, in fact, was the former lover turned adopted son of diplomate and controversial gay novelist Roger Peyrefitte
. The marriage ceremony took place in Las Vegas
, Nevada while Lear was promoting her disco album Sweet Revenge
in North America, just three weeks after the couple first met in Paris at fashionable discothèque Le Palace, a French equivalent of Studio 54
. Malagnac's career, often financed by Peyrefitte, included proprietor of Le Bronx, one of the first openly gay night clubs in Paris, and briefly managing French singer Sylvie Vartan
, a less than successful undertaking which almost bankrupted Peyrefitte, who was forced to sell artworks and antiquities to pay the resulting debts.
Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala
both strongly disapproved of the relationship with Malagnac, whose reputation in Parisian high society they were well aware of, and even attempted to persuade Lear to have the marriage annulled. As a consequence of this, and also as Lear's successful career in music and television now was beginning to take up most of her time, she and her mentor began drifting apart. While they still sporadically kept in touch via letters and telephone through the early and mid-Eighties, especially after his wife died in 1982, Lear only very briefly visited Dalí in Spain one more time in the second half of the decade, at Púbol
in 1988 and then without her husband, shortly before Dalí himself died. Malagnac would go on to establish himself as a successful art dealer and antiques collector and, despite the misgivings of the Dalí's and others, was married to Lear for twenty-one years, until his untimely passing in 2000.
, who paid for singing and dancing lessons, Lear decided to launch a career in music. Bowie recommended her a Hungarian voice coach Florence Wiese-Norberg, with whom he also worked. She would record a demo song called "Stars" with him, however, the track still remains unreleased.
Her debut single "Trouble", a pop-rock cover of Elvis Presley
's 1958 classic from the King Creole
soundtrack, was released by minor label Creole Records
in the United Kingdom, but without success. Lear however recorded a French language version of the track, "La Bagarre", which was released on Polydor in France and while equally unsuccessful there, it surprisingly became a minor disco hit in West Germany
in early 1976, catching the attention of singer, composer and producer Anthony Monn
and label Ariola-Eurodisc, who offered her a seven year and six albums recording contract for a sum of money that Lear since has described as "astronomic".
Her debut album I Am a Photograph
, released in 1977, was recorded in Munich
, with most songs composed by Monn and arrangers Rainer Pietsch and Charly Ricanek and Lear writing all the English lyrics. The musical backing was provided by the same international session musician
s as on contemporaneous recordings by best-selling Germany-based disco acts like Boney M. and Silver Convention
, among them drummers Martin Harrison and Curt Cress, bassists Gary Unwin, Dave King and Les Hurdle and guitarists Geoff Bastow and Mats Björklund.
The album included Lear's first European hit "Blood and Honey
", lyrically paraphrasing Dalí's 1941 painting La Miel Es Más Dulce que la Sangre (Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood), follow-up single "Tomorrow
" and a cover of Nancy Sinatra
's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
" and Leroy Anderson
's "Blue Tango
", all of which became repertoire standards. I Am a Photographs mixture of lush disco, schlager
, kitsch
and camp
, topped with Lear's deep half-spoken, half-sung vocals and her characteristic Franglais
accent was a winning combination; the album spun off four Top 10 singles in Italy and stayed on the West German albums chart for thirty-three weeks alone. The second edition of I Am a Photograph, which also contained German #2 hit "Queen of Chinatown
", sported a free pin-up poster picturing a topless Lear smiling towards the camera, a photo originally featured in her Playboy
spread.
In 1978, Lear continued her line of disco hits with Sweet Revenge
, an album that opens with a side-long concept medley, a Faust
ian fairy tale of a girl who sells her soul to the devil for fame and fortune and her eventual revenge over the devil's offer – she finds true love.
The first single to be lifted off Sweet Revenge, the dark and seductive opening track "Follow Me
", powered by Lear's characteristic deep and recitative voice and in fact the theme of the devil, was an instant smash hit, reaching Top 3 in the West German singles chart and also went to #3 in the Netherlands, #7 in Switzerland, #6 in Austria, #6 in her native France and was a Top 20 hit in most parts of Europe. The single is estimated to have sold some two million copies worldwide and has served as Lear's signature tune ever since. The 12" mix of the track, mixed by Canadian DJ Wally MacDonald and originally only released in North America, also incorporates the finale of the concept medley, "Follow Me (Reprise)".
The Sweet Revenge album itself was certified gold
in West Germany, France, Italy and Belgium and went on to sell in excess of four million copies and charted in forty-one countries, including Chile, South Africa, India and Thailand where it stayed a number one album for sixteen weeks, spawning further European hit singles "Gold" and "Run Baby Run
" (both from the concept medley) and "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)
". Again, all of these tracks were co-written by Lear and this in combination with a larger-than-life image very much the creation of herself made her one of the few artists of the Eurodisco era whose star power and charisma even outshone the music itself – all according to plan – and the Amanda Lear persona left an impact on European pop culture that has lasted for five decades.
The front of the Sweet Revenge album cover shows Lear as a leather-clad S&M dominatrix
cracking her whip
, the sepia-toned back cover pic has her reclining on an old beer barrel with sequined curtains behind her, à la Dietrich
in The Blue Angel, and the inner sleeve again pictured her posing topless.
Also in 1978, Lear took part in two Italian productions: a six-episode controversial TV show Stryx
and a softporn documentary movie Follie di Notte, directed by Joe D'Amato
. In both of them she performed her then-current hit songs, like "Follow Me", "Gold" and "Enigma" and acted as a hostess in the latter.
, an album that includes a discofied reimagining of "Lili Marleen
", a wartime classic that Lear managed to make her own and has since re-recorded in 1993 and 2001.
While Lear may consider the best-selling Sweet Revenge her proudest moment, fans and critics alike usually rate Never Trust a Pretty Face as the artistic highpoint of her international career. It is often cited as a landmark in the history of "the sound of Munich", groundbreaking Giorgio Moroder
/Donna Summer
collaborations included, and it was in fact recorded in Moroder's renowned Musicland Studios
with the assistance of keyboardist and composer Harold Faltermeyer
and British drummer and arranger Keith Forsey
, both later going on to become very successful record producers and hitmakers in their own right in the United States.
The album features a variety of genre exercises like the clever title track ballad "Never Trust a Pretty Face", shuffle rock track "Forget It", the cabaret-esque "Miroir" with both music and French lyrics by Lear, futuristic electro
disco
like "Black Holes" and "Intellectually", plus the hit single "Fashion Pack (Studio 54)
".
The lyrics to this Eurodisco classic actually ridicule the superficial world of fashion and the decadent behaviour of the rich and famous and especially New York's disco glitterati of the era, offering some serious namedropping in the process: Liza (Minnelli)
, Francesco (Scavullo)
, Marisa (Berenson)
, (John) Travolta
, Andy (Warhol)
, Loulou (de la Falaise)
, Margaux (Hemingway)
, Bianca (Jagger)
, (Yves) Saint Laurent, Paloma (Picasso)
etc., according to her biography My Life with Dalí all of them if not friends at least acquaintances of Lear's, but at this stage she herself had already left her days of jetsetting
behind her, and had instead settled down for a quiet life with her husband in the French country side, near Avignon
.
Another hit and standout track is the suggestive "The Sphinx
" which Lear has since named as her personal favourite among her own recordings. The promotional campaign for Never Trust a Pretty Face very effectively continued to play on Lear's "devil in disguise" persona, with the album cover, and with most European editions also a giant 24"x36" fold-out poster, portraying her as a mythological creature in the Egyptian desert, smiling innocently, with beautiful angel's wings – but also with a snake's tail.
Despite full-page ads by US licensee Chrysalis Records
in Billboard magazine for Sweet Revenge, her personal connections with Bowie and Roxy Music, a feature in Andy Warhol
's Interview
magazine with photos by Karl Stoecker, the same photographer who shot the cover of Roxy Music's For Your Pleasure, and a two-month long promotional tour in the United States in early 1979, including appearances at discothèques and gay clubs like New York's Paradise Garage
, The Saint
and The Loft
, Lear's commercial success in North America was moderate, and despite promotional gimmicks like red vinyl 12" singles
and the Never Trust a Pretty Face album being released as a limited edition picture disc
in the United Kingdom, "the English remained immune to the effect of Amanda Lear", as she herself describes it in My Life with Dalí.
Lear however succeeded in establishing herself on another market, perhaps not as glamorous and prestigious but considering the vast population arguably more lucrative; the Soviet Union
. Along with other artists she was one of the very few Western pop acts during the Cold War
era to have her music officially released in the USSR by state-owned record label Melodiya
. Both I Am a Photograph and Sweet Revenge had been released by Ariola Records
in East Germany in 1978 and were then followed a by a series of singles and EPs issued by DDR record label Amiga in the late 1970s and early 1980s which found their way to other parts of Eastern Europe. An official visit to the USSR had been scheduled for 1982, but was ultimately cancelled because Lear at that point in time was involved in a legal dispute with her record company.
In the mid-eighties Never Trust a Pretty Face was however the first full-length album with Lear to be approved of the Soviet authorities and issued in the USSR itself, then under the title Poet Amanda Lear
, with a less controversial album cover and three additional tracks from I Am a Photograph and Sweet Revenge. Lear has had a large fanbase in the entire Eastern Bloc
ever since and in late November 1997 she finally had the opportunity to make her very first visit to Moscow since the opening of the Iron Curtain
to meet her Russian audiences, appearing on a TV show broadcast during the Russian New Year's festivities with an audience of approximately fifty million viewers and performing some of her disco classics like "Fashion Pack", "Queen of Chinatown" and "Blood and Honey".
, which became her commercial breakthrough on the Scandinavian market (#4 in Sweden, April 1980 and #10 in Norway, December 1980) producing hits like "Fabulous (Lover, Love Me)", "Diamonds
", "When
", "Japan" and the autoerotic
"Ho Fatto l'Amore con Me".
The album abandoned the Munich disco sound with its lush strings and brass arrangements in favour of an electronic New Wave
rock style, with the guitar riff driven opening track "Rockin' Rollin' (I Hear You Nagging)" setting the tone, most likely in accordance with Lear's own taste in music and Diamonds for Breakfast was a step in that direction. She declared: "I really wanted to be the new Tina Turner
, a rough rock singer, she's still my all-time favourite rockstar". The album cover portrait of Lear, with diamond tears designed by Tiffany's
running down her cheek, is notable in the history of art and design as it was one of the first major assignments for French photographers, Pierre et Gilles
.
Lear spent most of 1980 on promotional tours for the album and its many accompanying single releases all over Europe, from Greece in the south to Finland in the north, and she also made her first visit to Japan where both the single "Queen of Chinatown" and the Sweet Revenge album had topped the charts and were awarded with Gold Discs
. The lead single "Fabulous (Lover, Lover Me)" from Diamonds for Breakfast famously includes the lines "The surgeons built me so well/that nobody could tell/that I once was somebody else" which is as close to a confession of a former identity as Lear has come – before or since.
Two non-album singles followed the Diamonds for Breakfast album in late 1980, a pop cover of Eric "Monty" Morris early ska
hit "Solomon Gundie", and the chanson
-esque "Le Chat de Gouttière" ("An Alley Cat"), again with both music and lyrics penned by Lear and specifically recorded for the francophone
markets.
The Lear/Monn album success saga neared its end in 1981, at which point Lear herself had become increasingly uncomfortable with the expectations and pressures of the music business in general, and her own record label in particular. At the artistic and commercial peak of her international career, but with the so called "anti-disco backlash" beginning to take its toll, she had also tentatively started recording tracks for a forthcoming album with producer Trevor Horn
in London. Ariola
did not approve of this and in no uncertain terms made it clear that Lear was to return to Munich and provide the company and the market with another Monn product.
The result of these sessions was Incognito
, with material only partly co-written by Lear, and only generating minor European hits: "Nymphomania", "Red Tape
" and the French language ballad "Égal
", but paradoxally turning out to be her breakthrough album in South America, with three tracks especially recorded in Spanish: "Igual", "Dama de Berlin" and "Ninfomanía".
Another non-album single followed in early 1982, a synthpop
take on Peggy Lee
's 1958 pop classic "Fever
", Lear's final collaboration with producer Anthony Monn. Shortly thereafter she took legal action against the Ariola-Eurodisc label in order to be released from her recording contract on the grounds of artistic differences. The lawsuit was unsuccessful. In 1982 an Italian single "Incredibilmente Donna
" was released, from the compilation "Ieri, Oggi
".
"/"Darkness and Light", released in the spring of 1983, was produced by Monn's sound engineer Peter Lüdermann, instead of Monn himself. It became Lear's final Munich recordings for Ariola and also marked her final promotional appearance on West Germany's most important music TV show at the time, Musikladen
, in June 1983.
Lear's international career momentum was however slowing and effectively came to an end in December 1983 as she delivered her sixth and final album to the Ariola label, under contractual obligation. Tam-Tam
was a collaboration with Italian composers and producers. While both "Incredibilmente Donna" and the B-side "Buon Viaggio" were mainstream Italian pop ballads, Tam-Tam was a production wise up-to-date and minimalistic early 1980s synthpop album, with a soundscape dominated by TR-808 drum machines and sequencer programmed synthesisers and again with all English lyrics penned by Lear.
Although she performed some of the songs from the album on the Italian TV show Premiatissima, she did not promote Tam-Tam in West Germany or any other parts of Europe and as a consequence neither did the record company. The only regular, commercially available single from the album was "No Regrets
", released only in Italy. Tam-Tam subsequently passed unnoticed by both the European and the international record buying public, which may very well have been a blessing in disguise for Lear, considering her frosty relationship with Ariola at the time and her changing music style. At this stage Lear publicly began denouncing her earlier musical output, and then in her characteristically undiplomatic manner: "The music was crap, but at least I tried to write some clever lyrics".
Instead she went on to launch a very successful and lucrative career as a TV presenter with future prime minister Silvio Berlusconi
, soon becoming something of household name in what has since turned out to be her second homeland, Italy. She hosted many successful TV shows there, including Premiatissima or W le Donne (aired in France as Cherchez la Femme). In the latter Lear promoted her minialbum
with four covers of classic songs, including Marilyn Monroe
's "Bye Bye Baby" or "As Time Goes By
from the film Casablanca
. The EP, entitled A L
, was recorded for Five Records. At that time Lear recorded also several single-only songs for various European labels, including "Assassino
" or "No Credit Card
".
and French La Cinq
Lear returned to music. Secret Passion
was an album made in Los Angeles and Rome for major French label Carrere Records, a post-disco Hi-NRG
– New Wave
affair produced by Christian De Walden
, ready to be launched in January 1987. It was not only intended to be her comeback in Continental Europe, Scandinavia, South America, the Eastern Bloc and Japan, this time on her own terms, but also hopefully her breakthrough in anglophone
territories like the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australasia
, which were more or less the only markets that she had not conquered during the Ariola years.
However tragedy struck, just as Lear was getting ready to start promoting the album she was seriously injured in a near fatal car accident and had to spend months in convalescence. Secret Passions commercial success was consequently less than hoped for, and lead single "Wild Thing" was ultimately only released in a few countries like France, Italy and Greece, but this incident became the starting point of another phase in her career, this time as a writer.
While in hospital, Lear began writing her first novel L'Immortelle, a slightly surrealistic tale describing the torments of a woman doomed to eternal youth and beauty, watching everyone else growing older and eventually losing all her loved ones, still as beautiful, but unable to stop the merciless passage of time.
Lear sporadically returned to recording in the late eighties and nineties and released a series of singles and albums of new material in Italy, France and Germany, like mainstream pop albums Uomini Più Uomini
in Italy and Tant Qu'il Y Aura Des Hommes
in France, both released in 1989. Also in 1989, on RAI 3, she hosted Ars Amanda (The Art of Loving), an Italian chat show conducted in bed, where she interviewing both Italian and international celebrities and politicians. In 1993 Lear surprised her audiences with her unglamorous and down-to-earth portrayal of the betrayed housewife Françoise in Arnaud Sélignac's TV-drama Une Femme pour Moi (A Woman for Me), with Tom Novembre as her husband, going through a midlife crisis. She also tried to return to a more dancefloor-friendly repertoire on Eurodance
albums Cadavrexquis
in 1993 and Alter Ego
in 1995, none of them however producing that elusive international comeback hit and though popular with her fanbase all also with varying degrees of commercial success in Europe itself. Instead she focussed on her career in television and movies, hosting popular TV show Peep! in Germany, with her own song "Peep!" as the opening music theme.
1998 saw the release of Back in Your Arms
, an album consisting of re-recorded 1970s disco hits and chosen tracks from the 1995 album Alter Ego. However, the album did not catch much attention and turn out a failure.
died in an accident, after an explosive fire at their home, which was left in ruins. Also killed in the fire was their guest, 20 year old cat breeder Didier Diefis. Lost in the fire were a number of works by artist Salvador Dali. However, in 2001, Lear threw herself back into work and released the aptly titled album Heart
, dedicated to the late Alain-Philippe Malagnac. As many music critics commented, Heart was a serious effort with Lear's own heart and soul involved and both time and money invested in the project by French record company Le Marais Productions.
The album offered club-friendly tracks like "I Just Wanna Dance Again
" and cult Seventies TV theme The Love Boat
, both issued as singles and featuring remixes by prominent names in the world of dance music like French electro-house music DJ Laurent Wolf
, Spanish production team Pumpin' Dolls and Junior Vasquez
. As a contrast, Heart also featured intimate and gently orchestrated interpretations of Charles Aznavour
/Dusty Springfield
's ballad "Hier Encore (Yesterday When I Was Young)" as well as Springfield/Burt Bacharach
's 1967 classic "The Look of Love
", along with a political reading of "Lili Marleen
", provided with updated lyrics in German by original composer Norbert Schultze
, written especially for Lear. Heart was greeted as a long overdue return to form and turned out to be Lear's best-selling album since the late 1970s in both France and Germany.
Amanda featured in Blanca Li
's 2002 Le Défi (international title: Dance Challenge), about an eighteen year old boy who drops out of school, dreaming of becoming a star in break dancing, and the ensuing conflicts with his conservative mother, and with Lear co-starring as the mother's understanding and encouraging best friend – and fashion victim
, giving her an opportunity to demonstrate her comedic talent.
An exhibition in 2001 was entitled Not a. Lear, a reference to René Magritte
's painting Ceci n'est pas un pipe (This Is Not a Pipe), and a collaboration with unestablished young artists in 2006 Never Mind the Bollocks: Here's Amanda Lear!, a paraphrase of the Sex Pistols
' classic punk
album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
, but naturally also a self-ironic comment on Lear's own "ambiguous" mythology, which was the theme for the exhibition and in 2008 Sogni, Miti, Colori (Dreams, Myths, Colours).
In 2002, on the set of her Italia 1
TV series Il Brutto Anatroccolo a makeover show that ran for a couple of years from 1999 onwards, Lear met Manuel Casella, thirty-nine years her junior. He has been her longtime companion ever since and the couple have been featured prominently in the pages of the tabloid press in both France and Italy. The theme of the show was a cover version of Melina Mercouri
's 1960s recording "Never on Sunday
" from the movie of the same name
, called "Nuda", again performed by Lear but never commercially released.
In 2003 the Heart album was rereleased as Tendance
, taking its title from a televised fashion and trends magazine hosted by Lear on Paris Match
TV. The new edition also included the theme tune to her Italian TV series Cocktail d'Amore, a top-rated nostalgic show celebrating music of the 1970s and early 1980s on which Lear interviewed some of Italy's most famous stars like Patty Pravo
, Anna Oxa
, Giuni Russo
, Loredana Bertè
and Ricchi e Poveri
. The track "Cocktail d'Amore" was originally written and recorded by Italian singer-songwriter Cristiano Malgioglio, who also composed Lear's hit single "Ho fatto l'amore con me" from her 1980 Ariola album Diamonds for Breakfast
.
2004 saw Lear's vocals used for an entirely different purpose; this time as a voice artist joining the international cast of Disney/Pixar
's latest blockbuster of the time, The Incredibles
. She played the role of fashion designer Edna Mode, originally voiced by Brad Bird
, in both the French and Italian dubbing
s.
In 2004, Amanda's popular 1970s recording, "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)
" from 1978 Sweet Revenge
, was featured in TV ads for chocolate bar Kinder Bueno
in Central Europe which resulted in it becoming something of a cult hit again and appearing on a number of European singles chart compilations, nearly three decades after its original release. Shortly thereafter, Spanish actor and singer Pedro Marín
had a hit with a rock version of Lear's 1978 single "Run Baby Run
", also originally from Sweet Revenge, which became the inspiration for a full-length tribute album
entitled Diamonds – Pedro Marín canta Amanda Lear. Since 2004 Lear has also been a regular member of the judging panel on popular TV show Ballando con le Stelle, the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars
, broadcast on Rai Uno
.
In Bastian Schweitzer's drama Gigolo (2005) she played a has-been star having an affair with the young Karim (Salim Kéchiouche
), a gigolo trying to get his life back on track, trapped in a spiral of self-destruction in the artificial jet-set world of Paris. Lear has also appeared in several character roles in independent movies.
With the disco revival obviously still going strong and Lear celebrating thirty years in the music business, November 2005 saw the release of the first CD compilation to be both authorised and promoted by Lear; Forever Glam!. It contained the greatest hits from the 70s combined with selected tracks from the 80s, 90s and 2000s, plus some new recordings, including the cover of Barry Manilow
's "Copacabana
". The album included also a few rare tracks, like "As Time Goes By", and single only songs, for example "Assassino
".
In 2006 "Queen of Chinatown
" was remixed and re-issued as a single, then credited to DJEnetix feat. Amanda Lear.
In September of the same year, the German subsidiary of Sony BMG followed suit with their comprehensive three disc box set The Sphinx - Das beste aus den Jahren 1976-1983
. This digitally remastered 42-track collection was eagerly awaited by many fans since none of the six original Ariola
albums, with the exception of the aforementioned Sweet Revenge, was released officially in CD format.
In July 2006, Lear was decorated with the award Chevalier dans l'Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres
by the French Ministre Of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres
in recognition of her contributions to French arts and sciences, or more specifically for having "significantly contributed to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance", as the motivation reads. The occasion was slightly marred by the fact that the name appearing on the honour's list was 'Mme Amanda TAPP dite Amanda LEAR', marking the first time that the French authorities publicly confirmed that Lear's birth name indeed was Tapp, something she herself up until that point had denied.
On 30 October 2006 the album With Love
was released in France by label Dance Street. This tribute is an extension of the ballads included on 2001's Heart
as it exclusively covers evergreens and jazz standards by the diva's own favourite divas, among them "C'est Magnifique" (Eartha Kitt
), "Is That All There Is?
" (Peggy Lee
), "Whatever Lola Wants" (Sarah Vaughan
), "Love for Sale" (Hildegard Knef
) and "My Baby Just Cares for Me
" (Nina Simone
). With Love was well received by the French music critics and was released in the rest of Europe by label ZYX Music
in early 2007.
In the summer of 2008 Lear hosted several TV shows: France 3
's La Folle Histoire du Disco, Summer of the '70s on ARTE
and Battaglia fra Sexy Star on the E!
channel in Italy and in France. The Italian version of the album With Love
, retitled Amour Toujours, was released in 2008, and featured two bonus tracks: an updated dance version of "Queen of Chinatown
" and a salsa version of "Tomorrow
", both originally from Lear's debut album I Am a Photograph
.
with a mixture of disco
originals, returning to her classic sound, as well as some classic covers from artists such as Lou Reed
and David Bowie
. Another of the new songs recorded for the album is the Boney M.-esque disco number "Doin' Fine", co-written by disco writer/producer Frank Farian
. The song is essentially a whole new composition featuring the famous string arrangement from Boney M.'s 1976 #1 hit "Daddy Cool", and sees Lear teaming up with British producers Carl M Cox and Nathan Thomas, who between them have worked with the likes of Pete Waterman
, Sinitta, Keane, Samantha Fox
and Melanie C amongst others.
The double-disc Brief Encounters
was finally given an Italian
release on 16 October 2009; the lead single
"Someone Else's Eyes
", a duet with Italian singer/producer Deadstar, in 2010 was remixed by Boy George
. The album has been made available in three versions: standard and "acoustique" (both released in 2009), and also as Brief Encounters Reloaded, containing remixes and released digitally in 2010.
On October 14, Edina Music announced the release of another album entitled Brand New Love Affair
, which has been described by the label as "8 new songs to bring back Amanda Lear to the dancefloor". The album was released in France
on November 30, 2009 and was produced by Peter Wilson & Chris Richards in Australia
, the same team behind new recordings for Haywoode and Nicki French
. The title track
and "C'est la vie" were also written by Wilson/Richards. Two singles was issued from the album: "Brand New Love Affair (In the Mix)" and "I'm Coming Up
". The second one was available also in EP
format from June 29, 2010 and has been produced by Richard Morel
and included remixes by Richard Morel
, Tommie Sunshine
and Sammy Jo and Babydaddy
from Scissor Sisters
.
From March 2009 throughout spring 2011 Amanda was touring France with the very successful play Panique au Ministère. In April a brand new single "Chinese Walk
" was released and the singer joined the panel of judges of the Italian TV show Ciak... si canta! on Rai Uno
.
Since September 2011 she's been playing the lead role in Lady Oscar (and adaptation of Claude Magnier's 1958 pièce
Oscar) at the Théâtre de la Renaissance
in Paris. Her upcoming studio album, I Don't Like Disco will be released in late November.
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist.
Lear began her career as a fashion model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
in the mid-1960s and was also the muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
. She first came to the public attention as the model on the cover of Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
's album For Your Pleasure
For Your Pleasure
For Your Pleasure is a 1973 album by the British glam and art rock group Roxy Music, released by Island Records . The band's second album, it was also their last to feature synthesiser and sound specialist Brian Eno, who would later gain acclaim as a solo artist and producer.-Production:The group...
in 1973. In the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, she made millions as a Disco Queen, mainly in Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
with hits such as "Queen of Chinatown
Queen of Chinatown
"Queen of Chinatown" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Ariola Records.- Song information :...
", "Follow Me
Follow Me (Amanda Lear song)
"Follow Me" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Follow Me" was released as the first single from Amanda's second album, Sweet Revenge, in the spring of 1978. The B-side of the single was "Mother, Look What They've Done to Me" in most of the...
", "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)
Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)
"Enigma " - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978.- Song information :"Enigma" was released as the third single from Lear's second album, Sweet Revenge. Depending on territory, "Run Baby Run", "Hollywood Flashback" or "Gold" made the single B-side, all from Sweet Revenge. Different...
" and "Fashion Pack
Fashion Pack
"Fashion Pack" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1979 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Fashion Pack" was released as the second single off Never Trust a Pretty Face in early 1979. "Black Holes" from the same album made the B-side on most of the single releases...
".
In the mid-1980s she positioned herself as one of the leading media personalities in mainland Europe, especially in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and in France where she hosted many long-running TV shows. Since the 1990s her time has been divided between music, television, writing and movies as well as pursuing her career as a painter. Currently she lives in Saint-Étienne-du-Grès
Saint-Étienne-du-Grès
Saint-Étienne-du-Grès is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southern France.-Population:-References:*...
near Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...
in the south of France.
Early life
Lear's early life is unclear, including her birthdate, gender, names and nationalities of her parents, and the location of upbringing. Raised speaking French and English, she learned German, Spanish and Italian in her teens, which she used in her professional life. According to Lear's official biography she relocated to Paris having finished elementary school, to study at Académie des Beaux-ArtsAcadémie des beaux-arts
The Académie des Beaux-Arts is a French learned society. It is one of the five academies of the Institut de France.It was created in 1795 as the merger of the:* Académie de peinture et de sculpture...
, before joining St. Martins School of Art
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. The school has an outstanding international reputation, and is considered one of the world's leading art and design institutions...
in London in 1964.
Lear's alleged transsexual background has been commented upon in the media and in the biographies of those who recall knowing Lear earlier in her life.
"April Ashley, the transsexual who had once been George Jamieson, a Liverpudlian seaman, has long claimed she worked with Lear in the Fifties at Le Carrousel, a transvestite revue in Paris. In her book, April Ashley's Odyssey , she recalls a man named Alain Tapp, whose stage-name was Peki d'Oslo, later to become Amanda Lear. According to Ashley, Dali met Peki at Le Carrousel in 1959.
1965–1975: Modelling, Swinging London and life with Dalí
In early 1965, Lear was spotted by Catherine Harlé, head of a model agency, who offered Lear a contract. As a means to finance her art studies, Lear returned to Paris for her first modelling assignment; to catwalk for rising star Paco RabannePaco Rabanne
Francisco "Paco" Rabaneda Cuervo, more commonly known as Paco Rabanne is a Franco-Spanish fashion designer. He fled Spain for France with his mother when the Spanish Civil War broke out...
. Just as Catherine Harlé had predicted, a girl with Lear's looks was very much in demand; soon thereafter, she found herself being photographed by Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton, born Helmut Neustädter was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."-Early life:Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara...
, Charles Paul Wilp
Charles Paul Wilp
Charles Paul Wilp was a German advertising-designer, artist, photographer and short-movie-editor.-Study and career:...
and Antoine Giacomoni for magazines like Elle
Elle (magazine)
Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
, Marie France
Marie France
Marie-France Garcia is a French singer and actress. She is transsexual and a Parisian pop icon of the 1970s.- Biography :...
, and Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
and modelling for fashion designers like Yves Saint Laurent and Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist thought, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of one of the most famous fashion brands, Chanel...
in Paris and Mary Quant
Mary Quant
Mary Quant OBE FCSD is a British] fashion designer and British fashion icon, who was instrumental in the mod fashion movement. She was one of the designers who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants. Born in Blackheath, London, to Welsh parents, Quant brought fun and fantasy to...
, Ossie Clark
Ossie Clark
Raymond "Ossie" Clark was an English fashion designer who was a major figure in the Swinging Sixties scene in London and the fashion industry in that era...
and Antony Price
Antony Price
Antony Price is a London fashion designer who is best known for glamorous evening wear and suits, and for the seventies icon of the cap sleeve t-shirt...
in London. After some time, she dropped out of art school, began modelling full-time and went on to lead a bohemian and flamboyant life in the Swinging London
Swinging London
Swinging London is a catch-all term applied to the fashion and cultural scene that flourished in London, in the 1960s.It was a youth-oriented phenomenon that emphasised the new and modern. It was a period of optimism and hedonism, and a cultural revolution. One catalyst was the recovery of the...
of the Sixties, hobnobbing with people like The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and fellow top models like Twiggy
Twiggy
Lesley Lawson née Hornby known as Twiggy is an English model, actress, and singer. In the early-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London with others such as Penelope Tree....
. She became a "stalwart of London's demimonde
Demimonde
Demi-monde refers to a group of people who live hedonistic lifestyles, usually in a flagrant and conspicuous manner. The term was commonly used in Europe from the late 18th to the early 20th century, and modern use often refers to that period...
," an exotic name on the nightclub circuit and a regular fixture in the gossip columns, and would later in the 1970s occasionally moonlight as a reporter herself, covering both the London social scene and international celebrities and party animals in David Bailey and David Litchfield
David Litchfield
David Litchfield is a renowned security expert from the United Kingdom, who focuses on the discovery and publication of computer security vulnerabilities with a special focus on database server software...
's glossy in-crowd magazine Ritz
Ritz Newspaper
Ritz Newspaper, colloquially Ritz Magazine, sometimes simply Ritz, was a British magazine focusing on gossip, celebrity and fashion. It was launched in 1976 by David Bailey and David Litchfield, who acted as co-editors. Published on newsprint and described by Litchfield as "the Lou Reed of...
.
While clubbing with Brian Jones
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and her then boyfriend, the Guinness
Guinness
Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...
heir Tara Browne
Tara Browne
The Honourable Tara Browne was a young London socialite. He is perhaps most famous today for serving as an inspiration of the Beatles song "A Day in the Life".-Biography:...
, in a Parisian nightspot named Le Castel in late 1965, she was, again according to her official biography, introduced to a man that was to change her life on many levels. The man was none other than the eccentric Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, the self-proclaimed enfant terrible in the world of art, at the time some 40 years her senior. Dalí was not only struck by Lear's looks but also saw a kindred spirit in her; Lear has since described their close and unconventional relationship as a "spiritual marriage". Her biography My Life with Dalí which was first published in French in 1984 (original title: Le Dalí d'Amanda), and had Dalí's approval, gives a detailed insight into the lives of both the artist and his muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
(the factual accuracy of My Life With Dalí, and most specifically the dates, is disputed by several researchers of Dalí's life and work). She accompanied him and his wife on trips to Barcelona, Madrid, New York and Paris and over a period of some fifteen years spent every summer with Dalí at his home at Port Lligat, near Cadaqués
Cadaqués
Cadaqués is a town in the Alt Empordà comarca, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It is on a bay in the middle of the Cap de Creus peninsula, near Cap de Creus cape, on the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean...
in Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
. Lear posed for some of Dalí's works such as Venus to the Furs and Vogué, took part in several of his film projects and could be seen by his side during press conferences and meetings with the media, events that in the age of flower power
Flower power
Flower power is a slogan used by the American counterculture movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and non-violence ideology. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in...
characteristically for its time and at this stage of Dalí's life often turned into happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
s, as spectacular as the art itself, and then frequently with Lear as the central figure. Joining the court of the Dalís she also regularly socialized with celebrities. Dalí served as a mentor to Lear; traveling with him, she discovered the great museums of Europe, Parisian salons and restaurants, New York bohemia and his homeland, Spain, and especially the Catalan culture, while she, in return, introduced him to the younger generation of the counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
in art, fashion, photography and music in London.
Although she remained Dalí's confidante, protégée and mistress all through the Sixties and Seventies, Lear was also romantically linked to Brian Jones
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
, which resulted in the ironic Rolling Stones track "Miss Amanda Jones", included on 1967 album Between the Buttons
Between the Buttons
- American release:In the US, the album was released by London Records on February 11, 1967 . "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" were slotted onto the album while "Back Street Girl" and "Please Go Home" were removed ...
. 1972 saw her first on-stage appearance when she introduced Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
and Lloyd Watson
Lloyd Watson
Lloyd Watson is an English rock and blues guitarist.Born to a Jamaican father and an English mother, Watson's early influences covered the whole spectrum of both black and white music...
at Rainbow Theatre in August. In 1973 Lear was also briefly engaged to Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
of Roxy Music, and was that same year famously depicted posing in a skintight leather dress leading a black panther on a leash on the cover of the band's classic rock album For Your Pleasure
For Your Pleasure
For Your Pleasure is a 1973 album by the British glam and art rock group Roxy Music, released by Island Records . The band's second album, it was also their last to feature synthesiser and sound specialist Brian Eno, who would later gain acclaim as a solo artist and producer.-Production:The group...
, an image that has been described as "as famous as the album itself" and which brought Lear plenty of exposure in the world of rock and roll. She went on to have a year-long affair with the married David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, with whom she appeared in the live performance of his 1973 hit song "Sorrow" at the 1980 Floor Show stage production which was televised in the United States by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
for TV series Midnight Special
The Midnight Special (TV series)
The Midnight Special is an American musical variety series that aired on NBC during the 1970s and early 1980s, created and produced by Burt Sugarman. It premiered as a special on August 19, 1972, then began its run as a regular series on February 2, 1973; its last episode was on May 1, 1981...
on 16 November 1973, an appearance often referred to as the official launch of Lear's career in music. She also acted as the mistress of ceremonies for the show. On 13 March 1979 she however married French bisexual aristocrat Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle
Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villele
Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle was the adopted son of French writer Roger Peyrefitte, their amorous relationship being a subject of several of the latter's works...
who, in fact, was the former lover turned adopted son of diplomate and controversial gay novelist Roger Peyrefitte
Roger Peyrefitte
Roger Peyrefitte was a French diplomat, writer of bestseller novels and gossipy non-fiction, and a defender of gay rights.-Life and work:...
. The marriage ceremony took place in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Nevada while Lear was promoting her disco album Sweet Revenge
Sweet Revenge (Amanda Lear album)
Sweet Revenge is the second studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in February, 1978 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc. The album contained European hit singles "Follow Me", "Enigma ", "Gold" and "Run Baby Run"...
in North America, just three weeks after the couple first met in Paris at fashionable discothèque Le Palace, a French equivalent of Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
. Malagnac's career, often financed by Peyrefitte, included proprietor of Le Bronx, one of the first openly gay night clubs in Paris, and briefly managing French singer Sylvie Vartan
Sylvie Vartan
Sylvie Vartan is a French singer. She was one of the first rock girls in France. Vartan was the most productive and active of the yé-yé style artists, considered as the toughest-sounding of those. Her performance often featured elaborate show-dance choreography. She made many appearances on French...
, a less than successful undertaking which almost bankrupted Peyrefitte, who was forced to sell artworks and antiquities to pay the resulting debts.
Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala
Gala Dalí
Gala Dalí , usually known simply as Gala, was the wife of first Paul Éluard, then Salvador Dalí, and an inspiration for them and many other writers and artists.- Early years :...
both strongly disapproved of the relationship with Malagnac, whose reputation in Parisian high society they were well aware of, and even attempted to persuade Lear to have the marriage annulled. As a consequence of this, and also as Lear's successful career in music and television now was beginning to take up most of her time, she and her mentor began drifting apart. While they still sporadically kept in touch via letters and telephone through the early and mid-Eighties, especially after his wife died in 1982, Lear only very briefly visited Dalí in Spain one more time in the second half of the decade, at Púbol
Pubol
Púbolis a small town located in the comarca of Baix Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.The artist Salvador Dalí lived at the Castle of Púbol; in 1982, he was named Marquis of Púbol....
in 1988 and then without her husband, shortly before Dalí himself died. Malagnac would go on to establish himself as a successful art dealer and antiques collector and, despite the misgivings of the Dalí's and others, was married to Lear for twenty-one years, until his untimely passing in 2000.
I Am a Photograph and Sweet Revenge
In 1975, disillusioned by a shallow but surprisingly conservative fashion industry and encouraged by boyfriend David BowieDavid Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, who paid for singing and dancing lessons, Lear decided to launch a career in music. Bowie recommended her a Hungarian voice coach Florence Wiese-Norberg, with whom he also worked. She would record a demo song called "Stars" with him, however, the track still remains unreleased.
Her debut single "Trouble", a pop-rock cover of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's 1958 classic from the King Creole
King Creole
King Creole is a 1958 American film directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal B. Wallis. The story was adapted from the Harold Robbins novel A Stone for Danny Fisher and featured Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, and Walter Matthau. The film tells the story of a nineteen-year-old who gets mixed...
soundtrack, was released by minor label Creole Records
Creole Records
Creole Records was a UK record label that found most of its success in the disco and reggae genres in the mid 1970s to early 1980s.Creole released the debut singles of both Boney M. and Amanda Lear in 1975...
in the United Kingdom, but without success. Lear however recorded a French language version of the track, "La Bagarre", which was released on Polydor in France and while equally unsuccessful there, it surprisingly became a minor disco hit in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
in early 1976, catching the attention of singer, composer and producer Anthony Monn
Anthony Monn
Anthony Monn a.k.a. Tony Monn is a German singer, composer, and record producer.Monn started his career as a singer in the German schlager genre in the early 1970s...
and label Ariola-Eurodisc, who offered her a seven year and six albums recording contract for a sum of money that Lear since has described as "astronomic".
Her debut album I Am a Photograph
I Am a Photograph
I Am A Photograph is the debut album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in April 1977 by West German label Ariola Records. It contains the European hit singles "La Bagarre" , "Blood and Honey" , "Tomorrow", "Alphabet" and "Blue Tango." Later editions of the album also feature the single "Queen...
, released in 1977, was recorded in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, with most songs composed by Monn and arrangers Rainer Pietsch and Charly Ricanek and Lear writing all the English lyrics. The musical backing was provided by the same international session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
s as on contemporaneous recordings by best-selling Germany-based disco acts like Boney M. and Silver Convention
Silver Convention
Silver Convention was a German euro disco recording act of the 1970s. The group was originally named Silver Bird Convention, or Silver Bird.-Career:...
, among them drummers Martin Harrison and Curt Cress, bassists Gary Unwin, Dave King and Les Hurdle and guitarists Geoff Bastow and Mats Björklund.
The album included Lear's first European hit "Blood and Honey
Blood and Honey
"Blood and Honey" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1976 by Ariola Records.-Song information:"Blood and Honey" was released as a single in December 1976 and later was included on Amanda's debut album I Am a Photograph. It was written by Amanda Lear herself and Anthony Monn , with...
", lyrically paraphrasing Dalí's 1941 painting La Miel Es Más Dulce que la Sangre (Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood), follow-up single "Tomorrow
Tomorrow (Amanda Lear song)
"Tomorrow" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Polydor Records.-Song information:"Tomorrow" was released as the third single from Amanda's debut album I Am a Photograph in 1977. It was written by the singer herself and Rainer Pietsch . The track became one of her biggest...
" and a cover of Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
Jessica Simpson recorded her own version of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" for the soundtrack to the film The Dukes of Hazzard . Simpson's cover was co-produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and was released as the soundtrack's first single in 2005)...
" and Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler...
's "Blue Tango
Blue Tango
"Blue Tango" is an instrumental composition by Leroy Anderson. it was later turned into a popular song with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. It was published in 1952...
", all of which became repertoire standards. I Am a Photographs mixture of lush disco, schlager
Schlager
Schlager music is a style of popular music prevalent in Central and Northern Europe and the Balkans and also in France and Poland. In Portugal, it was adapted and became pimba music...
, kitsch
Kitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
and camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
, topped with Lear's deep half-spoken, half-sung vocals and her characteristic Franglais
Franglais
Franglais , a portmanteau combining the French words "français" and "anglais" , is a slang term for an interlanguage, although the word has different overtones in French and English....
accent was a winning combination; the album spun off four Top 10 singles in Italy and stayed on the West German albums chart for thirty-three weeks alone. The second edition of I Am a Photograph, which also contained German #2 hit "Queen of Chinatown
Queen of Chinatown
"Queen of Chinatown" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Ariola Records.- Song information :...
", sported a free pin-up poster picturing a topless Lear smiling towards the camera, a photo originally featured in her Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
spread.
In 1978, Lear continued her line of disco hits with Sweet Revenge
Sweet Revenge (Amanda Lear album)
Sweet Revenge is the second studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in February, 1978 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc. The album contained European hit singles "Follow Me", "Enigma ", "Gold" and "Run Baby Run"...
, an album that opens with a side-long concept medley, a Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
ian fairy tale of a girl who sells her soul to the devil for fame and fortune and her eventual revenge over the devil's offer – she finds true love.
The first single to be lifted off Sweet Revenge, the dark and seductive opening track "Follow Me
Follow Me (Amanda Lear song)
"Follow Me" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Follow Me" was released as the first single from Amanda's second album, Sweet Revenge, in the spring of 1978. The B-side of the single was "Mother, Look What They've Done to Me" in most of the...
", powered by Lear's characteristic deep and recitative voice and in fact the theme of the devil, was an instant smash hit, reaching Top 3 in the West German singles chart and also went to #3 in the Netherlands, #7 in Switzerland, #6 in Austria, #6 in her native France and was a Top 20 hit in most parts of Europe. The single is estimated to have sold some two million copies worldwide and has served as Lear's signature tune ever since. The 12" mix of the track, mixed by Canadian DJ Wally MacDonald and originally only released in North America, also incorporates the finale of the concept medley, "Follow Me (Reprise)".
The Sweet Revenge album itself was certified gold
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
in West Germany, France, Italy and Belgium and went on to sell in excess of four million copies and charted in forty-one countries, including Chile, South Africa, India and Thailand where it stayed a number one album for sixteen weeks, spawning further European hit singles "Gold" and "Run Baby Run
Run Baby Run (Amanda Lear song)
"Run Baby Run" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Run Baby Run" was the fourth part of the suite included on the Sweet Revenge album, telling a story about a girl being tempted by a Devil. It was released as the second single from Sweet...
" (both from the concept medley) and "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)
Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)
"Enigma " - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978.- Song information :"Enigma" was released as the third single from Lear's second album, Sweet Revenge. Depending on territory, "Run Baby Run", "Hollywood Flashback" or "Gold" made the single B-side, all from Sweet Revenge. Different...
". Again, all of these tracks were co-written by Lear and this in combination with a larger-than-life image very much the creation of herself made her one of the few artists of the Eurodisco era whose star power and charisma even outshone the music itself – all according to plan – and the Amanda Lear persona left an impact on European pop culture that has lasted for five decades.
The front of the Sweet Revenge album cover shows Lear as a leather-clad S&M dominatrix
Dominatrix
Dominatrix or mistress is a woman or women who takes the dominant role in bondage, discipline and sadomasochism, or BDSM. A common form of address for a submissive to a dominatrix is "mistress", "ma'am", "domina" or "maîtresse"...
cracking her whip
Whip
A whip is a tool traditionally used by humans to exert control over animals or other people, through pain compliance or fear of pain, although in some activities whips can be used without use of pain, such as an additional pressure aid in dressage...
, the sepia-toned back cover pic has her reclining on an old beer barrel with sequined curtains behind her, à la Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
in The Blue Angel, and the inner sleeve again pictured her posing topless.
Also in 1978, Lear took part in two Italian productions: a six-episode controversial TV show Stryx
Stryx
- Description :Stryx thematically referred to Hell, devils and underworld. The scenography featured elements resembling Middle Ages-like gloomy castles and caves....
and a softporn documentary movie Follie di Notte, directed by Joe D'Amato
Joe D'Amato
Joe D'Amato, was a prolific Italian filmmaker who directed roughly 200 films, usually at the same time acting as producer and cinematographer, and sometimes providing the script as well...
. In both of them she performed her then-current hit songs, like "Follow Me", "Gold" and "Enigma" and acted as a hostess in the latter.
Never Trust a Pretty Face
Later in 1978 Lear and Monn teamed up for Never Trust a Pretty FaceNever Trust a Pretty Face
Never Trust a Pretty Face is the third studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in January, 1979 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc...
, an album that includes a discofied reimagining of "Lili Marleen
Lili Marleen
"Lili Marleen" is a German love song which became popular during World War II.Written in 1915 during World War I, the poem was published under the title "Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht" in 1937, and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 under the...
", a wartime classic that Lear managed to make her own and has since re-recorded in 1993 and 2001.
While Lear may consider the best-selling Sweet Revenge her proudest moment, fans and critics alike usually rate Never Trust a Pretty Face as the artistic highpoint of her international career. It is often cited as a landmark in the history of "the sound of Munich", groundbreaking Giorgio Moroder
Giorgio Moroder
Hansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
/Donna Summer
Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines , known by her stage name, Donna Summer, is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach...
collaborations included, and it was in fact recorded in Moroder's renowned Musicland Studios
Musicland Studios
Musicland Studios was a recording studio located in Munich, Germany. It was established by Italian record producer, songwriter and performer Giorgio Moroder in the late 1960s...
with the assistance of keyboardist and composer Harold Faltermeyer
Harold Faltermeyer
Harold Faltermeyer is a German musician, keyboardist, composer and record producer.He is recognized as one of the composers/producers who best captured the zeitgeist of 1980s synth-pop in film scores...
and British drummer and arranger Keith Forsey
Keith Forsey
Keith Forsey is an English soundtrack composer, drummer, songwriter and record producer.-Biography:Forsey's first recordings were as the younger member of the group The Spectrum, better known for the end title theme for Gerry Anderson's Captain Scarlet, but hit makers across Europe in their own...
, both later going on to become very successful record producers and hitmakers in their own right in the United States.
The album features a variety of genre exercises like the clever title track ballad "Never Trust a Pretty Face", shuffle rock track "Forget It", the cabaret-esque "Miroir" with both music and French lyrics by Lear, futuristic electro
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
like "Black Holes" and "Intellectually", plus the hit single "Fashion Pack (Studio 54)
Fashion Pack
"Fashion Pack" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1979 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Fashion Pack" was released as the second single off Never Trust a Pretty Face in early 1979. "Black Holes" from the same album made the B-side on most of the single releases...
".
The lyrics to this Eurodisco classic actually ridicule the superficial world of fashion and the decadent behaviour of the rich and famous and especially New York's disco glitterati of the era, offering some serious namedropping in the process: Liza (Minnelli)
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
, Francesco (Scavullo)
Francesco Scavullo
Francesco Scavullo was an American fashion photographer best known for his work on the covers of Cosmopolitan and his celebrity portraits.-Biography:...
, Marisa (Berenson)
Marisa Berenson
Vittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson is an American actress and model.-Early life:She is the elder daughter of Robert L. Berenson, an American diplomat turned shipping executive, who was of Lithuanian Jewish descent; his family's original surname was Valvrojenski...
, (John) Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
, Andy (Warhol)
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Loulou (de la Falaise)
Loulou de la Falaise
Loulou de La Falaise was a fashion muse and designer of fashion, accessories, and jewelry associated with Yves Saint-Laurent. Author Judith Thurman, writing in The New Yorker magazine, called La Falaise "the quintessential Rive Gauche haute bohémienne"....
, Margaux (Hemingway)
Margaux Hemingway
Margaux Hemingway was an American fashion model and actress.- Early life :Margot Louise Hemingway was born in Portland, Oregon, and was the older sister of actress Mariel Hemingway and the granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway...
, Bianca (Jagger)
Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger is a Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress and model...
, (Yves) Saint Laurent, Paloma (Picasso)
Paloma Picasso
Anne Paloma Picasso known professionally as Paloma Picasso, is a French/Spanish fashion designer and businesswoman, best known for her jewelry designs and signature perfumes. She is the youngest daughter of famed 20th-century artist Pablo Picasso and painter and writer Françoise Gilot...
etc., according to her biography My Life with Dalí all of them if not friends at least acquaintances of Lear's, but at this stage she herself had already left her days of jetsetting
Jet set
"Jet set" is a journalistic term that was used to describe an international social group of wealthy people, organizing and participating all around the world in social activities that are unreachable to ordinary people...
behind her, and had instead settled down for a quiet life with her husband in the French country side, near Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...
.
Another hit and standout track is the suggestive "The Sphinx
The Sphinx (song)
"The Sphinx" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978 by Ariola Records.- Song information :The song's lyrics were written by Amanda Lear and music composed by Anthony Monn, who in addition produced the track. German musician Ralf Nowy is credited for arrangement of the song...
" which Lear has since named as her personal favourite among her own recordings. The promotional campaign for Never Trust a Pretty Face very effectively continued to play on Lear's "devil in disguise" persona, with the album cover, and with most European editions also a giant 24"x36" fold-out poster, portraying her as a mythological creature in the Egyptian desert, smiling innocently, with beautiful angel's wings – but also with a snake's tail.
Despite full-page ads by US licensee Chrysalis Records
Chrysalis Records
Chrysalis Records was a British record label that was created in 1969. The name was both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis...
in Billboard magazine for Sweet Revenge, her personal connections with Bowie and Roxy Music, a feature in Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's Interview
Interview (magazine)
Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...
magazine with photos by Karl Stoecker, the same photographer who shot the cover of Roxy Music's For Your Pleasure, and a two-month long promotional tour in the United States in early 1979, including appearances at discothèques and gay clubs like New York's Paradise Garage
Paradise Garage
The Paradise Garage was a discotheque notable in the history of modern gay and nightclub cultures and in dance and pop music. It was founded by Michael Brody, its sole proprietor, and was located at 84 King Street, in the Hudson Square neighborhood of New York City. It operated from 1976 to 1987...
, The Saint
The Saint (club)
The Saint was an American gay superclub, located in the East Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, that operated from 1980 to 1987.-History:...
and The Loft
The Loft
The Loft is the location for the first underground dance party that was created by David Mancuso on February 14, 1970 in New York. Since then, the term The Loft has come to represent Mancuso's own version of a non-commercial party where no alcohol, food, or beverages are sold...
, Lear's commercial success in North America was moderate, and despite promotional gimmicks like red vinyl 12" singles
12-inch single
The 12-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing compared to other types of records. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the cutting engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality...
and the Never Trust a Pretty Face album being released as a limited edition picture disc
Picture disc
Picture discs are gramophone records that show images on their playing surface, rather than being of plain black or coloured vinyl.-Development:...
in the United Kingdom, "the English remained immune to the effect of Amanda Lear", as she herself describes it in My Life with Dalí.
Lear however succeeded in establishing herself on another market, perhaps not as glamorous and prestigious but considering the vast population arguably more lucrative; the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Along with other artists she was one of the very few Western pop acts during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
era to have her music officially released in the USSR by state-owned record label Melodiya
Melodiya
Melodiya is a Russian record label. It was the state-owned major record company/label of the Soviet Union.-History:It was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm of the USSR Ministry of Culture Melodiya"...
. Both I Am a Photograph and Sweet Revenge had been released by Ariola Records
Ariola Records
Ariola Records is a German record label. As of the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of BMG which in turn has since become a part of the international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment...
in East Germany in 1978 and were then followed a by a series of singles and EPs issued by DDR record label Amiga in the late 1970s and early 1980s which found their way to other parts of Eastern Europe. An official visit to the USSR had been scheduled for 1982, but was ultimately cancelled because Lear at that point in time was involved in a legal dispute with her record company.
In the mid-eighties Never Trust a Pretty Face was however the first full-length album with Lear to be approved of the Soviet authorities and issued in the USSR itself, then under the title Poet Amanda Lear
Poet Amanda Lear
Poet Amanda Lear is a compilation album of recordings by French singer Amanda Lear, released in the former U.S.S.R. by state-owned label Melodiya in 1990...
, with a less controversial album cover and three additional tracks from I Am a Photograph and Sweet Revenge. Lear has had a large fanbase in the entire Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
ever since and in late November 1997 she finally had the opportunity to make her very first visit to Moscow since the opening of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
to meet her Russian audiences, appearing on a TV show broadcast during the Russian New Year's festivities with an audience of approximately fifty million viewers and performing some of her disco classics like "Fashion Pack", "Queen of Chinatown" and "Blood and Honey".
New Wave style; Diamonds for Breakfast and Incognito
In late 1979 Lear recorded Diamonds for BreakfastDiamonds for Breakfast
Diamonds For Breakfast is the fourth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in January, 1980 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc...
, which became her commercial breakthrough on the Scandinavian market (#4 in Sweden, April 1980 and #10 in Norway, December 1980) producing hits like "Fabulous (Lover, Love Me)", "Diamonds
Diamonds (Amanda Lear song)
"Diamonds" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1980 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Diamonds" was released as the second single from Amanda's fourth album, Diamonds for Breakfast. It was another Monn-Lear collaboration, with the singer writing the lyrics and Monn providing...
", "When
When (Amanda Lear song)
- Song information :"When" was the last single taken off Diamonds for Breakfast, released only in Sweden with "Ho fatto l'amore con me" as the B-side. Amanda Lear had also recorded Italian version of the song, "Ciao", that was included on Italian pressings of the album. The song was composed by...
", "Japan" and the autoerotic
Autoeroticism
Autoeroticism is the practice of stimulating oneself sexually. The term was popularized toward the end of the 19th century by British sexologist Havelock Ellis, who defined autoeroticism as "the phenomena of spontaneous sexual emotion generated in the absence of an external stimulus proceeding,...
"Ho Fatto l'Amore con Me".
The album abandoned the Munich disco sound with its lush strings and brass arrangements in favour of an electronic New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
rock style, with the guitar riff driven opening track "Rockin' Rollin' (I Hear You Nagging)" setting the tone, most likely in accordance with Lear's own taste in music and Diamonds for Breakfast was a step in that direction. She declared: "I really wanted to be the new Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
, a rough rock singer, she's still my all-time favourite rockstar". The album cover portrait of Lear, with diamond tears designed by Tiffany's
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...
running down her cheek, is notable in the history of art and design as it was one of the first major assignments for French photographers, Pierre et Gilles
Pierre et Gilles
Pierre et Gilles, Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard, are French artists and romantic partners. They produce highly stylized photographs, building their own sets and costumes as well as retouching the photographs...
.
Lear spent most of 1980 on promotional tours for the album and its many accompanying single releases all over Europe, from Greece in the south to Finland in the north, and she also made her first visit to Japan where both the single "Queen of Chinatown" and the Sweet Revenge album had topped the charts and were awarded with Gold Discs
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. The lead single "Fabulous (Lover, Lover Me)" from Diamonds for Breakfast famously includes the lines "The surgeons built me so well/that nobody could tell/that I once was somebody else" which is as close to a confession of a former identity as Lear has come – before or since.
Two non-album singles followed the Diamonds for Breakfast album in late 1980, a pop cover of Eric "Monty" Morris early ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
hit "Solomon Gundie", and the chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
-esque "Le Chat de Gouttière" ("An Alley Cat"), again with both music and lyrics penned by Lear and specifically recorded for the francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
markets.
The Lear/Monn album success saga neared its end in 1981, at which point Lear herself had become increasingly uncomfortable with the expectations and pressures of the music business in general, and her own record label in particular. At the artistic and commercial peak of her international career, but with the so called "anti-disco backlash" beginning to take its toll, she had also tentatively started recording tracks for a forthcoming album with producer Trevor Horn
Trevor Horn
Trevor Charles Horn CBE is an English pop music record producer, songwriter, musician and singer. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring in north-east England....
in London. Ariola
Ariola Records
Ariola Records is a German record label. As of the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of BMG which in turn has since become a part of the international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment...
did not approve of this and in no uncertain terms made it clear that Lear was to return to Munich and provide the company and the market with another Monn product.
The result of these sessions was Incognito
Incognito (Amanda Lear album)
Incognito is the fifth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in March, 1981 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc. The album contains singles "Nymphomania", "Hollywood Is Just A Dream When You're Seventeen", "Love Amnesia", "Red Tape", "New York" and "Égal". Just like 1978's Sweet...
, with material only partly co-written by Lear, and only generating minor European hits: "Nymphomania", "Red Tape
Red Tape
Red Tape is an album by American southern rock band Atlanta Rhythm Section, released in 1976. .-Track listing:#"Jukin'/San Antonio Rose" – 3:43#"Mixed Emotions" – 3:20...
" and the French language ballad "Égal
Egal
- Song information :"Egal" was the first single from Amanda's fifth studio album, Incognito. The author of the lyrics was the singer herself and the music was composed by Anthony Monn, her long-time collaborator. The track is arranged in the style of a chanson and its lyrics tell about a...
", but paradoxally turning out to be her breakthrough album in South America, with three tracks especially recorded in Spanish: "Igual", "Dama de Berlin" and "Ninfomanía".
Another non-album single followed in early 1982, a synthpop
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
take on Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
's 1958 pop classic "Fever
Fever (1956 song)
"Fever" is a song written by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell, who used the pseudonym John Davenport. It was originally recorded by Little Willie John in 1956. It has been covered by numerous artists from various musical genres, notably Peggy Lee in 1958....
", Lear's final collaboration with producer Anthony Monn. Shortly thereafter she took legal action against the Ariola-Eurodisc label in order to be released from her recording contract on the grounds of artistic differences. The lawsuit was unsuccessful. In 1982 an Italian single "Incredibilmente Donna
Incredibilmente Donna
"Incredibilmente donna" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1982 by Ariola Records.- Song information :The song was released as the first and the only single from Ieri, oggi, a 1982 compilation album issued exclusively for Italian market. It was written by Sergio Menegale and Raffaele...
" was released, from the compilation "Ieri, Oggi
Ieri, Oggi
Ieri, Oggi is the first compilation album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in 1982 on Ariola Records. It was released only for the italian market.-Album information:...
".
Tam-Tam and television career in Italy
Double A-side single "Love Your BodyLove Your Body
"Love Your Body" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1983 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Love Your Body" was the third non-album single released by Amanda Lear. It was written by Peter Lüdermann, Alf Schwegeler and Amanda Lear. The track displayed a hi-NRG synthpop sound and...
"/"Darkness and Light", released in the spring of 1983, was produced by Monn's sound engineer Peter Lüdermann, instead of Monn himself. It became Lear's final Munich recordings for Ariola and also marked her final promotional appearance on West Germany's most important music TV show at the time, Musikladen
Musikladen
Der Musikladen was a West German music television programme that ran from December 13, 1972 to November 29, 1984. The show continued the 1960s Beat-Club under a new name, and in turn was replaced by Extratour.-History:...
, in June 1983.
Lear's international career momentum was however slowing and effectively came to an end in December 1983 as she delivered her sixth and final album to the Ariola label, under contractual obligation. Tam-Tam
Tam-Tam (Amanda Lear album)
Tam-Tam is the sixth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in December, 1983 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc. After a series of charttopping albums and hit singles all through the late Seventies and early Eighties Tam-Tam became Lear's final and least-successful album for...
was a collaboration with Italian composers and producers. While both "Incredibilmente Donna" and the B-side "Buon Viaggio" were mainstream Italian pop ballads, Tam-Tam was a production wise up-to-date and minimalistic early 1980s synthpop album, with a soundscape dominated by TR-808 drum machines and sequencer programmed synthesisers and again with all English lyrics penned by Lear.
Although she performed some of the songs from the album on the Italian TV show Premiatissima, she did not promote Tam-Tam in West Germany or any other parts of Europe and as a consequence neither did the record company. The only regular, commercially available single from the album was "No Regrets
No Regrets (Amanda Lear song)
"No Regrets" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1983 by Ariola Records.- Song information :The song was the first single from Amanda's sixth studio album, Tam-Tam. It was released only in Italy, with "It's All Over" as the B-side. "No Regrets" was written by Amanda Lear, Paul...
", released only in Italy. Tam-Tam subsequently passed unnoticed by both the European and the international record buying public, which may very well have been a blessing in disguise for Lear, considering her frosty relationship with Ariola at the time and her changing music style. At this stage Lear publicly began denouncing her earlier musical output, and then in her characteristically undiplomatic manner: "The music was crap, but at least I tried to write some clever lyrics".
Instead she went on to launch a very successful and lucrative career as a TV presenter with future prime minister Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
, soon becoming something of household name in what has since turned out to be her second homeland, Italy. She hosted many successful TV shows there, including Premiatissima or W le Donne (aired in France as Cherchez la Femme). In the latter Lear promoted her minialbum
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
with four covers of classic songs, including Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
's "Bye Bye Baby" or "As Time Goes By
As Time Goes By (song)
"As Time Goes By" is a song written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. It became most famous in 1942 when it was sung by the character Sam in the movie Casablanca. The song was voted #2 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs special, commemorating the best songs in film. It was used as a fanfare for Warner...
from the film Casablanca
Casablanca (film)
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
. The EP, entitled A L
A L
A L is the first EP by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1985. A L was issued by minor Italian label Five Records when Lear was at the lowest point of her musical career and primarily working as a TV entertainer for Canale 5 in Italy....
, was recorded for Five Records. At that time Lear recorded also several single-only songs for various European labels, including "Assassino
Assassino
- Song information :In 1984 Amanda Lear signed with WEA Italiana for the release of a single-only song "Assassino". This uptempo dance track was written by Amanda Lear and three Italian composers: Cristiano Malgioglio, Mauro Lusini, Luigi Lopez. It was recorded in Italian and English, both...
" or "No Credit Card
No Credit Card
- Song information :In 1985 Amanda Lear signed with now defunct Merak Music and would release two singles through the label: "No Credit Card" and "Women". "No Credit Card" was an energetic dance track with synthpop arrangement, resembling Frankie Goes to Hollywood's musical style. It was written...
".
1987–1998: Music comeback attempts and television career
After having worked four years as a TV entertainer for Italian Canale 5Canale 5
Canale 5 is an Italian private television network of Mediaset, the media branch of Fininvest. Canale 5 was the first private television network to have a national coverage in Italy in 1980, based on a local channel, TeleMilano 58, founded in 1978....
and French La Cinq
La Cinq
La Cinq was France's first privately owned free terrestrial television network. Created by politician Jérôme Seydoux and Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, the network broadcasted from 1985 to 1992....
Lear returned to music. Secret Passion
Secret Passion
-Credits:*Produced, arranged by Christian De Walden and Steve Singer for Zig Zag Productions, USA*Executive producers: Steve Singer, Carlo Mezzano & Christian De Walden*Mixed by Greg Penny & Christian De Walden...
was an album made in Los Angeles and Rome for major French label Carrere Records, a post-disco Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG describes a form of high-tempo disco music as well as a genre of electronic dance music originating in the United States during the late 1970s...
– New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
affair produced by Christian De Walden
Christian De Walden
Christian de Walden is a record producer, composer, arranger and songwriter of Italian origin, who currently resides in Los Angeles, California...
, ready to be launched in January 1987. It was not only intended to be her comeback in Continental Europe, Scandinavia, South America, the Eastern Bloc and Japan, this time on her own terms, but also hopefully her breakthrough in anglophone
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
territories like the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
, which were more or less the only markets that she had not conquered during the Ariola years.
However tragedy struck, just as Lear was getting ready to start promoting the album she was seriously injured in a near fatal car accident and had to spend months in convalescence. Secret Passions commercial success was consequently less than hoped for, and lead single "Wild Thing" was ultimately only released in a few countries like France, Italy and Greece, but this incident became the starting point of another phase in her career, this time as a writer.
While in hospital, Lear began writing her first novel L'Immortelle, a slightly surrealistic tale describing the torments of a woman doomed to eternal youth and beauty, watching everyone else growing older and eventually losing all her loved ones, still as beautiful, but unable to stop the merciless passage of time.
Lear sporadically returned to recording in the late eighties and nineties and released a series of singles and albums of new material in Italy, France and Germany, like mainstream pop albums Uomini Più Uomini
Uomini Più Uomini
Uomini Più Uomini is the eighth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, originally issued on label Ricordi International in 1989. This was her first album feature only tracks sung in Italian...
in Italy and Tant Qu'il Y Aura Des Hommes
Tant Qu'il Y Aura Des Hommes
Tant Qu'il Y Aura Des Hommes is the ninth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released on French label Carrere Records in 1989, and a re-release of Italian Ricordi International's Uomini Più Uomini, issued the same year...
in France, both released in 1989. Also in 1989, on RAI 3, she hosted Ars Amanda (The Art of Loving), an Italian chat show conducted in bed, where she interviewing both Italian and international celebrities and politicians. In 1993 Lear surprised her audiences with her unglamorous and down-to-earth portrayal of the betrayed housewife Françoise in Arnaud Sélignac's TV-drama Une Femme pour Moi (A Woman for Me), with Tom Novembre as her husband, going through a midlife crisis. She also tried to return to a more dancefloor-friendly repertoire on Eurodance
Eurodance
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...
albums Cadavrexquis
Cadavrexquis
Cadavrexquis is the teenth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released in France 1993 on label Chène Music. This including her European comeback dance hit "Fantasy" plus updated versions of three of her hits from the seventies, her signature tune "Follow Me", "Fashion Pack " and "Lili...
in 1993 and Alter Ego
Alter Ego (Amanda Lear album)
Alter Ego is the eleventh studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released in Germany on November 21, 1995 on label ZYX Music. This album, like other several predecessors, was a commercial failure and failed to chart.- Album information :...
in 1995, none of them however producing that elusive international comeback hit and though popular with her fanbase all also with varying degrees of commercial success in Europe itself. Instead she focussed on her career in television and movies, hosting popular TV show Peep! in Germany, with her own song "Peep!" as the opening music theme.
1998 saw the release of Back in Your Arms
Back in Your Arms
Back In Your Arms is the third compilation album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in May 1998 by Dig It Int'l. The release follows her two previous greatest hits albums, Ieri, Oggi released in Italy, and Poet Amanda Lear released in the former U.S.S.R....
, an album consisting of re-recorded 1970s disco hits and chosen tracks from the 1995 album Alter Ego. However, the album did not catch much attention and turn out a failure.
2000–2007: Heart, TV career and arts exhibition
In December 2000 Lear's husband Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de VillèleAlain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villele
Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle was the adopted son of French writer Roger Peyrefitte, their amorous relationship being a subject of several of the latter's works...
died in an accident, after an explosive fire at their home, which was left in ruins. Also killed in the fire was their guest, 20 year old cat breeder Didier Diefis. Lost in the fire were a number of works by artist Salvador Dali. However, in 2001, Lear threw herself back into work and released the aptly titled album Heart
Heart (Amanda Lear album)
-Personnel:*Amanda Lear - lead vocals*Cécile Maestre - backing vocals*Sandrine Foguère - backing vocals*Judith Flessel-Toto - backing vocals*Stefano Meghenzani - piano, Rhodes & accordion*Patrick Bacqueville - trombone*Nicolas Baudino - flute, saxophone...
, dedicated to the late Alain-Philippe Malagnac. As many music critics commented, Heart was a serious effort with Lear's own heart and soul involved and both time and money invested in the project by French record company Le Marais Productions.
The album offered club-friendly tracks like "I Just Wanna Dance Again
I Just Wanna Dance Again
"I Just Wanna Dance Again" is a single by French singer Amanda Lear released in 2002 by Le Marais Prod.-Song information:"I Just Wanna Dance Again" was the second single from Amanda's comeback album Heart. The single initially came out in April 2002, then its "maxi" versions were released within...
" and cult Seventies TV theme The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
, both issued as singles and featuring remixes by prominent names in the world of dance music like French electro-house music DJ Laurent Wolf
Laurent Wolf
Laurent Wolf 1973 in Toulouse Is a French electro-house producer and DJ. He is the author of several compilations that contain his own tracks and also his remixes. He reached the top of the charts with his "Saxo" and "Calinda" compositions. Laurent Wolf was the winner of the DJ category in the...
, Spanish production team Pumpin' Dolls and Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez, , is an American club DJ and remixer/producer.-Career:...
. As a contrast, Heart also featured intimate and gently orchestrated interpretations of Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
/Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
's ballad "Hier Encore (Yesterday When I Was Young)" as well as Springfield/Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
's 1967 classic "The Look of Love
The Look of Love (1967 song)
"The Look of Love" is a popular song composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and sung by Dusty Springfield, which appeared in the 1967 spoof James Bond film Casino Royale.-Songwriters:...
", along with a political reading of "Lili Marleen
Lili Marleen
"Lili Marleen" is a German love song which became popular during World War II.Written in 1915 during World War I, the poem was published under the title "Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht" in 1937, and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 under the...
", provided with updated lyrics in German by original composer Norbert Schultze
Norbert Schultze
Norbert Arnold Wilhelm Richard Schultze was a prolific German composer of film music...
, written especially for Lear. Heart was greeted as a long overdue return to form and turned out to be Lear's best-selling album since the late 1970s in both France and Germany.
Amanda featured in Blanca Li
Blanca Li
Blanca Li is a choreographer and ballet dancer from Granada, Spain. She was born January 12, 1964. Her style varies from flamenco to hip hop.One of her choreographic works were for the video Around the World by Daft Punk.- External links :...
's 2002 Le Défi (international title: Dance Challenge), about an eighteen year old boy who drops out of school, dreaming of becoming a star in break dancing, and the ensuing conflicts with his conservative mother, and with Lear co-starring as the mother's understanding and encouraging best friend – and fashion victim
Fashion victim
Fashion victim is a term claimed to have been coined by Oscar de la Renta that is used to identify a person who is unable to identify commonly recognized boundaries of style....
, giving her an opportunity to demonstrate her comedic talent.
An exhibition in 2001 was entitled Not a. Lear, a reference to René Magritte
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
's painting Ceci n'est pas un pipe (This Is Not a Pipe), and a collaboration with unestablished young artists in 2006 Never Mind the Bollocks: Here's Amanda Lear!, a paraphrase of the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
' classic punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols is the only studio album by the highly influential and controversial English punk rock band The Sex Pistols...
, but naturally also a self-ironic comment on Lear's own "ambiguous" mythology, which was the theme for the exhibition and in 2008 Sogni, Miti, Colori (Dreams, Myths, Colours).
In 2002, on the set of her Italia 1
Italia 1
Italia 1 is an Italian commercial television channel on the Mediaset network. It is oriented especially at young people.Italia 1 was launched in January 1982 and, originally, was owned by Rusconi; after a few months, however, due to the aggressive dumping practices of Silvio Berlusconi's rival...
TV series Il Brutto Anatroccolo a makeover show that ran for a couple of years from 1999 onwards, Lear met Manuel Casella, thirty-nine years her junior. He has been her longtime companion ever since and the couple have been featured prominently in the pages of the tabloid press in both France and Italy. The theme of the show was a cover version of Melina Mercouri
Melina Mercouri
Melina Mercouri , born as Maria Amalia Mercouri was a Greek actress, singer and politician.As an actress she made her film debut in Stella and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and Promise at Dawn...
's 1960s recording "Never on Sunday
Never on Sunday (song)
"Never on Sunday", also known as "Ta Paidia Tou Piraia" is a popular song by Manos Hadjidakis. A vocal version was also released and performed by Melina Mercouri in the film of same name directed by Jules Dassin and starring Mercouri...
" from the movie of the same name
Never on Sunday
Never on Sunday is a 1960 Greek black-and-white film which tells the story of Ilya, a prostitute who lives in the port of Piraeus in Greece, and Homer, an American tourist from Middletown, Connecticut — a classical scholar enamored with all things Greek. Ilya is a character close to the...
, called "Nuda", again performed by Lear but never commercially released.
In 2003 the Heart album was rereleased as Tendance
Tendance
Tendance is an expanded re-release of French singer Amanda Lear's 2001 album Heart, by issued by Sony Music Germany in 2003, taking its title from a French TV-series hosted by Lear at the time...
, taking its title from a televised fashion and trends magazine hosted by Lear on Paris Match
Paris Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
TV. The new edition also included the theme tune to her Italian TV series Cocktail d'Amore, a top-rated nostalgic show celebrating music of the 1970s and early 1980s on which Lear interviewed some of Italy's most famous stars like Patty Pravo
Patty Pravo
Patty Pravo is an Italian pop singer whose career has spanned more than four decades. Her first single "Ragazzo triste", released in 1966, was the first pop song aired on Vatican Radio...
, Anna Oxa
Anna Oxa
Anna Oxa is an Italian singer of Albanian descent, well-known through her numerous appearances in the televised Italian song contest, the Sanremo Music Festival. In 1978, at the age of sixteen, she took second place with the song "Un'emozione da poco" at the Sanremo Festival...
, Giuni Russo
Giuni Russo
Giuni Russo was an Italian singer-songwriter, who specialised in experimental music after a short successful stint as art-pop singer in the early 1980s....
, Loredana Bertè
Loredana Bertè
Loredana Bertè is an Italian singer. In her long career she has worked with some of the best Italian songwriters such as Enrico Ruggeri, Pino Daniele, Ivano Fossati, Mario Lavezzi, Enzo Jannacci and Mango, among others. She has experimented with different genres, from rock to reggae, from funk to...
and Ricchi e Poveri
Ricchi e Poveri
Ricchi e Poveri is one of the most famous Italian pop music groups in Europe and Latin America. Active since the late 1960s, they have sold over 20 million records.-Formation and early success:...
. The track "Cocktail d'Amore" was originally written and recorded by Italian singer-songwriter Cristiano Malgioglio, who also composed Lear's hit single "Ho fatto l'amore con me" from her 1980 Ariola album Diamonds for Breakfast
Diamonds for Breakfast
Diamonds For Breakfast is the fourth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in January, 1980 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc...
.
2004 saw Lear's vocals used for an entirely different purpose; this time as a voice artist joining the international cast of Disney/Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
's latest blockbuster of the time, The Incredibles
The Incredibles
The Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by...
. She played the role of fashion designer Edna Mode, originally voiced by Brad Bird
Brad Bird
Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an Academy Award-winning American director, voice actor, animator and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles and Ratatouille . He also adapted and directed the critically acclaimed 2D animated 1999 Warner Brothers...
, in both the French and Italian dubbing
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
s.
In 2004, Amanda's popular 1970s recording, "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)
Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)
"Enigma " - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978.- Song information :"Enigma" was released as the third single from Lear's second album, Sweet Revenge. Depending on territory, "Run Baby Run", "Hollywood Flashback" or "Gold" made the single B-side, all from Sweet Revenge. Different...
" from 1978 Sweet Revenge
Sweet Revenge (Amanda Lear album)
Sweet Revenge is the second studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in February, 1978 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc. The album contained European hit singles "Follow Me", "Enigma ", "Gold" and "Run Baby Run"...
, was featured in TV ads for chocolate bar Kinder Bueno
Kinder Bueno
Kinder Bueno is a chocolate bar made by Italian confectionery maker Ferrero. Kinder Bueno is a hazelnut cream filled wafer with a chocolate covering. It is sold in packs of two, three, six, and boxes of twelve.Kinder Bueno was first marketed in Germany in 1990...
in Central Europe which resulted in it becoming something of a cult hit again and appearing on a number of European singles chart compilations, nearly three decades after its original release. Shortly thereafter, Spanish actor and singer Pedro Marín
Pedro Marín
Pedro Marín is a Spanish pop singer, actor and TV performer.-Biography:Marín débuted on the popular music scene in Spain as a teen idol in the early 1980s with hits such as "Que no" and "Aire." He was the first Spanish artist to work with synthesisers and electronic instruments being a reference...
had a hit with a rock version of Lear's 1978 single "Run Baby Run
Run Baby Run (Amanda Lear song)
"Run Baby Run" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Run Baby Run" was the fourth part of the suite included on the Sweet Revenge album, telling a story about a girl being tempted by a Devil. It was released as the second single from Sweet...
", also originally from Sweet Revenge, which became the inspiration for a full-length tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
entitled Diamonds – Pedro Marín canta Amanda Lear. Since 2004 Lear has also been a regular member of the judging panel on popular TV show Ballando con le Stelle, the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars
Dancing with the Stars
Dancing with the Stars is the name of several international television series based on the format of the British TV series Strictly Come Dancing, which is distributed by BBC Worldwide – the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the format has been licensed to over 35 countries...
, broadcast on Rai Uno
Rai Uno
Rai 1 is the primary television station of RAI, the national public service broadcaster, and the most watched television channel in Italy. It was born as Rai Tv from 1954 to 1961, called Programma Nazionale from 1961 to 1979, after called Rete 1 from 1979 to 1982, then called Rai Uno from 1982 to...
.
In Bastian Schweitzer's drama Gigolo (2005) she played a has-been star having an affair with the young Karim (Salim Kéchiouche
Salim Kéchiouche
Salim Kechiouche is a French actor.- Early life :While only 15 years old, he was first discovered by French actor director Gaël Morel. Morel gave him his first role in a feature film, À Toute Vitesse , released in 1996...
), a gigolo trying to get his life back on track, trapped in a spiral of self-destruction in the artificial jet-set world of Paris. Lear has also appeared in several character roles in independent movies.
With the disco revival obviously still going strong and Lear celebrating thirty years in the music business, November 2005 saw the release of the first CD compilation to be both authorised and promoted by Lear; Forever Glam!. It contained the greatest hits from the 70s combined with selected tracks from the 80s, 90s and 2000s, plus some new recordings, including the cover of Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
's "Copacabana
Copacabana (song)
"Copacabana", also known as "Copacabana ", is a 1978 song which was sung by Barry Manilow and written by Jack Feldman, Barry Manilow, and Bruce Sussman.-Song information:...
". The album included also a few rare tracks, like "As Time Goes By", and single only songs, for example "Assassino
Assassino
- Song information :In 1984 Amanda Lear signed with WEA Italiana for the release of a single-only song "Assassino". This uptempo dance track was written by Amanda Lear and three Italian composers: Cristiano Malgioglio, Mauro Lusini, Luigi Lopez. It was recorded in Italian and English, both...
".
In 2006 "Queen of Chinatown
Queen of Chinatown
"Queen of Chinatown" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Ariola Records.- Song information :...
" was remixed and re-issued as a single, then credited to DJEnetix feat. Amanda Lear.
In September of the same year, the German subsidiary of Sony BMG followed suit with their comprehensive three disc box set The Sphinx - Das beste aus den Jahren 1976-1983
The Sphinx - Das Beste Aus Den Jahren 1976-1983
The Sphinx - Das Beste Aus Den Jahren 1976–1983, internationally known as The Best of Amanda Lear, is a three disc 42 track box set of recordings by French singer Amanda Lear released by Sony BMG Music Entertainment in Germany in 2006....
. This digitally remastered 42-track collection was eagerly awaited by many fans since none of the six original Ariola
Ariola Records
Ariola Records is a German record label. As of the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of BMG which in turn has since become a part of the international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment...
albums, with the exception of the aforementioned Sweet Revenge, was released officially in CD format.
In July 2006, Lear was decorated with the award Chevalier dans l'Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
by the French Ministre Of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres
Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres
Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres , often known as RDDV, is a French politician, France's Minister of Culture from 2004 to 2007...
in recognition of her contributions to French arts and sciences, or more specifically for having "significantly contributed to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance", as the motivation reads. The occasion was slightly marred by the fact that the name appearing on the honour's list was 'Mme Amanda TAPP dite Amanda LEAR', marking the first time that the French authorities publicly confirmed that Lear's birth name indeed was Tapp, something she herself up until that point had denied.
On 30 October 2006 the album With Love
With Love (Amanda Lear album)
With Love is the thirteen studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released on October 16, 2006 by Dance Street.- Album information :With Love a.k.a. Amour Toujours a.k.a. My Baby Just Cares for Me is a cover album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released in France in October 2006, and...
was released in France by label Dance Street. This tribute is an extension of the ballads included on 2001's Heart
Heart (Amanda Lear album)
-Personnel:*Amanda Lear - lead vocals*Cécile Maestre - backing vocals*Sandrine Foguère - backing vocals*Judith Flessel-Toto - backing vocals*Stefano Meghenzani - piano, Rhodes & accordion*Patrick Bacqueville - trombone*Nicolas Baudino - flute, saxophone...
as it exclusively covers evergreens and jazz standards by the diva's own favourite divas, among them "C'est Magnifique" (Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
), "Is That All There Is?
Is That All There Is?
"Is That All There Is?" is a song written by American songwriting team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller during the 1960s. It became a hit for American singer Peggy Lee from her recording in November 1969...
" (Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
), "Whatever Lola Wants" (Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
), "Love for Sale" (Hildegard Knef
Hildegard Knef
Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was a German actress, singer and writer. She was billed in some English language films as Hildegard Neff or Hildegarde Neff.-Early years:...
) and "My Baby Just Cares for Me
My Baby Just Cares for Me
"My Baby Just Cares for Me" is a jazz standard written by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was written for the 1930 film version of the 1928 Ziegfeld musical comedy Whoopee!, starring Eddie Cantor. It is known as the signature tune of singer and pianist Nina Simone.-Nina Simone...
" (Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
). With Love was well received by the French music critics and was released in the rest of Europe by label ZYX Music
ZYX Music
ZYX Music is a German record label which was founded in 1971 by Bernhard Mikulski. Until 1992, the label's name was Pop-Import Bernhard Mikulski. The label specialized in disco and early house music. Founder Bernhard Mikulski is credited with coining the term Italo disco in the 1980s...
in early 2007.
In the summer of 2008 Lear hosted several TV shows: France 3
France 3
France 3 is the second largest French public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5, and France Ô....
's La Folle Histoire du Disco, Summer of the '70s on ARTE
Arte
Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
and Battaglia fra Sexy Star on the E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
channel in Italy and in France. The Italian version of the album With Love
With Love (Amanda Lear album)
With Love is the thirteen studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released on October 16, 2006 by Dance Street.- Album information :With Love a.k.a. Amour Toujours a.k.a. My Baby Just Cares for Me is a cover album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released in France in October 2006, and...
, retitled Amour Toujours, was released in 2008, and featured two bonus tracks: an updated dance version of "Queen of Chinatown
Queen of Chinatown
"Queen of Chinatown" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Ariola Records.- Song information :...
" and a salsa version of "Tomorrow
Tomorrow (Amanda Lear song)
"Tomorrow" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Polydor Records.-Song information:"Tomorrow" was released as the third single from Amanda's debut album I Am a Photograph in 1977. It was written by the singer herself and Rainer Pietsch . The track became one of her biggest...
", both originally from Lear's debut album I Am a Photograph
I Am a Photograph
I Am A Photograph is the debut album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in April 1977 by West German label Ariola Records. It contains the European hit singles "La Bagarre" , "Blood and Honey" , "Tomorrow", "Alphabet" and "Blue Tango." Later editions of the album also feature the single "Queen...
.
2008–present: Brief Encounters, Brand New Love Affair, I don't like Disco and theatre
In November 2008 Amanda Lear announced on a French television show that she has recorded a brand new album, entitled Brief EncountersBrief Encounters
For the 1945 film, see Brief Encounter.For the 1967 film, see Brief Encounters .Brief Encounters is the fourteenth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear. The album was released in Italy on October 16, 2009 as a double CD set containing twenty five new recordings sung in both English and French,...
with a mixture of disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
originals, returning to her classic sound, as well as some classic covers from artists such as Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
. Another of the new songs recorded for the album is the Boney M.-esque disco number "Doin' Fine", co-written by disco writer/producer Frank Farian
Frank Farian
Frank Farian , is a German record producer and songwriter. He started out as a trained cook before moving into the music industry...
. The song is essentially a whole new composition featuring the famous string arrangement from Boney M.'s 1976 #1 hit "Daddy Cool", and sees Lear teaming up with British producers Carl M Cox and Nathan Thomas, who between them have worked with the likes of Pete Waterman
Pete Waterman
Peter Alan Waterman OBE is an English record producer, occasional songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Waterman songwriting team he wrote and produced many hit singles...
, Sinitta, Keane, Samantha Fox
Samantha Fox
Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox is an English dance-pop singer, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at the age of 16, she began her topless modeling career on Page Three of The Sun, and went on to become a popular pin-up girl...
and Melanie C amongst others.
The double-disc Brief Encounters
Brief Encounters
For the 1945 film, see Brief Encounter.For the 1967 film, see Brief Encounters .Brief Encounters is the fourteenth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear. The album was released in Italy on October 16, 2009 as a double CD set containing twenty five new recordings sung in both English and French,...
was finally given an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
release on 16 October 2009; the lead single
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
"Someone Else's Eyes
Someone Else's Eyes
"Someone Else's Eyes" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 2009 by Just Good Music For Your Ears.- Song information :"Someone Else's Eyes" features Italian singer Deadstar , who wrote both music and lyrics as well as produced the song. It is a mid-tempo pop song, lyrically a break-up...
", a duet with Italian singer/producer Deadstar, in 2010 was remixed by Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
. The album has been made available in three versions: standard and "acoustique" (both released in 2009), and also as Brief Encounters Reloaded, containing remixes and released digitally in 2010.
On October 14, Edina Music announced the release of another album entitled Brand New Love Affair
Brand New Love Affair
-External links:*...
, which has been described by the label as "8 new songs to bring back Amanda Lear to the dancefloor". The album was released in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
on November 30, 2009 and was produced by Peter Wilson & Chris Richards in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the same team behind new recordings for Haywoode and Nicki French
Nicki French
Nicola S. French is a female English singer and dancer. She is best known for her 1995 dance cover version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart", and for representing the United Kingdom in 2000 at Eurovision in Stockholm.-Career:French provided backing vocals on Rose-Marie's 1992 album, Emotional Exposure...
. The title track
Title track
Title track may refer to:*Title track, a recorded song having the same name as the album or movie it comes from*Title Track, a song on the album The Stage Names*Title Track, a song on the album We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes...
and "C'est la vie" were also written by Wilson/Richards. Two singles was issued from the album: "Brand New Love Affair (In the Mix)" and "I'm Coming Up
I'm Coming Up
"I'm Coming Up" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear, released in 2010 by Edina Music and Outsider Music.-Song information:The song was the third and the last single from Lear's 2009 EP Brand New Love Affair. It was released as the maxi single containing no less than 7 versions of the title tracks...
". The second one was available also in EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
format from June 29, 2010 and has been produced by Richard Morel
Richard Morel
Richard Morel is an American singer-songwriter, DJ, remixer and record producer from the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. He has worked extensively with Washington D.C.-based duo Deep Dish, co-writing, co-producing, performing and singing on many of their tracks, most notably on their albums Junk...
and included remixes by Richard Morel
Richard Morel
Richard Morel is an American singer-songwriter, DJ, remixer and record producer from the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. He has worked extensively with Washington D.C.-based duo Deep Dish, co-writing, co-producing, performing and singing on many of their tracks, most notably on their albums Junk...
, Tommie Sunshine
Tommie Sunshine
Tommie Sunshine is a record producer, remixer, DJ and songwriter of electronic music from Chicago currently living in Brooklyn, New York. He is perhaps best known for creating dance remixes to popular rock and alternative songs, by artists such as Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Good Charlotte,...
and Sammy Jo and Babydaddy
Babydaddy
Scott Hoffman , known by his stage name Babydaddy, is the Ivor Novello Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, backing vocalist and lyricist for the American glam rock band, Scissor Sisters...
from Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters are an American band "spawned by the scuzzy, gay nightlife scene of New York" who took their name from a sexual position between two women also known as tribadism...
.
From March 2009 throughout spring 2011 Amanda was touring France with the very successful play Panique au Ministère. In April a brand new single "Chinese Walk
Chinese Walk
"Chinese Walk" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear, released in 2011 by Little Boom Records.-Song information:On "Chinese Walk" Lear worked with French producers Steve Campioni and Alain Mendiburu. Music is credited to composer Marin du Halgouet, and lyrics were written by Amanda Lear in a...
" was released and the singer joined the panel of judges of the Italian TV show Ciak... si canta! on Rai Uno
Rai Uno
Rai 1 is the primary television station of RAI, the national public service broadcaster, and the most watched television channel in Italy. It was born as Rai Tv from 1954 to 1961, called Programma Nazionale from 1961 to 1979, after called Rete 1 from 1979 to 1982, then called Rai Uno from 1982 to...
.
Since September 2011 she's been playing the lead role in Lady Oscar (and adaptation of Claude Magnier's 1958 pièce
Piece
Piece or pieces may refer to:* A single unit of something* An informative or creative work, such as a work of art, journalism, academic research, etc.** Musical piece, a work of music, sometimes called an opus* Chess piece* Jigsaw puzzle piece...
Oscar) at the Théâtre de la Renaissance
Théâtre de la Renaissance
The name Théâtre de la Renaissance has been used successively for three distinct Parisian theatre companies. The first two companies, which were short-lived enterprises in the 19th century, used the Salle Ventadour, now an office building on the Rue Méhul in the 2nd arrondissement.The current...
in Paris. Her upcoming studio album, I Don't Like Disco will be released in late November.
Albums
- 1977: I Am a PhotographI Am a PhotographI Am A Photograph is the debut album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in April 1977 by West German label Ariola Records. It contains the European hit singles "La Bagarre" , "Blood and Honey" , "Tomorrow", "Alphabet" and "Blue Tango." Later editions of the album also feature the single "Queen...
- 1978: Sweet RevengeSweet Revenge (Amanda Lear album)Sweet Revenge is the second studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in February, 1978 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc. The album contained European hit singles "Follow Me", "Enigma ", "Gold" and "Run Baby Run"...
- 1979: Never Trust a Pretty FaceNever Trust a Pretty FaceNever Trust a Pretty Face is the third studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in January, 1979 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc...
- 1980: Diamonds for BreakfastDiamonds for BreakfastDiamonds For Breakfast is the fourth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in January, 1980 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc...
- 1981: IncognitoIncognito (Amanda Lear album)Incognito is the fifth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in March, 1981 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc. The album contains singles "Nymphomania", "Hollywood Is Just A Dream When You're Seventeen", "Love Amnesia", "Red Tape", "New York" and "Égal". Just like 1978's Sweet...
- 1982: Ieri, oggiIeri, OggiIeri, Oggi is the first compilation album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in 1982 on Ariola Records. It was released only for the italian market.-Album information:...
- 1983: Tam-TamTam-Tam (Amanda Lear album)Tam-Tam is the sixth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in December, 1983 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc. After a series of charttopping albums and hit singles all through the late Seventies and early Eighties Tam-Tam became Lear's final and least-successful album for...
- 1985: A LA LA L is the first EP by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1985. A L was issued by minor Italian label Five Records when Lear was at the lowest point of her musical career and primarily working as a TV entertainer for Canale 5 in Italy....
- 1987: Secret PassionSecret Passion-Credits:*Produced, arranged by Christian De Walden and Steve Singer for Zig Zag Productions, USA*Executive producers: Steve Singer, Carlo Mezzano & Christian De Walden*Mixed by Greg Penny & Christian De Walden...
- 1989: Super 20Super 20Super 20 is the second compilation by French singer Amanda Lear released on BMG-Ariola in 1989. This is also the first compilation available in West Germany and in South Africa.- Album information :...
- 1989: Uomini più uominiUomini Più UominiUomini Più Uomini is the eighth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, originally issued on label Ricordi International in 1989. This was her first album feature only tracks sung in Italian...
- 1990: Tant qu'il y aura des hommesTant Qu'il Y Aura Des HommesTant Qu'il Y Aura Des Hommes is the ninth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released on French label Carrere Records in 1989, and a re-release of Italian Ricordi International's Uomini Più Uomini, issued the same year...
- 1993: CadavrexquisCadavrexquisCadavrexquis is the teenth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released in France 1993 on label Chène Music. This including her European comeback dance hit "Fantasy" plus updated versions of three of her hits from the seventies, her signature tune "Follow Me", "Fashion Pack " and "Lili...
- 1995: Alter EgoAlter Ego (Amanda Lear album)Alter Ego is the eleventh studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released in Germany on November 21, 1995 on label ZYX Music. This album, like other several predecessors, was a commercial failure and failed to chart.- Album information :...
- 1998: Back in Your ArmsBack in Your ArmsBack In Your Arms is the third compilation album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in May 1998 by Dig It Int'l. The release follows her two previous greatest hits albums, Ieri, Oggi released in Italy, and Poet Amanda Lear released in the former U.S.S.R....
- 2001: HeartHeart (Amanda Lear album)-Personnel:*Amanda Lear - lead vocals*Cécile Maestre - backing vocals*Sandrine Foguère - backing vocals*Judith Flessel-Toto - backing vocals*Stefano Meghenzani - piano, Rhodes & accordion*Patrick Bacqueville - trombone*Nicolas Baudino - flute, saxophone...
- 2003: TendanceTendanceTendance is an expanded re-release of French singer Amanda Lear's 2001 album Heart, by issued by Sony Music Germany in 2003, taking its title from a French TV-series hosted by Lear at the time...
- 2005: Paris by Night - Greatest Hits
- 2005: Forever Glam!
- 2005: Sings Evergreens
- 2006: The Sphinx - Das beste aus den Jahren 1976-1983The Sphinx - Das Beste Aus Den Jahren 1976-1983The Sphinx - Das Beste Aus Den Jahren 1976–1983, internationally known as The Best of Amanda Lear, is a three disc 42 track box set of recordings by French singer Amanda Lear released by Sony BMG Music Entertainment in Germany in 2006....
- 2006: With LoveWith Love (Amanda Lear album)With Love is the thirteen studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released on October 16, 2006 by Dance Street.- Album information :With Love a.k.a. Amour Toujours a.k.a. My Baby Just Cares for Me is a cover album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released in France in October 2006, and...
- 2009: Brief EncountersBrief EncountersFor the 1945 film, see Brief Encounter.For the 1967 film, see Brief Encounters .Brief Encounters is the fourteenth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear. The album was released in Italy on October 16, 2009 as a double CD set containing twenty five new recordings sung in both English and French,...
- 2009: Brand New Love AffairBrand New Love Affair-External links:*...
- 2011: I Don't Like Disco
Most popular singles
- 1975: "La Bagarre
- 1976: "Blood and HoneyBlood and Honey"Blood and Honey" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1976 by Ariola Records.-Song information:"Blood and Honey" was released as a single in December 1976 and later was included on Amanda's debut album I Am a Photograph. It was written by Amanda Lear herself and Anthony Monn , with...
" - 1977: "TomorrowTomorrow (Amanda Lear song)"Tomorrow" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Polydor Records.-Song information:"Tomorrow" was released as the third single from Amanda's debut album I Am a Photograph in 1977. It was written by the singer herself and Rainer Pietsch . The track became one of her biggest...
" - 1977: "Blue Tango"
- 1977: "Queen of ChinatownQueen of Chinatown"Queen of Chinatown" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Ariola Records.- Song information :...
" - 1978: "Follow MeFollow Me (Amanda Lear song)"Follow Me" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Follow Me" was released as the first single from Amanda's second album, Sweet Revenge, in the spring of 1978. The B-side of the single was "Mother, Look What They've Done to Me" in most of the...
" - 1978: "Run Baby RunRun Baby Run (Amanda Lear song)"Run Baby Run" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Run Baby Run" was the fourth part of the suite included on the Sweet Revenge album, telling a story about a girl being tempted by a Devil. It was released as the second single from Sweet...
" - 1978: "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)"Enigma " - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978.- Song information :"Enigma" was released as the third single from Lear's second album, Sweet Revenge. Depending on territory, "Run Baby Run", "Hollywood Flashback" or "Gold" made the single B-side, all from Sweet Revenge. Different...
" - 1978: "Gold"
- 1978: "The SphinxThe Sphinx (song)"The Sphinx" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978 by Ariola Records.- Song information :The song's lyrics were written by Amanda Lear and music composed by Anthony Monn, who in addition produced the track. German musician Ralf Nowy is credited for arrangement of the song...
" - 1979: "Fashion PackFashion Pack"Fashion Pack" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1979 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Fashion Pack" was released as the second single off Never Trust a Pretty Face in early 1979. "Black Holes" from the same album made the B-side on most of the single releases...
" - 1979: "Fabulous (Lover, Love Me)"
- 1980: "DiamondsDiamonds (Amanda Lear song)"Diamonds" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1980 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Diamonds" was released as the second single from Amanda's fourth album, Diamonds for Breakfast. It was another Monn-Lear collaboration, with the singer writing the lyrics and Monn providing...
" - 1980: "Solomon Gundie"
- 1981: "EgalEgal- Song information :"Egal" was the first single from Amanda's fifth studio album, Incognito. The author of the lyrics was the singer herself and the music was composed by Anthony Monn, her long-time collaborator. The track is arranged in the style of a chanson and its lyrics tell about a...
" - 1982: "Fever"
- 1982: "Incredibilmente DonnaIncredibilmente Donna"Incredibilmente donna" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1982 by Ariola Records.- Song information :The song was released as the first and the only single from Ieri, oggi, a 1982 compilation album issued exclusively for Italian market. It was written by Sergio Menegale and Raffaele...
" - 1983: "Love Your BodyLove Your Body"Love Your Body" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1983 by Ariola Records.- Song information :"Love Your Body" was the third non-album single released by Amanda Lear. It was written by Peter Lüdermann, Alf Schwegeler and Amanda Lear. The track displayed a hi-NRG synthpop sound and...
" - 1984: "AssassinoAssassino- Song information :In 1984 Amanda Lear signed with WEA Italiana for the release of a single-only song "Assassino". This uptempo dance track was written by Amanda Lear and three Italian composers: Cristiano Malgioglio, Mauro Lusini, Luigi Lopez. It was recorded in Italian and English, both...
" - 1985: "No Credit CardNo Credit Card- Song information :In 1985 Amanda Lear signed with now defunct Merak Music and would release two singles through the label: "No Credit Card" and "Women". "No Credit Card" was an energetic dance track with synthpop arrangement, resembling Frankie Goes to Hollywood's musical style. It was written...
" - 1986: "Les Femmes"
- 1987: "Wild Thing"
- 1987: "Aphrodisiaque"
- 1988: "Thank You"
- 1989: "MetamorphoseMétamorphose"Métamorphose" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1989 by Carrere Records.- Song information :"Métamorphose" was the first single from Amanda's French-Italian album Tant qu'il y aura des hommes. The album was actually a re-release of Uomini più uomini, and consisted mostly of down-...
" - 1992: "Fantasy"
- 1995: "Everytime You Touch MeEverytime You Touch Me"Everytime You Touch Me" is a song by American electronica musician Moby, released as the third single from his album Everything Is Wrong. The vocals of "Everytime You Touch Me" are performed by Rozz Morehead and Kochie Banton, both of whom appear on Moby's previous single, "Feeling So Real"....
" - 1995: "Peep!"
- 1996: "Angel LoveAngel LoveAngel Love was a comic book series created by Barbara Slate, published by DC Comics in the 1980s, as well as the lead character of this series. The first issue was dated August 1986...
" - 2001: "Love BoatLove Boat (song)"Love Boat" is a single by Jack Jones released in 1979 by MGM Records.-Song information:The song was written by Charles Fox and Paul Williams . It became the theme music of popular American television series The Love Boat, broadcast between 1977 and 1986...
" - 2002: "I Just Wanna Dance AgainI Just Wanna Dance Again"I Just Wanna Dance Again" is a single by French singer Amanda Lear released in 2002 by Le Marais Prod.-Song information:"I Just Wanna Dance Again" was the second single from Amanda's comeback album Heart. The single initially came out in April 2002, then its "maxi" versions were released within...
" - 2005: "Copacabana"
- 2006: "Paris By NightParis by NightParis By Night is a popular Vietnamese language musical variety show, produced by an Overseas Vietnamese company Thúy Nga and hosted by Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Duyên, featuring musical performances by modern pop stars, traditional folk songs, one-act plays, and sketch comedy...
" - 2009: "Someone Else's EyesSomeone Else's Eyes"Someone Else's Eyes" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 2009 by Just Good Music For Your Ears.- Song information :"Someone Else's Eyes" features Italian singer Deadstar , who wrote both music and lyrics as well as produced the song. It is a mid-tempo pop song, lyrically a break-up...
" - 2010: "I'm Coming UpI'm Coming Up"I'm Coming Up" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear, released in 2010 by Edina Music and Outsider Music.-Song information:The song was the third and the last single from Lear's 2009 EP Brand New Love Affair. It was released as the maxi single containing no less than 7 versions of the title tracks...
" - 2011: "Chinese WalkChinese Walk"Chinese Walk" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear, released in 2011 by Little Boom Records.-Song information:On "Chinese Walk" Lear worked with French producers Steve Campioni and Alain Mendiburu. Music is credited to composer Marin du Halgouet, and lyrics were written by Amanda Lear in a...
" - 2011: "I Don't Like Disco"
Filmography
- 1968: Ne jouez pas avec les MartiensNe jouez pas avec les MartiensNe jouez pas avec les Martiens is a 1968 comedy film starring Jean Rochefort and Macha Méril...
- 1977: I Am a PhotographI Am a PhotographI Am A Photograph is the debut album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in April 1977 by West German label Ariola Records. It contains the European hit singles "La Bagarre" , "Blood and Honey" , "Tomorrow", "Alphabet" and "Blue Tango." Later editions of the album also feature the single "Queen...
(album-length video) - 1978: Follie di Notte
- 1978: StryxStryx- Description :Stryx thematically referred to Hell, devils and underworld. The scenography featured elements resembling Middle Ages-like gloomy castles and caves....
- 1982–83: Premiatissima
- 1984–86: W le Donne
- 1989: Ars Amanda
- 1993: Une Femme pour Moi
- 1995: Peep! (Beware of the Blondes)
- 1999: Il Brutto Anatroccolo
- 2001–03: Cocktail d'Amore
- 2002: Le Défi (Dance Challenge)
- 2004: The IncrediblesThe IncrediblesThe Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by...
- 2005: Sous le soleilSous le soleilSous le soleil is a French soap opera broadcast on French major channel TF1 since 1996. It has been a huge success in many countries, particularly in...
- 2005: Memorias de Arkaran
- 2005–09: Ballando con le StelleDancing with the StarsDancing with the Stars is the name of several international television series based on the format of the British TV series Strictly Come Dancing, which is distributed by BBC Worldwide – the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the format has been licensed to over 35 countries...
- 2008: Chasseurs de DragonsDragon Hunters (film)Dragon Hunters is a 2008 French computer-animated fantasy film, directed by creator Arthur Qwak and Guillaume Ivernel. It stars the voices of Vincent Lindon, Patrick Timsit and Marie Drion. The film was produced by Futurikon, and co-produced by LuxAnimation, Mac Guff Ligne and Trixter...
- 2008: Bloody Flowers
External links
- Amanda Lear Official Website
- Amanda Lear Official Page at Facebook
- Amanda Lear Official Page at Twitter
- Amanda Lear Official Page at MySpace
- Amanda Lear Official Page at Last.fmLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
- Amanda Lear Official Channel at YouTube
- Amanda Lear Official Channel at DailymotionDailymotionDailymotion is a video sharing service website, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement, Paris, France. According to Comscore, Dailymotion is the second largest video site in the world after YouTube....
- Amanda Lear at Official.fm