"Dalida" by Dalida (1970)

When faced with such intimidating discography of artist who worked for many decades, like French music icon Dalida, sometimes it appear complicated where to start - only hit singles or few selected albums will present just a small part of the picture, as such longevity usually covers completely various genres and directions. Dalida in particular is fascinating, as she appears to have re-invented herself very often and went trough many metamorphoses which are genuinely interesting to explore: she was stylish torch singer in the 1950s, happy, upbeat poster girl trough 1960s, disco diva in the 1970s and glamour TV show star in the 1980s. 

This self-titled album (maddeningly, one of many released with same title) is perhaps one of my personal favourite, as it depicts Cairo born singer in a curious early 1970s phase when she was reaching forty and decidedly leaning towards more melancholic, ballad repertoire instead of what was she recording previously. Dalida always had beautiful, husky voice and stunning stage persona but too often trough 1960s she went for anything that was popular on the charts, so you would find her covering everything from "O Sole Mio" to "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" - at some point lady herself obviously had enough of this and in 1970 came with this beautiful album that is pop in performance but chanson in spirit. "What Have They Done To My Song Ma" opens the collection and it just gets better from there, with sophisticated songs by Mikis Theodorakis, Nicola Di Bari, Pete Seeger and Cat Stevens where her curiously calm and seductive voice works perfectly because its suddenly free of artificial cheerfulness - she is actually at her best in reflective material, obviously much closer to her heart. For good measure, we also have two upbeat hit singles, Greek "Darla Dirladada" and "Ram Dam Dam" that was originally recorded by Korni Grupa as "Trla baba dlan" but these are disposable jingles when compared with romantic ballads that are heart of this collection. This early 1970s is probably my favourite chapter of her music, before she will discover disco and leave beautiful melancholy behind.