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Amanda Lear is mostly notable for the way she managed to keep her biography secret. Nobody knows for sure where and when she was born, and whether she was born female or male. Most likely she was born in 1939 in French-occupied Vietnam as Alain Tap and changed sex in 1963.
She became Salvador Dali's favorite model and lover in 1965 at the same time
that she started performing in London as a stripper and singer while attending
art school.
Those were the days of the "Swinging London",
and she quickly became a fashion model and graced the covers of many magazines.
She adopted the last name Lear after marrying a British man with that last name,
but in 1966 she was dating Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones.
In 1973 she was engaged to Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music but then became David Bowie's lover.
At the same time her love affair with Dali' continued.
During the vogue for disco-music, Lear became a singer again,
this time in Germany,
debuting with
I Am a Photograph (1977) which was composed and produced by Anthony Monn
and contains the hits Blood and Honey and Tomorrow.
Another hit was the single Queen of Chinatown (1997).
Sweet Revenge (1978), again the brainchild of producer Anthony Monn,
included two more hits, Follow Me and Enigma.
Monn managed to provide enough material for another album in the same year,
Never Trust a Pretty Face (1978), with The Sphinx and Fashion Pack.
In 1979 she married Alain-Philippe Malagnac, who claimed to be bisexual.
The "disco" ended and Lear's fortunes declined rapidly.
Diamonds for Breakfast (1979), the last album with Monn, contains the singles Fabulous and Diamonds.
Incognito (1981) and Tam-Tam (1983) went unnoticed.
She started popular TV shows in both Italy and France.
Then also in Germany.
Fantasy (1992) was her main contribution to house music.
She was also a painter and a novelist.
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