“We weren’t twins, but we could have been because we were always on the same wavelength,” Orlando admits. At 87, his gaze hidden behind silver glasses, the guardian of the temple lifts the veil on his relationship with the one he calls “the Lady”: his sister Yolanda, alias Dalida, of whom he is the double. After having managed it since 1966, produced from 1970 to his death in 1987, this so intelligent producer built him a posthumous career longer than that of his lifetime: thirty-six years, against thirty-one years. “If all female singers had had a brother like Orlando, they would have had amazing careers,” Amanda Lear said.
Covered with praise for Disco, the French Revolution, broadcast in April 2023 on France 3, François Chaumont has again won his bet. “This film, Dalida and Orlando, soul mates, is part of Arte’s summer series on siblings, like the Bee Gees, explains the director. The particularity is to have a sister in the light and her brother in the shadows. For Orlando, the disappearance of his sister is an impossible mourning. He is intense when he talks about her, as if she were a deity. »
The story advances with anecdotes told by Orlando’s close guard, including Pascal Nègre, Max Guazzini and Antoine Angelelli. Their words are “knitted” with rich archives of Dalida. Even more interesting are the never-before-shown black-and-white excerpts of Orlando during his early days as an artist in Egypt. We discover him as a young first in the arms of a vamp in the film Fatuma. And on stage, singing She has angel eyes. Unfortunately, in the cabarets of Cairo, he was never filmed cooing his hit Mustapha (Chérie je t’aime, cherie je t’adore).
This cross portrait begins and ends with Orlando, Antoine Angelelli and Max Guazzini recounting this terrible Sunday of May 3, 1987. The lifeless body of their dear Dalida is found on her bed. life flashed through my head like a movie,” says Orlando, who says he felt the need to protect her from early childhood. Born in Cairo, where their Italian ancestors emigrated at the beginning of the 20th century, the siblings devour Hollywood films. Beauty queen, Dalida was 22 when she flew to Paris at the end of 1954. A year later, Bambino made her a star. In 1958, Orlando joined her. In France, this singer “walks”. He is considered the “brother of”. “He had enormous success behind the iron curtain in the Eastern countries,” underlines Pascal Nègre. “I couldn’t be the artist I wanted. Perfection, I found it in her, ”says the person concerned.
In 1966, he was artistic director at Barclay. In 1970, he was one of the first to set up an independent label. He produced Dalida and made him string together the hits, Darla diladada, Words, words, up to Dying on stage. Ever since his sister’s departure, Orlando always talks about her in the present tense. Remix, biopic, exhibitions… thanks to his brother, his sister remains relevant.
