The story
Dalida's house
On the heights of Porto-Vecchio, the house she wanted for her summers, far from the stage. Its story, told with these photographs, a few dates and what the house has kept.
A voice
A voice that crossed the century
Born Iolanda Gigliotti in Cairo in 1933, Dalida arrived in Paris in 1954 and became one of the great voices of popular song: nearly a thousand songs in ten languages, from Mediterranean ballads to disco, without ever losing her singularity.
Her refuge
A house chosen to breathe
In the 1970s, Dalida chose Southern Corsica. At the very top of Marina di Fiori, facing the gulf, she had her house built: a place of retreat, with nothing overlooking it, far from Paris and the spotlight. The counterpoint to an intense public life.
Milestones
A few dates
1933
Iolanda Gigliotti is born in Cairo on January 17.
1956
“Bambino”: her first great hit, in Paris.
1973
On vacation in Porto-Vecchio, photographed by the Sygma agency.
The 1970s
The house is built on the heights of Marina di Fiori.
August 1982
Paris Match photographs her at home, by the pool.
1987
Dalida passes away in Paris on May 3.
After 1987
The family keeps the house, then rents it out.
Today
Domaine Diva, restored in the spirit of the 1970s.
A house of soft curves, made for summer: the covered terrace, the long table, the pool at the foot of the walls.
Then · now
The house, then and now
The kitchen
The blue and white of the tiles, already.
Then · © All rights reserved
The house and the pool
The same curves, the same pool, under the pines.
Then · © All rights reserved
The living room
The slightly sunken living room, its steps and its low white wall.
Then · © All rights reserved
The summers
Summers, simple and bright
In summer, when her schedule allowed, Dalida met her family and friends here. Days devoted to the essentials: swimming, card games or Scrabble, lovely shared meals and simple cooking facing the sea. A family home, far from high society.
“We were in another world, in a little paradise. We didn't talk about work, it was forbidden.”
On screen
Dalida, at home in Corsica
A television archive: Dalida in Corsica, in her house, then an interview.
Video hosted by YouTube, loaded only when you play it.
What the house has kept
The spirit of the 1970s, intact
The white curves, the arches and the portholes that open onto the pool from the bedrooms' corridor give the house its unique charm and architectural identity. Not a reconstruction: a continuity. The house was restored keeping its volumes and its soul.
Sources
Sources and credits
This page draws on published sources and on the family archives. Where a date is uncertain, it is given only approximately.
- Paris Match: photographs by Jean-Claude Deutsch, Dalida on vacation at her villa in Porto-Vecchio, August 1982 (Paris Match Archive).
- Sygma: photographs by Pierre Vauthey, Dalida on vacation in Porto-Vecchio, 1973.
- Press, April 2011: Purepeople (April 26), Alta Frequenza (April 27), Luxsure (April 27): the villa put up for sale by the family.
- AmoMama: “Zoom sur la villa de luxe de Dalida,” March 30, 2021.
- Family archives: memories and photographs passed on by the owners.
- YouTube: video “Dalida en Corse + Interview · Le Grand Voyage”, published by NoamEnzo.
Archive photographs: all rights reserved. If you hold the rights to one of them, write to us: we will credit it or remove it. Write to us
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