| Amanda Lear |
Amanda Lear in 2011 |
| Background information |
| Birth name |
A. Tapp |
| Also known as |
Amanda Lear |
| Born |
18 November 1939 or 1946
British Hong Kong or 1950 Saigon[1] |
| Genres |
Pop, Eurodisco, Italo Disco, Dance, Dance-pop, Jazz, New Wave, Rock |
| Occupations |
singer, lyricist, composer, painter, model, television presenter, actress, novelist |
| Instruments |
vocals |
| Years active |
1975–present |
| Labels |
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 |
| Associated acts |
Salvador Dalí, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry |
| Website |
www.amanda-lear.com |
Amanda Lear (born 18 November 1939 or 1946, in British Hong Kong,[1][2][3][4] or 1950 in Saigon[5]) 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 into the public eye as the cover model for Roxy Music's album For Your Pleasure in 1973. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, she was a million-album-selling Disco queen, mainly in Continental Europe and Scandinavia. Her hits included "Queen of Chinatown", "Follow Me", "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)" and "Fashion Pack".
In the mid-1980s Lear 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.[6]
Lear's origins are unclear. Contested facts include her birthdate, her birth sex, the names and nationalities of her parents and the location of her upbringing. Raised speaking French and English, she learned German, Spanish and Italian in her teens, languages she later was able to use in her professional life. According to Lear's official biography she relocated to Paris at the end of elementary school to study at Académie des Beaux-Arts, before joining St. Martins School of Art in London in 1964.[7][8]
Lear's alleged transsexual background has been commented upon in the media and in the biographies of those who knew Lear earlier in her life. April Ashley, a transsexual woman who was once a Liverpudlian seaman, has long claimed that she worked with Lear in the 1950s at Le Carrousel, a transvestite revue in Paris. In her book, April Ashley's Odyssey, she recalls a man named Alain Tapp, stage-name Peki d'Oslo, who later became Amanda Lear. According to Ashley, Dali met d'Oslo at Le Carrousel in 1959, but at the time of the book's release Ashley and Lear had not spoken to each other for years.[9]
"I'd grown up thinking I was ugly, ugly, ugly. I was much too tall, I was much too skinny, I was flat-chested, I had my mother's Asian eyes and cheekbones so I looked foreign compared to all my girlfriends, my mouth was too big and my teeth were too big so I never smiled. And then Françoise Hardy had her breakthrough in France and everything suddenly changed. Before her you were supposed to look like Brigitte Bardot, blonde, curvy and busty. But I was about twenty when people started telling me "You know what, you look a little like Françoise Hardy, you could be a model" and then out of the blue this famous woman, the great Catherine Harlé turns up. By sheer accident she happened to see me in the street in Paris and asked me if I wanted to be a fashion model and I thought she was joking! And she said "No, no, no, you're exactly the type of girl we're looking for" and all of a sudden all of these flaws, all the things I'd been so ashamed of, became my greatest assets. By sheer accident, as most things in my career."
Amanda Lear on her modelling career
[6]
In early 1965 Lear was spotted by Catherine Harlé, the head of a modelling agency, who offered Lear a contract. Lear returned to Paris for her first modelling assignment as a means to finance her art studies, walking for rising star Paco Rabanne. Just as Harlé had predicted, Lear's looks were very much in demand. Soon after her debut Lear was photographed by Helmut Newton, Charles Paul Wilp and Antoine Giacomoni for magazines like Elle, Marie France and Vogue. She modelled for fashion designers including Yves Saint Laurent and Coco Chanel in Paris and Mary Quant, Ossie Clark and Antony Price in London. After some time, Lear dropped out of art school to model full-time and went on to lead a bohemian and flamboyant life in the Swinging London of the Sixties.
Lear's acquaintances at this time included The Beatles and fellow top models like Twiggy, Pattie Boyd and Anita Pallenberg.[8] She became a "stalwart of London's demimonde,"[10] an exotic name on the nightclub circuit and a regular fixture in the gossip columns. Later in the 1970s she would occasionally moonlight as a reporter herself, covering the London social scene as well as international celebrities and party animals in David Bailey and David Litchfield's glossy in-crowd magazine Ritz.[11]
Lear was first introduced to the eccentric Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí in late 1965, while clubbing at Le Castel in Paris with Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones and her then boyfriend, the Guinness heir Tara Browne. The self-proclaimed enfant terrible in the world of art was 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".[8] Her biography My Life with Dalí, which was first published in French in 1984 (original title: Le Dalí d'Amanda) with Dalí's approval, gives detailed insights into the lives of both the artist and his muse.
The factual accuracy of My Life With Dalí, especially the dates, are disputed by several researchers of Dalí's life and work. According to the biography, Lear accompanied Dalí and his wife on trips to Barcelona, Madrid, New York and Paris and over a period of some fifteen years. She also 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. These media events, characteristically for the age of flower power and this stage of Dalí's life, often turned into happenings as spectacular as the art itself, frequently with Lear as the central figure. With the Dalís, Lear also regularly socialised with celebrities and European royalty such as Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco. Dalí served as a mentor to Lear, their travels allowing her to discover the great museums of Europe, Parisian salons and restaurants, New York bohemia and his homeland, Spain—especially the Catalan culture. In return, she introduced him to the younger generation of the counterculture in art, fashion, photography and music in London.[8]
"I knew nothing when I first met him. He taught me to see things through his eyes. Dalí was my teacher. He let me use his brushes, his paint and his canvas, so that I could play around while he was painting for hours and hours in the same studio. Surrealism was a good school for me. Listening to Dalí talk was better than going to any art school."
Amanda Lear on Salvador Dalí
[12]
Although she remained Dalí's confidante, protégée and mistress through the 1960s and 1970s, Lear was also romantically linked to Brian Jones, resulting in the ironic Rolling Stones track "Miss Amanda Jones" on the 1967 album Between the Buttons.[13] 1972 saw her first on-stage appearance when she introduced Roxy Music and Lloyd Watson at Rainbow Theatre in August.[14] In 1973 Lear was 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,[14][15] an image that has been described as "as famous as the album itself."[16] Following the exposure to the music world she gained from the album cover, Lear went on to have a year-long affair with the married David Bowie.[17] Lear appeared in the live performance of Bowie's 1973 hit song "Sorrow" at the 1980 Floor Show[18] stage production, which was televised in the United States by NBC for TV series Midnight Special on 16 November 1973. This appearance, where Lear also acted as mistress of ceremonies, is often referred to as the official launch of Lear's career in music.[17]
Lear was also briefly involved with guitarist Chris Spedding. However, on 13 March 1979 she married bisexual French aristocrat Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle, the former lover and then adopted son of diplomat and controversial gay novelist Roger Peyrefitte.[19] The marriage ceremony took place in Las Vegas, Nevada while Lear was promoting her disco album Sweet Revenge. The couple had first met just three weeks earlier at fashionable Paris discothèque Le Palace, a French equivalent of Studio 54.[8] Malagnac's career, often financed by Peyrefitte, included a role as proprietor of Le Bronx, one of the first openly gay nightclubs in Paris, and briefly managing French singer Sylvie Vartan, a less-than-successful undertaking that almost bankrupted Peyrefitte and forced him to sell artworks and antiquities to pay the resulting debts.[19]
Dalí and his wife Gala both strongly disapproved of the relationship with Malagnac, who had a bad reputation in Parisian high society, and even attempted to persuade Lear to have the marriage annulled. As a consequence of this, and also the time taken up by Lear's successful career in music and television, she and her mentor began drifting apart. They still sporadically kept in touch via letters and telephone through the early and mid-1980s, especially after Gala died in 1982. However, Lear only very briefly visited Dalí in Spain one more time in the second half of the decade, at Púbol in 1988 without her husband, shortly before Dalí himself died.[8] Malagnac would go on to establish himself as a successful art dealer and antiques collector and, despite the misgivings of the Dalís and others, was married to Lear for twenty-one years until his untimely passing in 2000.[20]
[edit] 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 a Hungarian voice coach Florence Wiese-Norberg, with whom he also worked.[21] Lear recorded a demo track called "Stars" with Bowie, but the track remains unreleased.[22]
Lear's debut single "Trouble", a pop-rock cover of Elvis Presley's 1958 classic from the King Creole soundtrack, was released unsuccessfully by minor label Creole Records in the United Kingdom. A French language version of the track, "La Bagarre", was released on Polydor in France and while equally unsuccessful there, it became a minor disco hit in West Germany in early 1976. The track caught the attention of singer, composer and producer Anthony Monn and label Ariola-Eurodisc, which offered her a seven-year, six-album recording contract for a sum of money that Lear since has described as "astronomic".[16]
Her debut album I Am a Photograph, released in 1977, was recorded in Munich with most songs composed by Monn. Lear, along with arrangers Rainer Pietsch and Charly Ricanek, wrote all the English lyrics. The musical backing was provided by the same international session musicians that played 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.
"I Am a Photograph is the first of six sleazy, hard-to-find albums in which she flaunts a voice so heavy with low notes it makes one wonder if she really isn't a man after all. But Lear's slow notes are simply an exaggeration of the whiskey-voiced sultriness created by Marlene Dietrich. That isn't to say, however, that Lear's lyrics – or the music's inverted proportions – don't exploit her mythology as a kinky concoction to the bursting point."
Music critic Michael Freedberg
[23]
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), as well as the 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 successful combination. Four singles reached the Top 10 in Italy and the album stayed on the West German charts for thirty-three weeks. The second edition of I Am a Photograph, which also contained German No. 2 hit "Queen of Chinatown",[24] 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 concept medley about a Faustian fairy tale of a girl who sells her soul to the devil for fame and fortune and in her eventual revenge over the devil's offer finds true love.
The first single from Sweet Revenge, the dark and seductive opening track "Follow Me", powered by Lear's characteristic deep and recitative voice and the theme of the devil, was an instant smash hit. It reached the Top 3 in the West German singles chart[24] as well as No. 3 in the Netherlands, No. 7 in Switzerland, No. 6 in Austria,[25] No. 6 in France[26] and Top 20 in most parts of Europe. The single is estimated to have sold some two million copies worldwide[16] and has been 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)".
"I put so much of myself into it. I wrote the lyrics, created the double cover, chose the pictures. I tried to tell a story. So, at least for me, it is the best one."
Amanda Lear on her
Sweet Revenge album
[27]
The Sweet Revenge album was certified gold in West Germany,[28] France,[29] Italy and Belgium and went on to sell in excess of four million copies and make the charts in forty-one countries including Chile, South Africa, India and Thailand. In Thailand it was a number-one album for sixteen weeks,[16] spawning further European hit singles "Gold" and "Run Baby Run" from the concept medley, as well as "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)". These tracks were co-written by Lear, but her larger-than-life image made her one of the few artists of the Eurodisco era whose star power and charisma outshone the music itself. The Amanda Lear persona left an impact on European pop culture that has lasted for five decades.
The Sweet Revenge album cover shows Lear as a leather-clad S&M dominatrix cracking her whip, while the sepia-toned back cover pic shows her reclining on an old beer barrel with sequined curtains behind her à la Dietrich in The Blue Angel. The inner sleeve again pictured her topless.
Lear took part in two Italian productions in 1978: a six-episode controversial TV show Stryx and a softporn documentary movie Follie di Notte, directed by Joe D'Amato. In both of these productions she performed her then-current hit songs "Follow Me", "Gold" and "Enigma".
[edit] Never Trust a Pretty Face
Later in 1978 Lear and Monn teamed up for Never Trust a Pretty Face, an album that includes a disco reimagining of wartime classic "Lili Marleen". Lear has since re-recorded the track twice, in 1993 and 2001.
While Lear considers the best-selling Sweet Revenge her proudest moment, fans and critics rate Never Trust a Pretty Face as the artistic highpoint of her international career.[30][31] It is often cited as a landmark in the history of "the sound of Munich", groundbreaking Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer collaborations included. It was recorded in Moroder's renowned Musicland Studios with the assistance of keyboardist and composer Harold Faltermeyer and British drummer and arranger Keith Forsey, both of whom later became very successful record producers and hitmakers 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" and the hit single "Fashion Pack (Studio 54)".
"In Italy I'm big because they're all so sex-obsessed. In Germany I succeeded because they've been waiting for someone like Marlene Dietrich to come along ever since the war. I played on their need for a drunken, nightclubbing vamp. And I've won the gays, who are crucial because they have all the best discos, entirely because of the extraordinary legends about me."
The lyrics to "Fashion Pack" actually ridicule the superficial world of fashion and the decadent behaviour of the rich and famous. The track is particularly critical of New York's disco glitterati, mentioning Liza (Minnelli), Francesco (Scavullo), Marisa (Berenson), (John) Travolta, Andy (Warhol), Loulou (de la Falaise), Margaux (Hemingway), Bianca (Jagger), (Yves) Saint Laurent, Paloma (Picasso) and other. According to My Life with Dalí, these were all at least acquaintances of Lear's, but by the time the song was recorded she had left her jetsetting behind, settling down for a quiet life with her husband in the French countryside near Avignon.[8]
Another standout track was the suggestive "The Sphinx", which Lear has since named as her personal favourite among her own recordings.[32] The promotional campaign for Never Trust a Pretty Face effectively continued to play on Lear's "devil in disguise" persona, portraying her as a mythological creature on the album cover and a giant 24"x36" fold-out poster with most European editions, smiling innocently in the Egyptian desert with beautiful angel's wings and 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 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 that included 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 was similarly lacklustre. 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 describes it in My Life with Dalí.[8]
Lear did establish herself in the Soviet Union, which was less glamorous but arguably more lucrative than European markets. Along with The Beatles, ABBA and Boney M. Lear 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 were 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 was scheduled for 1982, but ultimately cancelled because Lear was involved in a legal dispute with her record company at the time.[8]
In the mid-1980s Never Trust a Pretty Face was the first full-length Lear album 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 gained a large and lasting fanbase in the entire Eastern Bloc, and in late November 1997 she finally was able to visit Moscow, 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".[27]
[edit] New Wave style; Diamonds for Breakfast and Incognito
In late 1979 Lear recorded Diamonds for Breakfast, which was her commercial breakthrough on the Scandinavian market (#4 in Sweden, April 1980[33] and #10 in Norway, December 1980[34]), 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. A guitar-riff-driven opening track "Rockin' Rollin' (I Hear You Nagging)" set the tone for the album, 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",[6] 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.[35]
Lear spent most of 1980 on European promotional tours for the album and its many accompanying single releases, travelling from Greece in the south to Finland in the north. 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 certification.[8]
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's early ska hit "Solomon Gundie" and the chanson-esque "Le Chat de Gouttière" ("The Alley Cat"), were both written by Lear and recorded for francophone markets.
"The Germans told me 'We're going to conquer the world!' and I don't regret working with a German record company at all, because for my career it was great, but they wanted to control me, direct me and restrict me. They wanted absolute discipline and that's not the life for me, so after a few years of that I wanted out."
The Lear/Monn album success saga neared its end in 1981, when Lear had became 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.[36] Ariola did not approve 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". It was, however, her breakthrough album in South America, with three tracks 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". This would be Lear's final collaboration with producer Anthony Monn. Shortly thereafter she took legal action against the Ariola-Eurodisc label on the grounds of artistic differences to be released from her recording contract. 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 on the greatest hits compilation Ieri, Oggi (Yesterday, Today).
[edit] Tam-Tam and television career in Italy
The 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 rather than Monn himself. These were Lear's final Munich recordings for Ariola and 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 slowing and effectively came to an end in December 1983 with her sixth and final Ariola album 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 modern and minimalist early 1980s synthpop album with a soundscape dominated by TR-808 drum machines and sequencer-programmed synthesisers. Lear again wrote all the English lyrics for the album.
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 passed by unnoticed by both the European and the international record-buying public, which may have been a blessing in disguise for Lear with her frosty relationship with Ariola and changing music style. Lear began publicly denouncing her earlier musical output, stating in her characteristically undiplomatic manner: "The music was crap, but at least I tried to write some clever lyrics".[37]
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 Italy. She hosted many successful TV shows there, including Premiatissima and W le Donne (aired in France as Cherchez la Femme). In the latter Lear promoted a 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. Lear also recorded several singles for various European labels, including "Assassino" and "No Credit Card".
After four years as a TV entertainer for Italian Canale 5 and French La Cinq, Lear returned to music. Secret Passion was recorded in Los Angeles and Rome for major French label Carrere Records, a post-disco Hi-NRG – New Wave affair produced by Christian De Walden. A launch was planned for January 1987 and the album was to be her comeback in Continental Europe, Scandinavia, South America, the Eastern Bloc and Japan, as well as a breakthrough in anglophone countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australasia. These were the only major markets that Lear had not conquered during the Ariola years.
However, just before promotions began Lear was seriously injured in a near-fatal car accident and took months to recover. Secret Passion's commercial success was less than hoped for, and lead single "Wild Thing" was ultimately only released in a few countries such as France, Italy and Greece. The accident was nonetheless a starting point for another phase in her career, this time as a writer.
While in the 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 grow older and eventually losing all her loved ones, the woman is still as beautiful but unable to stop the merciless passage of time.[38][39]
Lear sporadically returned to recording in the late-1980s and 1990s, releasing a series of singles and albums of new material in Italy, France and Germany. These included 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 Lear hosted Ars Amanda (The Art of Loving) on RAI 3, an Italian chat show where she interviewed both Italian and international celebrities and politicians from a bed.[27][39] 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.[40]
Lear also tried to return to a more dancefloor-friendly repertoire on Eurodance albums Cadavrexquis in 1993 and Alter Ego in 1995, but none produced an elusive international comeback hit. Though popular with her fanbase, commercial success in Europe varied. Lear focused on her career in television and movies when music fell flat, hosting popular TV show Peep! in Germany, with her own song "Peep!" as the opening music theme.
Back in Your Arms, an album consisting of re-recorded 1970s disco hits and chosen tracks from the 1995 album Alter Ego, was released in 1998. The album failed to make much impact but the re-recordings have since been featured on several mid-price compilations in Europe.
[edit] 2000–2007: Heart, TV career and art exhibitions
In December 2000 Lear's husband Alain-Philippe Malagnac d'Argens de Villèle died in an explosive accidental fire at their home, which was left in ruins.[41] 20-year-old cat breeder Didier Diefis was also killed in the fire, and a number of Dalí's works were lost.[42]
In 2001 Lear threw herself back into work and released the aptly titled album Heart, dedicated to the late 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 1970s TV theme The Love Boat, both issued as singles and featuring remixes by prominent names in the world of dance music such as French electro-house DJ Laurent Wolf, Spanish production team Pumpin' Dolls and Junior Vasquez. 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" and a political reading of "Lili Marleen" 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 was Lear's best-selling album since the late 1970s in both France and Germany.[43]
In 2002 Lear starred in French director Blanca Li's movie Le Défi (Dance Challenge), about an eighteen-year-old dropout who dreams of becoming a star in break dancing and the ensuing conflicts with his conservative mother. Lear played the mother's understanding and encouraging best friend and a fashion victim, giving her an opportunity to demonstrate her comedic talent.[44]
"People only know me as a celebrity in show business. They don’t know how much more important art is to me compared to makeup and set costumes. Show business pays the rent, but painting is my only true passion, so I define myself as a painter who works in show business.[45]
Lear put on an art exhibition in 2001 entitled Not a. Lear, a reference to René Magritte's painting Ceci n'est pas un pipe (This Is Not a Pipe).[46] In 2006 she did a second exhibition in collaboration with unestablished young artists called Never Mind the Bollocks: Here's Amanda Lear!. The title was 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.[47] Sogni, Miti, Colori (Dreams, Myths, Colours) followed in 2008.[45]
On the set of her Italia 1 TV series Il Brutto Anatroccolo (The Ugly Duckling), a makeover show that began in 1999 and ran for a few years, Lear met male model and actor Manuel Casella, some thirty years her junior.[48] Lear and Casella dated from 2002 to 2008 and were featured prominently in the tabloid press in both France and Italy.[49] The theme tune to the Brutto Anatroccolo show was "Nuda," a cover version of Melina Mercouri's 1960s recording "Never on Sunday" from the movie of the same name The song was 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 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 including Patty Pravo, Anna Oxa, Giuni Russo, Loredana Bertè and Ricchi e Poveri.[50] 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.[51]
In 2004 Lear was part of the international cast of Disney/Pixar's blockbuster The Incredibles. She voiced the role of fashion designer Edna Mode, originally voiced by Brad Bird, in both the French and Italian dubbings.[52]
Also 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. After the ads came out, the song became something of a cult hit again, appearing on a number of European singles chart compilations. 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. A full-length tribute album followed, entitled Diamonds – Pedro Marín canta Amanda Lear.[53]
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.[54]
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 and trapped in a spiral of self-destruction in the artificial jet-set world of Paris.[55] Lear has also appeared in several character roles in independent movies.
With the disco revival 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 included greatest hits from the 70s combined with selected tracks from the 80s, 90s and 2000s. New recordings included a cover of Barry Manilow's "Copacabana", along with a few rarities such as Lear's 1985 recording of "As Time Goes By", and singles such as "Assassino".[56]
"It surprises me that the younger generations keep re-discovering this type of music, over and over again. They really seem to like these old recordings, still after such a long time. Perhaps they weren't so bad after all."
Amanda Lear on her 1970s disco work
[32]
In 2006 "Queen of Chinatown" was remixed and re-issued as a single, then credited to DJEnetix feat. Amanda Lear.[57] 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 Sweet Revenge, were released officially in CD format.[58]
In July 2006 Lear was decorated with the 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. The occasion was slightly marred by the fact that the name appearing on the honours 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 had up until that point denied.[4]
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, exclusively covering 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 French music critics and was released in the rest of Europe by label ZYX Music in early 2007.[59]
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 featuring 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.[60]
[edit] 2008–present: Brief Encounters, Brand New Love Affair, I Don't Like Disco and theatre
In November 2008 Lear announced on a French television show that she had recorded a brand new album entitled Brief Encounters, featuring a mixture of disco originals in a return to her classic sound with 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 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.[61]
The double-disc Brief Encounters was released in Italy 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 accoustic, both released in 2009, and Brief Encounters Reloaded, released digitally in 2010 with remixes.[62]
From March 2009 through Spring 2011 Lear toured France with the very successful comedy play Panique au Ministère.[63][64][65]
On 14 October 2009, Edina Music announced the release of another album entitled Brand New Love Affair, 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 released 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.[66]
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...).[67]
In April 2011 a 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.[68]
Since September 2011 Lear has played the lead role in Lady Oscar, an adaptation of Claude Magnier's 1958 play Oscar, at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris.[69]
On 9 January 2012 Lear released a new studio album in France: the humorously titled I Don't Like Disco. Three singles were released from the album: "Chinese Walk", the title track "I Don't Like Disco" and "La Bête et la Belle" (translated: "The Beast and the Beauty").[70]
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 0-393-04624-9 / ISBN 978-0-393-04624-3
- ^ a b This is an alleged date and place of birth, this information has never been officially confirmed.
- ^ GEMA: Neuaufnahmen/Geburtstage unserer Mitglieder – 65 Jahre, GEMA Nachrichten Ausgabe 170, GEMA member register entry, 2004
- ^ Gibson, Ian (1998). The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04624-9.
- ^ a b "Nominations dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres de juillet 2006". culture.gouv.fr. http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/artsetlettres/juillet2006.html. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
- ^ She showed her French identity card with said date and place of birth to the newspaper Libération, Drôle de dame – Libération
- ^ a b c d Radio interview, Confessions Orbitales, Radio Europe 1 (8 March 2003)
- ^ "Persistence of Memory". www.zingmagazine.com. http://www.zingmagazine.com/zing16/projects/sico.html. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lear, Amanda (1986). My Life with Dalí. Beaufort Books UK. ISBN 0-8253-0373-7.
- ^ "The bizarre career of Amanda Lear". The Guardian (London). 24 December 2000. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2000/dec/24/focus.news.
- ^ a b "The bizarre career of Amanda Lear". The Guardian (UK). 24 December 2000. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2000/dec/24/focus.news. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
- ^ Amanda, Lear (1978). "Amanda Lear and Stephen Lavers". Ritz Newspaper No. 015 (Bailey & Litchfield). "When I wrote for Ritz I knew exactly what they wanted. People want to read a lot of gossip that is as evil as you dare print it about famous or infamous, or slightly notorious people around London."
- ^ "Salvador Dali Centennial Magazine – Amanda Lear". 3d-dali.com. http://www.3d-dali.com/centennial-magazine/e-9-muse.htm.
- ^ Lecomte, Frédéric (1990). Rolling Stones 63/90 Le Chemin des pierres – Spécial Rolling Stones. p. 17.
- ^ a b Cann, Kevin (2010). David Bowie – Any Day Now – The London Years: 1947–1974. Adelita. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-9552017-8-3. http://www.anydaynowbook.com/. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
- ^ Salewicz, Chris (2009). Keep on Running – The Story of Island Records. Island Records Company. p. 67.
- ^ a b c d "Amanda Lear Biography". eurodancehits.com. http://www.eurodancehits.com/learbio.html. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
- ^ a b Bowie, Angela (1994). Backstage Passes. p. 164. ISBN 1-85797-108-6.
- ^ Spitz, Marc (2010). David Bowie: A Biography. London: Aurum Press. pp. 224, 229.
- ^ a b Sibalis, Michael D. (2006). "Peyrefitte, Roger". glbtq.com. http://www.glbtq.com/literature/peyrefitte_r.html. Retrieved 18 July 2007.
- ^ Claudia Provvedini (17 December 2000). "Muore in un rogo il marito di Amanda Lear" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. Italy. http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2000/dicembre/17/Muore_rogo_marito_Amanda_Lear_co_0_0012179263.shtml. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
- ^ Cann, Kevin (2010). David Bowie – Any Day Now – The London Years: 1947–1974. Adelita. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-9552017-8-3. http://www.anydaynowbook.com/. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
- ^ Cann, Kevin (2010). David Bowie – Any Day Now – The London Years: 1947–1974. Adelita. p. 318. ISBN 978-0-9552017-8-3. http://www.anydaynowbook.com/. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
- ^ Michael Freedberg. "Amanda Lear Biography". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p18844. Retrieved 6 February 2009.
- ^ a b "Chartverfolgung – LEAR,AMANDA" (in German). Musicline.de. http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/LEAR%2CAMANDA/single. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
- ^ "Amanda Lear – Follow Me". swisscharts.com. http://swisscharts.com/showitem.asp?key=505&cat=s. Retrieved 6 February 2009.
- ^ "Tous les Albums classés par Artiste" (in French). InfoDisc. http://www.infodisc.fr/Album_L.php. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
- ^ a b c "Amanda Lear – Interviews". eurodancehits.com. http://www.eurodancehits.com/learinterviews.html. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
- ^ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Amanda Lear)" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. http://www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank/?action=suche&strTitel=&strInterpret=Amanda+Lear&strTtArt=alle&strAwards=checked. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
- ^ "Les Certifications (Albums) du SNEP (Bilan par Artiste)" (in French). InfoDisc. http://www.infodisc.fr/Certif_Album.php. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
- ^ "Never Trust a Pretty Face > Overview". www.allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r329429. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
- ^ "Never Trust a Pretty Face by Amanda Lear". Rateyourmusic. http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/amanda_lear/never_trust_a_pretty_face/. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ a b The Sphinx – Das beste aus den Jahren 1976–1983. Sony BMG. 2006.
- ^ "Amanda Lear – Diamonds For Breakfast". swedishcharts.com. http://www.swedishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Amanda+Lear&titel=Diamonds+For+Breakfast&cat=a. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
- ^ "Amanda Lear – Diamonds For Breakfast". norwegiancharts.com. http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Amanda+Lear&titel=Diamonds+For+Breakfast&cat=a. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
- ^ Liner notes, Amanda Lear: Diamonds for Breakfast, Ariola Records, 1980
- ^ "Trevor Horn Worship Hall". trevor-horn.de. http://www.trevor-horn.de/revealed.html. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
- ^ Robert Henry Rubin. "NIGHT interview". amandalear.tripod.com. http://amandalear_jukebox.tripod.com/indexnight_inteview.htm. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ Lear, Amanda (1987). L'Immortelle. Carrere France. pp. 367.
- ^ a b "Amanda Lear – Interview at "Tanzhouse"". YouTube. 1989. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvEkciZA9uA. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ "Une femme pour moi (1993) (TV)". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199114/. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ "Le mari d'Amanda Lear mort dans l'incendie de leur maison" (in French). Actustar.com. 19 December 2000. http://www.actustar.com/Actualites/7475/le-mari-d-amanda-lear-mort-dans-l-incendie-de-leur-maison. Retrieved 18 July 2007.
- ^ Guardian.co.uk At the Court of Queen Lear 24 December 2000
- ^ Discogs.com, Amanda Lear: Heart
- ^ "Dance Challenge (2002)". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314012/. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ a b "Eventi Mostre. Sogni Miti Colori – Pietrasanta (LU), Toscana" (in Italian). eventiesagre.it. http://www.eventiesagre.it/Eventi_Mostre/18010_Sogni+Miti+Colori.html. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ "Not a. Lear – Review". The New York Times. 12 October 2001. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E6D9153FF931A25753C1A9679C8B63. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ "Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's Amanda Lear at Envoy". One Art World. http://oneartworld.com/Envoy/Never+Mind+The+Bollocks_2C+Here_27s+Amanda+Lear.html. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ "Manuel Casella – Biography". IMDB.com. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2345720/bio. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ "Amanda Lear: Manuel Adieu". Gay.it. http://www.gay.it/channel/gossip/24204/Amanda-Lear-Manuel-adieu.html. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
- ^ film.it (in Italian), Cocktail d'Amore, RAI 2
- ^ "Cristiano Malgioglio – Foto Gallery". cristianomalgioglio.com. http://www.cristianomalgioglio.com/dischi.php. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ "The Incredibles – Gli Incredibili" (in Italian). filmagenda.it. http://www.filmagenda.it/movies/1223. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ Discogs.com, Pedro Marìn: Diamonds
- ^ Rai Uno (in Italian), Ballando Con Le Stelle
- ^ "Gigolo (2005)". International Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453673/. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ Discogs.com, Amanda Lear: Forever Glam!
- ^ Discogs.com, Amanda Lear feat. DJenetix: Queen of Chinatown 2006
- ^ Discogs.com, Amanda Lear: The Sphinx, 2006
- ^ Discogs.com, Amanda Lear: With Love, 2006
- ^ Discogs.com, Amanda Lear: Amour Toujours, 2008
- ^ "PMG-Discography.pdf". prolificmedia.co.uk. http://www.prolificmedia.co.uk/PMG-Discography.pdf. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ "Critique de Brief Encounters Reloaded" (in French). follow-amanda-lear.com. 11 June 2010. http://www.follow-amanda-lear.com/dotc-lear/index.php?post/Critique-de-Brief-Encounters-Reloaded. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
- ^ "Panique au ministère" (in French). Le Figaro. http://scope.lefigaro.fr/theatres-spectacles/theatre/pieces-de-theatre/e-e500999--panique-au-ministere/static/. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ "Panique au Ministère: tout sur Panique au Ministère" (in French). Spectacles.fr. http://www.spectacles.fr/panique-au-ministere/infos-pratiques. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
- ^ "PANIQUE AU MINISTÈRE (La Tournée) – Follow – Amanda – Lear" (in French). follow-amanda-lear.com. http://www.follow-amanda-lear.com/dotc-lear/index.php?post/PANIQUE-AU-MINIST%C3%88RE-%28La-Tourn%C3%A9e%292. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ "I'm Coming Up!: Amanda Lear: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Im-Coming-Up/dp/B003RKRLEI/ref=sr_shvl_album_1. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
- ^ "Je ne suis pas celle que vous croyez: Amanda Lear: autobiography". Hors Collection. http://www.amazon.fr/suis-pas-celle-vous-croyez/dp/2258081327. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
- ^ "Da Lennon a Tenco: così Amanda Lear spiega i delitti rock – Spettacoli – Pagina 2" (in Italian). ilgiornale.it. http://www.ilgiornale.it/spettacoli/da_lennon_tenco_cosi_amanda_lear_spiega_delitti_rock/04-04-2011/articolo-id=515342-page=1-comments=1. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ^ Billetreduc.com (in French): Lady Oscar
- ^ Discogs.com, Amanda Lear: I Don't Like Disco
- Amanda Lear at Allmusic
- Amanda Lear at Discogs
- "Albums by Amanda Lear". Rateyourmusic. http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/amanda_lear.
- Amanda Lear at the Internet Movie Database
- "Amanda Lear". Allmovie. http://www.allmovie.com/artist/amanda-lear-291779.
- "NIGHT interview – Amanda Lear for Night". amandalear.tripod.com. 2002. http://amandalear_jukebox.tripod.com/indexnight_inteview.htm.
- "Interview with Zing Magazine". zingmagazine.com. 2002. http://www.zingmagazine.com/zing16/projects/sico.html.
- Carla Antonelli (2003). "Pierrot-Memorias Trans Capitulo 2º" (in Spanish). carlaantonelli.com. http://www.carlaantonelli.com/pierrot_memorias_de_transexuales3.htm.
- "Amanda Lear Site" (in French). http://www.everyoneweb.com/amandalearsite/.
- Lear, Amanda (1986). My Life with Dalí. Beaufort Books. ISBN 0-8253-0373-7.
- Gibson, Ian (1997). The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04624-9.
- Lozano, Carlos (2000). Sex, Surrealism, Dalí and Me. Razor Books Ltd. ISBN 0-9538205-0-5.
- Etherington-Smith, Meredith (1995). The Persistence of Memory: A Biography of Dalí. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80662-2.
- Ashley, April (1982). April Ashley's Odyssey. ISBN 0-224-01849-3.
- Ashley, April (2006). The First Lady. John Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84454-231-9.
- Haag, Romy (1999). Eine Frau und mehr. Quadriga. ISBN 3-88679-328-1.
- Millet, Catherine (2005). Dali et Moi. Gallimard. ISBN 2-07-077104-0.
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Amanda Lear
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| Persondata |
| Name |
Lear, Amanda |
| Alternative names |
Tapp, Amanda |
| Short description |
singer, lyricist, composer, painter, model, television presenter, actress, novelist |
| Date of birth |
1939-11-18 |
| Place of birth |
British Hong Kong |
| Date of death |
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