It’s been 35 years since Dalida is gone. For all these years, her brother Orlando has been working to build on his artistic heritage, by publishing box sets and exclusive editions of the singer’s titles.
35 years ago, on May 3, 1987, the lifeless body of the singer Dalida was found in Paris. The day before, the interpreter of die on stage had made her relatives believe that she was going to attend the comedy Cabaret at the Mogador theatre, and that she was going to dine with François Naudy. Except that the last man in the singer’s life has not confirmed this appointment. Upset, the star suffering from chronic depression spent the night alone in her house at 11 bis rue d’Orchampt. She committed suicide by swallowing a lethal dose of barbiturates with whiskey.
It was her dresser who found her body on the afternoon of May 3. Before dying, Dalida had left two letters, one to François Naudy, the other to her brother Orlando. “Life is unbearable to me, forgive me”, she had written on a third note. Dalida has been gone for 35 years and yet, Thierry Ardisson has managed the feat of bringing her back to life in his own way, on his show hotel of time whose first issue was broadcast on France 3 this Monday, May 2. The opportunity to discover that the diva could have been saved.
Orlando, eternal guardian of the memory of Dalida
If death had not taken Dalida, the interpreter of He had just turned 18 would be 89 years old today. But his memory still lingers in the hearts of his fans, but also those close to him, including his 85-year-old brother Orlando. Asked by The Parisian just before the release ofhotel of time, the one who is actually called Bruno Gigliotti has acclaimed the program of Thierry Ardisson. “This technique is both miraculous and frightening. It shakes. Hearing her and seeing her talk about her first suicide attempt is emotionally very hard. Entering his intimacy, I had trouble. These moments, we had assumed. There, we feel them”, argued Orlando.
After the suicide of his sister, the impresario did not stop his career. On the contrary, as Dalida’s universal legatee, he has worked for all these years to make his artistic heritage bear fruit. “Until I close my eyes, I keep mastery of the Dalida catalog”, he confided years ago to the Monde. And Orlando has planned everything for the day of his death, since he has written a will in which the name or names of the future beneficiaries are designated. Guardian of Dalida’s memory, Orlando has made the memory of his sister a real empire.