2023-08-04 06:02:36
Television has devoted many documentaries to him. We are interested in his loves, his secrets, his successes. But what more can we say regarding Dalida? Arte looks at his inseparable, his little brother, as part of the series Summer of Brothers and Sisters. At 10:25 p.m. this Friday, the channel broadcasts Dalida and Orlando, kindred spirits, a 52-minute documentary directed by François Chaumont. “The idea was to highlight the one who spent his life bringing light to his sister, his accomplice, his partner, his star”, explained the producer of the film during a private screening of this film at the end of June. .
A special session and in a small committee where Orlando was also present. Sitting discreetly at the back of the room, the 88-year-old man saw half a century of his history pass by once more. “I have been overwhelmed many times by emotion. We relive things that we will never forget. I am sometimes asked: “After so much time, are you still moved?” Ten, fifteen, twenty years later, we feel the same emotion,” he told a handful of journalists following the screening.
He also opened up regarding his close relationship with Dalida (“we weren’t twins but we might have been, we were on the same wavelength”, he says in the film), regarding their collaboration professional and family but also on finding your place when you are “the brother of”.
“People didn’t need a male Dalida”
Before devoting himself completely to his big sister as a producer, manager and artistic director, Orlando also tried to break into music. We are at the very beginning of the 1960s and Bruno Gigliotti of his real name – he will later take his older brother’s first name as his stage name – stands out in particular with covers of American songs. But the success is not straightforward and he finally gives up embracing this career as a singer. A decision he says he does not regret.
“Dalida was already a huge star, I loved her repertoire, her way of moving, of singing. My handicap to succeed was that I projected myself too much into her and people did not need a male Dalida, he analyzes. Frankly, without any pretension on my part, I have always had a lucidity in what concerned me. But also hindsight and self-mockery. I knew, as soon as I arrived in France, even if I had had some small successes, that I might not have gone further. There was Dalida, untouchable, and I would always have stayed on the sidelines with this “brother of” label. »
His sister does not remain unmoved by Orlando’s choice to ignore her own career to devote herself to hers. “When I told her I was stopping singing, she asked me, ‘Are you sure? Won’t you regret it one day?’ I replied that I will never regret it. At the Gigliotti’s we never regret what we do. She laughed,” he recalls.
From 1966, Orlando devoted himself to Dalida, he became her confidant and adviser. Together they even created the very first independent music label. His status as “brother of” then becomes an asset. “When I got my place, when I succeeded as a producer, it didn’t bother me too much, on the contrary, I claimed it,” he says. In the end I accepted it with great pleasure, even putting it forward. For what ? Because I succeeded in my branch, and in a different branch. As she said herself, I still contributed a little to her longevity. As the documentary on Arte develops, Orlando brought Dalida’s music to life long following her death. Like in the 1990s when he reissues and remixes Salma is safe and gives him a second wind.
“I think I was up to it”
His parenthesis as a singer closed, Orlando devotes himself entirely to his sister from whom he becomes inseparable. “Unlike other artists who always had a court around them, Dalida liked small teams. There was his cousin – who was his secretary – and me. She didn’t want a lot of people because it tired her out, it “drained her energy” as she put it. But when she gave her confidence, beware, she didn’t want to be disappointed. I think I was up to it,” he said.
This professional relationship of more than two decades with his eldest, the producer describes it as “special”. “Do not think that everything was rosy with two similar characters, he continues. It was normal that the last word, it was the star who had to have it, and not me. Between an artist and her producer or artistic director, there is a limit that should not be exceeded. But when it turns out that this person is also the brother of the artist, often the limit is exceeded. But it stopped just where it needed to. »
The subjects of bickering between Orlando and Dalida? Certain parts of the artist’s sentimental life (“she put me in my place, but that’s not why I didn’t continue,” he recalls), but also certain artistic choices. “I had learned that there were two songs that she did not want to do: Let me dance et die on stage. For the last, she said she already had a song in the album called Bravo and approaching it. I told him it wasn’t the same thing. She let herself be convinced very quickly and she said later: “My brother was right”. For die on stage, when she gave the final note in the studio, she said “I believe this is a song that will stick”. And that’s true. »
Together, they collected hits and hits. The producer has helped the singer build her career year following year and well beyond the borders of France. But Dalida and Orlando, kindred spirits, also traces the story of a woman bruised by life and consoled by her little brother. Until these tragic farewells in 1987. “I never mourned my sister Iolanda and I never accepted the death of the artist Dalida”, he comments in voiceover in this film.
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