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Finally, today from the Bond on Vinyl archives, we’re listening to music from No Time To Die!
Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti was born in 1933 to Italian parents living in Cairo. Her family lived a conventional life until the arrival of World War II in Egypt. Though previously neutral, Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia caused Egypt to side with the Allies and caused Gigliotti’s Italian father to spend four years in an internment camp. When Gigliotti was seventeen, she began entering beauty and talent competitions.
By 1954, she won the Miss Egypt pageant and made her first appearance on the big screen. Gigliotti started using the name “Dalila” due to her resemblance to actress Hedy Lamarr’s character in the film Samson and Delilah. A lull in Dalila’s acting roles led her to move to Paris and take on singing. By 1956, she was winning singing competitions and gaining fans, which caused a slight name alteration to what she would be most famously known as – Dalida.
Over the next 30+ years, Dalida would become a superstar in France and throughout Europe with 45 gold records and a pair of platinum records. Worldwide, she sold more than 140 million records, recording nearly 700 songs before her tragic passing in 1987.
What does this have to do with James Bond? Well, an obscure Dalida track (from a 1968 B-side) titled Dans La Ville Endormie, which translates to “In the sleeping city,” makes an appearance in No Time To Die. Just 55 seconds into the film, a flashback to the 90s shows Madeleine Swann’s mother lying down with a cigarette in hand. She is surrounded by a haze of pills and wine, listening to the tune on CD.
When it was announced that the song would be included in the 2020 film, Dans La Ville Dormée was reissued as a single and also leads off this compilation album of Dalida hits released near the delayed film’s release. I’ve listened to this track more than any other French language song in the past 20 years (since being hooked on the Amélie soundtrack), but like Morgan Freeman’s character, Red, in The Shawshank Redemption says, “I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid.” The full album title translates to In the Sleeping City – Beautiful Songs Never Die.
125. Dalida – Dans La Ville Endormie – Les Belles Chansons Ne Meurent Jamais…
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