| Coordinates | 41°52′55″N87°37′40″N |
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| name | Amanda Lear |
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| background | solo_singer |
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| birth name | A. Tapp |
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| alias | Amanda Lear |
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| birth date | 18 November 1939 or 1946 |
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| Birth place | British Hong Kong or 1950 Saigon |
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| genre | Pop, Eurodisco, Italo Disco, Dance, Dance-pop, Jazz, New Wave, Rock |
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| occupation | singer, lyricist, composer, painter, model, television presenter, actress, novelist |
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| instrument | vocals |
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| years active | 1975–present |
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| label | Ariola Records, Carrere Records, Ricordi International, Chène Music, ZYX Music, Le Marais Prod., Dance Street, Edina Music, Just Good Music For Your Ears, PMG Music, Outsider Music, Little Boom Records |
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| associated acts | Salvador Dalí, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry |
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| website | www.amanda-lear.com
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Amanda Lear (born 18 November 1939 or 1946, in British Hong Kong, or 1950 in Saigon) 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 a muse of the 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 was a million-selling 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.
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-Arts, 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, but since the book's release Ashley and Lear had not spoken to each other for years.
Career
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 Rabanne. 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, Pattie Boyd and Anita Pallenberg. 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 happenings, as spectacular as the art itself, and then frequently with Lear as the central figure. Joining the court of the Dalís she also regularly socialised with celebrities and European royalty like Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco. Dalí served as a mentor to Lear; travelling 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.
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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. She was briefly involved with guitarist Chris Spedding. 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.
1975–1983: The disco period in Ariola Records
''I Am a Photograph'' and ''Sweet Revenge''
In 1975, disillusioned by a shallow but surprisingly conservative fashion industry and encouraged by boyfriend
David Bowie, 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 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 musicians as on contemporaneous recordings by best-selling Germany-based disco acts like Donna Summer, 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.
|title=Amanda Lear Biography |author=Michael Freedberg |publisher=Allmusic |accessdate=6 February 2009}}}}
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 covers 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 Photograph'''s 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 No. 2 hit "Queen of Chinatown", included a free pin-up poster with Lear posing topless, a photo originally featured in a ''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 Faustian 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 No. 3 in the Netherlands, No. 7 in Switzerland, No. 6 in Austria, No. 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.
''Never Trust a Pretty Face''
Later in 1978 Lear and Monn teamed up for ''
Never Trust a Pretty Face'', 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. Her career as a recording artist in the United Kingdom met with the same result; despite promotional gimmicks like red vinyl 12" singles and the ''Never Trust a Pretty Face'' album being released as a limited edition picture disc, "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 The Beatles, ABBA and Boney M. 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'' as bonus features. 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".
New Wave style; ''Diamonds for Breakfast'' and ''Incognito''
In late 1979 Lear recorded ''
Diamonds for Breakfast'', 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" (Translated: "I Made Love to Myself").
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. She declared: "I really wanted to be the new Tina Turner, a rough rock singer, she's still my all-time favourite rockstar", and ''Diamonds for Breakfast'' was a step in that direction. 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" ("The 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 informed Lear that she 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 paradoxically 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 and she remained with Ariola until the end of 1983, as stipulated in the original contract. In 1982 another Italian language single, the ballad "Incredibilmente Donna", was released, from the greatest hits compilation ''Ieri, Oggi'' (''Yesterday, Today'').
''Tam-Tam'' and television career in Italy
Double A-side single "
Love Your Body"/"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" and "As Time Goes By from the film ''Casablanca''. The EP, entitled ''A L'', was recorded for Five Records. At this time Lear also recorded several single-only songs for various European labels, including "Assassino" and "No Credit Card".
1987–1998: Music comeback attempts and television career
After having worked four years as a TV entertainer for Italian Canale 5 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 Passion'''s 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, on which she interviewed 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 both also with varying degrees of commercial success in Europe itself. Instead she focussed on her career in television and movies, for example 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''. The album failed to make much impact but these re-recordings have since been featured on several mid-price compilations in Europe.
2000–2007: ''Heart'', TV career and art exhibitions
In December 2000 Lear's husband
Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle 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.
In 2002 Lear starred in French director Blanca Li's movie ''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.
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An art 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 also a self-ironic comment on Lear's own "ambiguous" mythology, which was the theme for the exhibition. ''Sogni, Miti, Colori'' (''Dreams, Myths, Colours'') followed in 2008.
On the set of her Italia 1 TV series ''Il Brutto Anatroccolo'' (''The Ugly Duckling''), a makeover show that ran for a couple of years from 1999 onwards, Lear met male model and actor Manuel Casella, some thirty years her junior. Lear and Casella were a couple between the years 2002 and 2008 and were then featured prominently in the pages of the tabloid press in both France and Italy. The theme tune to the ''Brutto Anatroccolo'' 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 re-released 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 dubbings.
In 2004, Lear's popular 1970s recording, "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)" from 1978's ''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 ''Strictly Come Dancing''/''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 a cover of Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". The album also included a few rarities, such as Lear's 1985 recording of "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'', were 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''.
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 had recorded a brand new album, entitled ''
Brief Encounters'', 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 No. 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, was remixed by
Boy George. The ''Brief Encounters'' album was released in three different versions: standard and "acoustique", both released in 2009, and also as ''Brief Encounters Reloaded'', containing remixes and released digitally in 2010.
From March 2009 throughout Spring 2011 Lear toured France with the very successful comedy play ''Panique au Ministère''.
On 14 October 2009, Edina Music announced the release of another album entitled ''Brand New Love Affair'', which was described by the label as "''8 new songs to bring back Amanda Lear to the dancefloor''". The album was released in France on 30 November 2009 and was produced by Peter Wilson & Chris Richards in Australia, the team behind new recordings for Haywoode and Nicki French. The title track and "C'est la vie" were also composed by Wilson/Richards. Two singles were issued from the album: "Brand New Love Affair (In the Mix)" and "I'm Coming Up". The latter, produced by Richard Morel, was also available in EP format from 29 June 2010 and included remixes by Morel, Tommie Sunshine and Sammy Jo and Babydaddy from Scissor Sisters.
In 2009 Lear also released her second autobiography, entitled ''Je ne suis pas celle que vous croyez...'' (translated: ''I'm Not the One You Think I Am...'').
In April 2011 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 Lear has been playing the lead role in ''Lady Oscar'', an adaptation of Claude Magnier's 1958 play ''Oscar'', at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris.
On January 9 2012 the disco diva released a new studio album in France: the humourously titled ''I Don't Like Disco''. Three singles have been issued from the album so far: "Chinese Walk", the title track "I Don't Like Disco" and "La Bête et la Belle" (translated: "The Beast and the Beauty").
Discography
Albums
1977: ''I Am a Photograph''
1978: ''Sweet Revenge''
1979: ''Never Trust a Pretty Face''
1980: ''Diamonds for Breakfast''
1981: ''Incognito''
1982: ''Ieri, oggi''
1983: ''Tam-Tam''
1985: ''A L''
1987: ''Secret Passion''
1989: ''Uomini Più Uomini''
1990: ''Tant Qu'il Y Aura Des Hommes''
1993: ''Cadavrexquis''
1995: ''Alter Ego''
1998: ''Back in Your Arms''
2001: ''Heart''
2003: ''Tendance''
2005: ''Forever Glam!''
2006: ''The Sphinx - Das beste aus den Jahren 1976-1983''
2006: ''With Love''
2009: ''Brief Encounters''
2009: ''Brand New Love Affair''
2012: ''I Don't Like Disco''
Singles
1975: "La Bagarre''
1976: "Blood and Honey"
1977: "Tomorrow"
1977: "Blue Tango"
1977: "Queen of Chinatown"
1978: "Follow Me"
1978: "Run Baby Run"
1978: "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)"
1978: "Gold"
1978: "The Sphinx"
1979: "Fashion Pack"
1979: "Fabulous (Lover, Love Me)"
1980: "Diamonds"
1980: "Solomon Gundie"
1981: "Egal"
1982: "Fever"
1982: "Incredibilmente Donna"
1983: "Love Your Body"
1984: "Assassino"
1985: "No Credit Card"
1986: "Les Femmes"
1987: "Wild Thing"
1987: "Aphrodisiaque"
1988: "Thank You"
1989: "Metamorphose"
1992: "Fantasy"
1995: "Everytime You Touch Me"
1995: "Peep!"
1996: "Angel Love"
2000: "From here to eternity"
2001: "Love Boat"
2002: "I Just Wanna Dance Again"
2005: "Copacabana"
2006: "Paris By Night"
2009: "Someone Else's Eyes"
2010: "I'm Coming Up"
2011: "Chinese Walk"
2011: "La Belle Et La Bête"
2011: "I Don't Like Disco"
Filmography
1968: ''Ne jouez pas avec les Martiens''
1977: ''I Am a Photograph'' (album-length video)
1978: ''Follie di Notte''
1978: ''Stryx''
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 Incredibles''
2005: ''Sous le soleil''
2005: ''Memorias de Arkaran''
2005–09: ''Ballando con le Stelle''
2008: ''Chasseurs de Dragons''
2008: ''Bloody Flowers''
Bibliography
April Ashley's Odyssey. ISBN 0-224-01849-3. Ashley, April (1982).
Eine Frau und mehr . Quadriga. ISBN 3-88679-328-1.Haag, Romy
The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí Verlag : W.W.Norton; Auflage: American e. (November 1998) Englisch ISBN 0393046249 / ISBN 978-0393046243
References
Notes
General
Amanda Lear at Discogs
External links
Amanda Lear Official Page at Facebook
Amanda Lear Official Page at Twitter
Amanda Lear Official Page at MySpace
Amanda Lear Official Page at Last.fm
Amanda Lear Official Channel at YouTube
Amanda Lear Official Channel at Dailymotion
Amanda Lear at Official.fm
Category:1939 births
Category:Eurodisco musicians
Category:Eurodance musicians
Category:Female New Wave singers
Category:French actors
Category:French artists
Category:French dance musicians
Category:French female singers
Category:French novelists
Category:French painters
Category:French pop singers
Category:French women artists
Category:French television personalities
Category:Italian television personalities
Category:LGBT rights activists from France
Category:Living people
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