Model, painter, disco diva and the absolute fiercest of the pioneering transsexuals (along with Candy Darling), Amanda Learwas born Alain Tap in Saigon, 1939. Or it could have been Paris. Or Hong Kong. The year might have been 1941, 1945 or as she now claims 1948. There is much competing information about her parents, none of it conclusive. In general, not much is known for sure about the early life of Amanda Lear and she would like to keep it that way. She claims to have been educated in Switzerland and she eventually made her way to Paris in 1959, taking the stage name Peki d’Oslo, performing as a stripper at the notorious drag bar, Le Carrousel.
 
The story goes that the gangly, yet exotic Eurasian beauty Peki had a nose job and sex change in Casablanca paid for by Salvador Dali, who frequented Le Carrousel, in 1963. Amanda, as she is now known, then makes her way to London to become a part of the swinging Chelsea set where she is rumored to have had a relationship with Rolling Stone, Brian Jones. She models for Yves St. Laurent and Paco Rabanne and is a constant muse for the Divine Dali, but her career is held back by rumors that she was born a man.
 

 
Roxy Music front man Bryan Ferry sees Lear on the runway during an Ossie Clarke fashion show and invites her to be the model for Roxy’s For Your Pleasure album cover walking a black panther on a leash. They had a fling and that image has become iconic. Lear also has a yearlong affair with David Bowie who sings Sorrow to her in his 1980 Floor Show (broadcast here on the Midnight Special in 1974). Bowie helped Lear launch her musical career and by the late 70s she had become a best selling disco singer and television personality in Europe with hits like Queen of Chinatown and I Am a Photograph. She collaborated with Eurodisco duo La Bionda (who Tara is nuts about and has posted here about them)

 
Her autobiography, My Life With Dali came out in 1985 and it begins when she would have been approximately 24 or 25 years of age. No mention is made of her life before arriving in London in 1965. When Dali biographer Ian Gibson confronted her on camera about the gender of her birth, Lear angrily—and not at all convincingly—stonewalled him. She has always vehemently denied that she was a transsexual despite it being a well-established fact. She even posed nude for Playboy and sunbathed naked on beaches to dispel the rumors. All this really proved was that she had a kickin’ bod!
 
Amanda Lear still looks amazing and continues to perform She has a thriving side career as a painter.

 
Modeling in the 60s with Patti Boyd Harrison and Karianne Muller (later a Roxy Music cover girl herself):

 
Bonus: Another incredible performance of Queen of Chinatown

OMG, I’m freaking out! I had no idea about the backstory on the model for this album cover! I love it!!!

Hi as a fan of both Richard AND Amanda I was delighted to read this article! I have always wondered about her trans-status (OR lack thereof) and am very intrigued by Richard’s claim that it is well-established fact. Is there a source you can site for this?

Attack of the spam lizards from another dimension!

@Nico

The spam lizards are BITCH to delete!!! It’s been getting worse each day on DM. What to do?

Well, you’ve got their attention, so you must be doing something right.

We’re going to disallow hyperlinks for now. Hopefully this will help. I can’t stand the madness!

OMG!! The spam lizards CAN HEAR US TALK…

And Amanda Lear is still standing strong…
http://www.maxipromotion.com/?p=3403
New tracks with Scissor Sisters

Yes she was transgender along time ago!!!
she is a role model and it’s her own choice too keep her privat life to herself, there is so much more that she did and is today, she is a pioneer in MANY ways.please respect and applaud her for that.