Dalida was born in Cairo on 17th January 1933.
She came from an Italian family which had emigrated to Egypt, and was the only daughter between two sons, Orlando her elder brother and Bruno, her younger. Their father Pietro, was the Principal Violinist for the Cairo Opera.
In her teenage years, she was destined to follow a career as a secretary. In 1951, she secretly entered a beauty pageant. Three years later, she took part in the Miss Egypt contest and won first prize. She was then hired as an actress to make films in Cairo, the Hollywood of the Middle East. There she was spotted by a French film producer. Yolanda, who had become Dalila, dreamt of Paris. Despite her family’s misgivings, on 24th December 1954, she caught a flight to Paris.
Times were hard. French cinema had no place for her. So in order to make ends meet, she took singing lessons. She was booked for a cabaret on the Champs Elysées, and later on at the Villa d'Este. She was introduced as the "Revelation of French Song".
Bruno Coquatrix had just bought an old Parisian cinema, the "Olympia", where he put on a variety show, "The Number Ones of Tomorrow". Dalila was invited and she chose to perform "Stranger in Paradise". On that occasion, she met two men: Lucien Morisse, Artistic Director of Radio Europe 1, and Eddy Barclay, a record producer. They had decided to discover the pearl that would help them launch both their respective businesses. Dalila, now having become DALIDA, seemed to be the artiste they needed.
She recorded her first single on the Barclay label, "Madonna", but it was with "Bambino" that Dalida would make her mark. It was an enormous success.
Source: http://www.dalida.com/ | 
