Amanda Lear has always been very mysterious about her youth.
She was probably born Alain Tapp in Saigon (or France) in 1939 - but it might have been Hong Kong in 1941 or 1945 or even (as she now claims) November 1948 - of mixed parentage, at various times she's claimed British, French and Indonesian fathers, and English and Russo-Oriental mothers. The only thing certain is that she was destined to become another of the gorgeous young transsexuals to emerge in France during the '60's, and was later was an icon of the 1970s'.
After an education [supposedly] in Switzerland and England, by 1959 at latest Amanda had moved to France - still a tall, gangly and rather Asian looking boy. Radically transformed by hormones and a nose job, her looks attracted the eye of Salvador Dali and she was to became a regular companion for many years. She first became publicly noticed in 1960 as an exotic showgirl and stripper known as Peki d'Oslo.
In 1963 she had her sex change operation, carried out in Casablanca by Dr Bourou it was probably paid for by Salvador Dali. She soon afterwards moved to England where she soon became part of the trendy "Chelsea Girl" set. Her hair now a bleached blond, in 1965 she was signed by a model agency and was soon catwalking for top designers and appearing on magazine covers, but her modelling career was eventually to be hampered by rumours of her transsexuality.
In early 1973 Bryan Ferry saw the supposedly 25-year old (making her pre-teen in her showgirl days!) Amanda on stage modelling a collection for fashion designer Ossie Clarke, and invited her to feature as the cover girl for Roxy Music's new album "For Your Pleasure". Amanda was soon mixing with the likes of the Rolling Stones and Elton John, and in 1974 met David Bowie and became one of several beautiful transsexual women (Romy Haag was another) featuring large in his love life at that time, indeed they lived together for a year, and she became part of the "Ziggy" stage act.
David Bowie helped start off Amanda's music career, and in the late 1970's she became a huge disco star on mainland Europe in her own right, her best albums probably being the 1978 "Sweet Revenge" and the 1980 "Diamonds for Breakfast".
In the '80's and '90's she successfully made new career's both as a painter and as a TV host, although also still recording and performing her music.
After her marriage to Frenchman Alain-Phillippe Malagnac in 1979, she began to vigorously deny her transsexuality and as supposed proof posed nude for several men's magazines. While this certainly proved to her delighted fans that she still had an amazing body although probably in her '40's, her case was always unconvincing given indirect evidence such as her masculine sounding voice, lack of children, failure submit to any medical tests, lack of any offered documentation (e.g. her birth certificate); and more direct evidence such as old photographs and the statements of those (particularly April Ashley, and arguably David Bowie and Salvador Dali) who knew her in the 1960's & 1970's to be a transsexual.
Tragedy struck Amanda in December 2000 when her home in France burnt down, killing her husband and destroying many of her and Dali's paintings.
部分中文资料：
关于Amanda Lear的小传可能有几百个版本，但无论野史正史考证，Amanda Lear 都是出身在一个混裔的家庭。从她的父母双方归结下来的血统可以罗列为英国，法国，俄国，越南，中国，也许还要再加上印度尼西亚。下面一个关键性问题就出现了分叉。她的出生日期可能是从1936到1946任何一年。所以今天她也许是59岁，也有可能是69岁。从她的照片上你都不会对任何一种年龄质疑，因为她总是充满活力，或者人工的斧凿，或者她驻颜有术地青春长留。最常见的消息是说她是出生在香港，当然象河内这样东方神秘而欧风盛行的地方也榜上有名。又或者更加极端一点的消息说出生证上根本没有Amanda Lear这样一个人，Alain Tapp或许是填补姓名栏的唯一名字。
她身上的称谓有很多，譬如模特、艺术家、画家、歌唱家...而另一些时候，Amanda Lear则更多的被称为“谁谁谁”的情人。让我们抛开这些这一切，颠起脚尖去窥视一下她的神秘之处吧。困绕Amanda Lear迷几十年的神秘之处是；Amanda Lear，那个金发而妖娆的美丽尤物，究竟是神秘伊甸园里的夏娃，还是一个偷食禁果的男子？她好像是一缕流浪的风，在喧嚣的都市中肆意游荡，不经意间确闪出一缕亮光，照亮整个寂静而又虚伪的夜空，当世界为之喝彩时，它却悄然隐退在自己燃尽后的躯壳里睡去。
她好像刻意把自己打扮成注重创意、叛逆、新奇、自我表达、反物质主义、不断变换的生活体验、神神秘秘，尽力让人去猜想。
