French singer Amanda Lear has always managed to maintain a level of mystery around herself.
Over the years in interviews she’s given a wide range of years for when she was born ranging from 1939 through to 1950, and she’s said she was born in Saigon, or maybe it was Hong Kong. Sometimes she’s said she was from Singapore, and she’s also said she’s from Switzerland, and once claimed to be from Transylvania.
Over the decades there’s also been great speculation about her gender assigned at birth, but in recent year’s she’s said she used to make up all kind of stories.
One thing that we can guarantee is that at 86, or maybe that’s 75, the singer, actor and television presenter is still going strong. She’s just put out her 29th album Looking Back and has just shared new song When I Was Your Favourite Singer.
Lear first came to prominence in the 1960s after she met Spanish artist Salvador Dali, she served as his model and muse, and travelled widely with the painter and his wife.
In the mnid-1960s she moved to London and began working as a cabaret and burlesque artist, and later in Paris became a fashion model working with Karl Lagerfield, Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne.
She was part of the Swinging Sixties set in London and was hanging out with The Beatles, Twiggy and Anita Pallenberg, and dated Rolling Stones member Brian Jones. Later she spent time in New York hanging out at the legendary Max’s Kansas City and spending time with Andy Warhol’s crowd.
Back in London she dated Bryan Ferry and appeared on the cover to Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure album, and also had a relationship with David Bowie.
Bowie is credited with encouraging Lear to make music and in after putting out a series of singles in 1977 she was signed to a multi-album contract and became a huge name in the world of disco. In the 1980s her career took another turn as she became a popular television presenter in Italy, and she also found more success as an actor in films and on stage.
Throughout the many phases of her career Lear has kept making music in a variety of styles. It’s been acknowledged that Joanna Lumley’s Absolutely Fabulous character of Patsy Stone is in-part based on Lear, while in the 2002 film Daliland she is portrayed by model Andreja Pejic.
