[3] Her best known songs include "Bambino", "Gondolier", "Les Enfants du Pirée", "Le Temps des fleurs", "Darla dirladada", "J'attendrai", "La Danse de Zorba", "Bang Bang", "Il venait d'avoir 18 ans", "Besame mucho", "Gigi l'amoroso", "Laissez-moi danser", "Salma ya salama", "Helwa ya baladi", "Mourir sur scène" and "Paroles, paroles" featuring spoken word by Alain Delon.

Dalila was also spotted by author and screenwriter Alfred Marchand, who advised to change her name to Dalida, since her pseudonym too closely resembled the Biblical character as depicted in the movie Samson and Delilah.

A few days later, on the second floor of the building at 26 Rue François Ier, she performed "Barco negro", a recent hit by Amália Rodrigues, humming the a cappella verses and tapping her fingertips on a corner of Morisse's desk.

[18] On 2 May 1956 in Barclay's office at 20 Rue de Madrid, Dalida signed a renewable one-year contract, with a modest percentage on record sales, with the promise of increasing it if the expected success was accomplished.

As the song knocked Doris Day's "Whatever Will Be, Will Be" off the top of the French charts,[23] women began to emulate Dalida's makeup, resulting in an explosion of Rimmel sales, while men saw in her a talent, sensuality and sexiness.

[20] As the French music industry was then still in the background, "Bambino" was described in 2007 by Bertrand Dicale of Le Figaro as "a launch that announced what will happen in the coming decades ... a start of really modern times where singer is more important than song".

She also performed in Algiers during the summer, supporting the morale of French soldiers fighting the Algerian War, and held a new series of galas in France and Belgium that regularly ended with two hours of autograph signing.

Topping the charts in January 1959, where it remained over most of the winter, "Come prima" proved to be an ultimate holiday hit in France and Belgium, as Dalida could be seen promoting it on a Christmas-themed television set.

[30] On 26 December 1958 Dalida was in New York with Morisse where they met Norman Granz, the American impresario of Ella Fitzgerald, who invited her to Hollywood and offered a fifteen-year contract to launch her career in the United States.

[46] During the closing night of the Berlin Film Festival on 28 September 1959, she was presented with a Golden Lion award by RTL as the best-selling musical artist of the year in Germany, and was saluted with a fanfare playing the verses of "Am Tag als der Regen kam".

Her third release of the year "Les Enfants du Pirée" brought Dalida huge commercial success, becoming her second biggest international hit after "Am Tag als der Regen kam".

In December, she issued an EP Joyeux Noël collecting four of the best-known holiday carols in French, and her New Year's show Réveillon de Paris broke the record for a TV audience, with nearly six million viewers.

During 1961, Dalida issued a set of new Italian songs on the Canta in italiano EP, and also scored several top ten hits internationally such as "Nuits d'Espagne" and "Tu ne sais pas".

[58] "La Leçon de Twist" was followed by another success in the same genre "Achète-moi un juke-box", with the lyrics "Oh dad, buy me a jukebox, to listen to Elvis Presley, Les Chaussettes Noires, and Johnny Hallyday – And Dalida?

In Saigon, her popularity led to traffic congestion when she performed, but the local authorities interrupted her show during a rendition of "La Leçon de Twist" because the song was considered to be a political act.

[20] Under the direction of the young Claude Lelouch, who later became one of the most acclaimed French directors, Dalida dressed as a soldier and walked through a war-torn forest in the middle of bombing accompanied by real scenes from the Second World War.

"The most iconic moment of the tour", according to her brother Orlando, was a concert at Draguignan on 14 August when "Dalida appeared with blond hair for the first time, and shocked the crowd that that didn't recognize her at first glance".

"Là il a dit" had peaked at number six in Canada earlier in the year, but on finishing the tour in November, Dalida returned to the studio to record "Amore scusami", an orchestral sentimental pop ballad, which was a completely new genre in her repertoire.

With new performances at Bobino and Tête de l'Art in the following months, Dalida was in the top ten in France and Belgium with a cover of Rita Pavone's "Viva la pappa col pomodoro" that gained huge interest among children.

[73] During the summer, Dalida performed in Morocco and Algeria, played a supporting role in the Italian comedy movie Menage all'italiana alongside Ugo Tognazzi and, making her debut, Romina Power, and released one of her first records in single format, "Wenn die Soldaten".

It was also a chart-topping hit in Europe, Canada and Latin America, reaching number one in France and Italy, where it was the best-selling record of the year, beating "La Danse de Zorba" and receiving a gold certification.

Dalida also returned to the wide screen, with a supporting role in the satirical French movie La Morale de l'histoire that included the unreleased song "Je sortirais sans toi".

New songs such as "J'ai décidé de vivre", "Entrez sans frapper" and "Loin dans le temps" marked a new direction in her career, orientating her repertoire towards more profound lyrics.

[84] Dalida also came back to film for her first main role in five years, in Italian romantic drama Io ti amo, acting as stewardess Judy alongside Alberto Lupo.

The movie was a minor success, but as it was filmed in colour and several of her new songs appeared in, it provided critically acclaimed music video for her latest Italian chart topper and gold certified "L'ultimo valzer".

[87] Returning to German TV, Dalida danced casatchok on her new song "Petruschka", which was followed with release of three new albums: Canta in italiano, In Deutsch and Ma mère me disait, a sales topper in Poland.

[93] The single released on 17 January with B-side "Pour ne pas vivre seul", topped charts in France, Japan, Mexico and Portugal, and had a fair performance in several other countries.

The renditions of the song during the future years left a huge impact on French society and shaped an image of Dalida, described by Vanity Fair as "ultimate drama queen".

It includes Dalida singing in seven languages and dancing her way through a huge number of her earlier hits with the best video effects available at the time and wearing more than 40 outfits from the best French and international fashion designers, maintaining her "Glamour" and "DIVA" trademarks gained during the disco era in the late seventies.

She sang glamorous disco-dance songs from same period such as "Je suis toutes les femmes", "Gigi in paradisco", "Il faut danser reggae", "Monday, Tuesday...", "Comme disait Mistinguett".