Luigi Tenco and Dalida
A melancholic tale of love and fame.
Their love was heartbreaking, intense and powerful, yet it was reduced to ashes in a blink of an eye. Luigi Tenco and Dalida’s romance was marked by tragedy, unanswered questions and the haunting presence of what could have been.
Luigi Tenco was born in Cassine, in the province of Alessandria, Piedmont, on March 21, 1938. He was an illegitimate child who never knew his real father and took the surname of his mother’s husband, Giuseppe Tenco, who died before his birth. He grew up in Genoa, where he began studying piano while attending high school. He learned how to play the guitar, saxophone, and clarinet.
A child of war, Tenco found solace in composing extraordinarily melodious poetry. In fact, if his lyrics made people dream, it was the melody, with its indescribable power, that played a central role in his music. With his gaze full of pain and melancholy, he sang of love in a sublime manner, and listening to him was beautiful. He always seemed somehow unattainable, detached from the spotlight.
Dalida, nom de plume of Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, was born on January 17, 1933, in Cairo to Calabrian parents. From the beginning, she was surrounded by art: in fact, her father was the first violin in a reputable orchestra in Cairo.
Dalida soon became an international music icon, the first woman to win a platinum record, followed by around seventy gold records in seven different languages.
One of these was Bimbo, a translation of the famous Neapolitan song Guaglione by Aurelio Fierro. With this song Dalida earned another platinum record and a diamond record created specifically for her.
Her film career was equally significant, starting immediately after being crowned Miss Egypt and continuing in Paris.
Dalida, through her voice, brought the successes of Modugno, Mina, Paoli, and many other Italian artists across the Alps.
During a warm summer evening in 1965 at Tenco’s house in Rome, the two met for the first time, He was playing the guitar and timidly looked up at this delightful woman with a unique and captivating beauty. Dalida, in turn, was mesmerized by the sound of his guitar and the voice of this man, a complete and pure artist.
The second meeting between Tenco and Dalida occurred in front of the Italian public on the famous TV show Scala Reale: she was elegantly dressed in black, and he, the epitome of a brooding artist, wore a shiny leather jacket.
Finally, the encounter was renewed and the excitement and joy were palpable throughout their performance.
They met again soon after, in Paris, on the eve of May 1966. The city was teeming with engaged artists, and lovers strolled hand in hand along the Seine. Dalida was as sensual as ever, while Tenco was extremely attracted to the vibrant atmosphere around him. They spent the night at the Prince de Galles hotel in Montmartre, not knowing that one of them would return there not too long afterward. Their relationship remained out of the spotlight until 1967. Some say it was just publicity, while others believe they truly loved each other. In 1967, RCA, the record company for both Tenco and Dalida, proposed them to participate at Sanremo Festival.
Tenco believed he had the perfect song for the event, Li vidi tornare, but RCA deemed it too antimilitarist and laden with meaning for the Festival of the Italian Song. In the end, Tenco composed Ciao, amore ciao, a song inspired by the common life of Italians who were forced to leave their homes to seek fortune elsewhere, much like Dalida’s parents. The verses, full of sentiment and nostalgia, brought them even closer.
But nothing went as planned. Mike Bongiorno announced that their song did not make it to the finals, and the two, disappointed, left the Ariston.
Overcome by his demons, Tenco retreated to his hotel room and began to drink. His latent depression exploded, and with a gunshot to the head, Tenco took his own life. Upon returning to the hotel, it was Dalida who found his lifeless body. Beside him was a note that read:
«I loved the Italian public dearly and dedicated five years of my life to them in vain. I do this not because I am tired of life (quite the opposite) but as an act of protest against a public that sends “Io tu e le rose” to the finals and a commission that selects “La rivoluzione”. I hope this clarifies someone’s ideas. Ciao. Luigi»
Finding Tenco’s body marked Dalida’s first death. On February 28, 1967, in that same Montmartre hotel where she had stayed with her lover years earlier, she attempted suicide but failed. Dalida continued her life, devastated and constantly melancholic, destroyed by pain. On May 21, 1987, she ended her life in her villa in rue d’Orchamps in Montmartre, leaving a note:
«Forgive me, life is unbearable for me»