Amanda Lear

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Amanda Lear (née Tapp; born 18 November 1939) is a French singer, lyricist, painter, television presenter, actress and former model.

Lear grew up in the south of France and in Switzerland, and studied art in Paris and at Saint Martin's School of Art in London. She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s and went on to model for Paco Rabanne and Ossie Clark among others. Around that time she met the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and would remain his closest friend and muse for the next 15 years. Lear first came into the public eye as the cover model for Roxy Music's album For Your Pleasure in 1973. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, she was a million-album-selling disco queen, mainly in Continental Europe and Scandinavia, signed to Ariola Records. Lear's first four albums earned her mainstream popularity, charting in the Top 10 on European charts, including the best-selling Sweet Revenge (1978). Her biggest hits included "Blood and Honey", "Tomorrow", "Queen of Chinatown", "Follow Me", "Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmh to Me)" and "Fashion Pack".

In the mid-1980s Lear positioned herself as one of the leading media personalities in mainland Europe, especially in Italy and in France where she hosted many popular TV shows. She had also developed a successful painting career, regularly exhibiting her works in galleries across Europe for the next three decades,[3] and continued to make music, earning minor hits such as "Incredibilmente donna" and "Love Your Body". Amanda's 1980s musical output saw her experimenting with different genres and trying to revive her career by re-recording earlier hits to various levels of success. 1980s also saw her release two books: an autobiography My Life with Dalí and a novel L'Immortelle.

Since the 1990s her time has been divided between music, television, movies and painting. Despite frequent album releases, she failed to achieve success on charts with her music. However, her television career remained successful, with Lear hosting numerous prime time TV shows, occasionally making guest appearances in French and Italian TV series. She has also performed acting and dubbing roles in independent as well as major film productions. In the late 2000s Lear would reinvent herself as a theatrical actress, performing in long-running stage plays in France. To date, she has sold over 25 million singles and 15 million albums worldwide.[4] Lear is also a widely recognized gay icon.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNWQv_DTx_o

"Queen of Chinatown" (also typed "Queen of China-Town") is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Ariola Records. It met with a great chart success and remains one of Lear's biggest hits to date.

The song's lyrics were written by Amanda Lear herself, while the music was composed by Anthony Monn, her musical partner at that time. It's an uptempo euro disco composition with characteristic oriental elements. The song was released as the sixth and final single from Lear's debut album I Am a Photograph in late 1977, however, was included only on the album's re-issue, replacing "La Bagarre". The B-side of the single was "Alphabet", which had earlier received a separate A-side single release in the Netherlands. In Japan, "The Lady in Black" was released on the side B.

"Queen of Chinatown" was heavily promoted by numerous TV performances in 1977 and 1978.  The song became Lear's biggest hit up to that point and now remains one of her most memorable songs. It reached number 2 in Germany, which is her highest achievement in that country to date, and number 2 in Italy, where it stayed kept off the top spot for four consecutive weeks in February 1978 by Matia Bazar's singles "Solo tu" and "...E dirsi ciao".

The song was recorded again in 1998 for the Back in Your Arms album. Minor label Mag Music released that re-recording as a promotional only vinyl single. In 2006, German musician DJenetix remixed the track and the new version was released as a single. In 2008, Amanda recorded a dance version of the song for her Amour Toujours album, in fact a re-release of the 2006 album With Love. Hungarian DJ Sterbinszky produced a remix of "Queen of Chinatown", using a sample from the original recording.

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Int - AMANDA LEAR - QUEEN OF CHINA TOWN