hello everyone. in this article, I will share with you the life story of a singer I love very much. I first met him with a song and was impressed and researched his life. he came across me by chance, and his life quite impressed me. i also wanted to share it with you. I think you might be interested. I'll start without further ado. pleasant readings ☺️🥰
It was a stormy life that stretched from the Cemetery to the Paris studios, mixed with absence, presence, joy and sadness. He became an ambassador for countries and intercontinental culture, established a throne in the hearts of his loved ones
Tilkilik in the heart of Izmir, from a childhood in difficulty wedding-invitation singing extending the scene in Istanbul and Paris Studios; poverty, assets, loneliness, popularity, love, longing, sadness, joy, a life that was hers and many more contrast.
He was multilingual, multicultural, but always Turkish, always Izmir. He should have listened to her love and homesickness. He had a mission to make us listen to world-famous melodies in Turkish and to read the rich folklore treasure of Anatolia to foreigners in their own languages. And he succeeded. "Entarisi Looks like Ala", folk music with ”Sacrifice of Olam Neck“; Turkish oral Western music with ”Vodka, Raki and Wine Every Evening“, ”Sea and Moonlight“; International popular music with ”Brigitte Bardot“, ”Kukkuruku La Paloma" made us love.
Dario Moreno, aka “the happiness merchant”, who cheered people with his popular songs he sang, as well as the trendy dance steps he learned, movies, sympathetic attitudes and endless energy, died last November at the age of 48. in his year, he was once again fondly remembered by his friends and loved ones.
A stormy life
Dario Moreno, whose real name is David Arugete, was born in 1921 in Izmir, in the Cemetery district, where poor Jews live. His parents, 16. he fled the inquisition of Spain in the XIII century and took refuge in Anatolia. Now, when her father, Moreno Arugete, a railway worker, dies as a result of an unfortunate work accident, Ms. Rosa, who remains with her two children, marries him for the second time. Dario also has 4 siblings from his mother's second marriage. When the living conditions become increasingly difficult, his family places Dario, who is more plump and strong than his brother Avram, in the Talmut Tora Jewish School and the Nido de Guerfance Orphanage. However, Dario's school years do not last very long. Dario, who worked in many different jobs during his childhood and opened his eyes over time, starts working at Nuri Fettah's office in Kardıçalı Business Inn, one of the famous lawyers of Izmir, to see his errands. Here he educates himself and rises to the clerkship. Dario, who also works in French in the library at night, learns this language in a short time.
In the same years, he sings Neapolitan songs with his beautiful voice between the streets with a guitar that he got in his hand, interprets the Turkish double-decker in the Ladino language that Jews have lived in for centuries. After learning French, october also adds songs in this language to his repertoire. In the same period, he begins to sing songs at bar-mitzvah ceremonies and becomes well known in the congregation. And this young man, who has unwittingly stepped into the world of music, will give his first concert at the casino on the Konak Ferry Pier.
Moreno gets the opportunity to really develop his musical talent while serving in the military. So much so that the Turkish army becomes almost a springboard in his professional career. This ability, first noticed by his fellow soldiers, and then by his superiors, allows Moreno to perform music in various garrisons and headquarters throughout his military service. During his military service as an infantry soldier, he was a soloist in the Akhisar Orduevi Jazz Orchestra. Turkish Greek French Italian, Spanish, French, Spanish, Turkish, Moreno sings and performs in military clubs in major provinces of Turkey. When he finishes his military service, he sings in various nightclubs and his fame shines brightly in Izmir Palace. He performs half-hour programs every night at the Marmara Casino in Kordon, which is now an Army prison.
When he starts making money, he moves with his mother to the Karataş district, where Jews already live in Izmir, to his house on street 302, which is called by his own name today.
1.During World War II, he performed at the Fenerbahce Belvu Gazino in Istanbul for a while. During the same period, he worked for two years in Ankara, where he was invited for two nights by the Bomonti Casino in Ankara. Although they realize each other much later, the poet shares the same hotel room with Orhan Veli. He will also have shown his success in singing and reading poetry, which Orhan Veli will make him read poems that he has just written or loved.
After two years of studying French chansons, Argentine tangos and Orhan Veli poems, Moreno goes to Istanbul and enters Fritz Kerten's orchestra as a soloist. Although he gained a great reputation many years later, he never forgets his former boss Fritz Kerten, who embraced him in Istanbul. He changes his name to Andre Kerr and takes it with him as a pianist.
From the Cemetery to the Paris studios
After working in Istanbul for a year, Moreno performs in Athens, and soon goes to Paris on an offer from a French emprezario (the one who organizes the artist's work schedule and agreements) and continues his career in Cannes and Paris. She first sang in Cannes at the Palm Beach Hotel. Dario then moves to Paris and performs at the Puerto del Sol music hall. But, unfortunately, his first years in Paris pass without success. From there, Moreno, who went to Germany and sang for a while in American military clubs, had his first success in France with the song “Jezabel”. He also reinforces his reputation, which he achieved with this song, with the calypsos he sang. "Adieu Lisbon” and "Kukkuruku La Paloma" become the most held tracks. In particular, ”Adieu Lisbon" turns the music charts upside down and does not leave the first place to anyone for exactly six months in 1955. The same song will bring Moreno another great success. So much so that in the “La Course aux Etoiles = Stars Competition” held on Radio Monte Carlo in 1957, Adieu was applauded for exactly 380 seconds with the song Lisbon and was declared the “King of Sound and Applause” of that year in the newspaper France Soir.
This success in the world of music opens the doors to a completely different world for Dario Moreno dec cinema. Moreno's first film, which starred in a total of 45 films, would be “Le Slaire de La Peur”. Her role in the film “La Femme et Le Pantin” (The Woman and Her Puppet) with Brigitte Bardot, the most famous cinema star of the period, attracts the attention of the cinema world. In the film about the life of Brigitte Bardot, it never ceases to occur to the famous star that she sings and dances to the song Brigitte Bardot, which she composed herself.
Eddie Constantine is also one of the stars with whom Moreno shares the same scene in the cinema. Meanwhile, he dec awarded the ”Best Supporting Actor“ award in France for his film ”Oeil Pour Oeil".
“I'm Turkish, I'm from Izmir”
Your achievements and awards are never decimated. With his attitude at the Latin American Songs Festival held in Paris, he establishes a throne in the hearts of Turkish citizens who already love him very much. Dario Moreno, who competed for France, was selected first with the song he sang. During the award ceremony, the French National Anthem and flag intervene while being pulled to the post and he shows the Turkish flag he removed from his chest and says, “I am a Turk, I am from Izmir”.
For these efforts, Dario Moreno, who has kept his Turkish identity at the forefront despite having made his real career in France and promoted Turkey abroad, was awarded the “Hittite Sun” award by the Ministry of Tourism and Promotion in 1962. French words with modernized and announcing to the world folk music, Western music and Turkish, who had been playing with words, and in this aspect deserves this award Dario Moreno, who led a school and more.
Loneliness and sadness despite wealth and fame
For Moreno, the years spent in poverty are now far behind him. Absence has been replaced by a great fortune. Fox's poor child turns into an artist who owns Coca Cola shares, has a farm in Brazil, a magnificent apartment in Paris, has a very rich wardrobe and a frambuaz-colored cadillac. Every year she makes it her custom to go to the Rio de Janeiro carnival. Again, he goes on a big tour every year, covering 16 countries. But behind his great wealth, his full of life, his cheerful state, there is hidden a great sadness caused by loneliness and homesickness.
Moreno comes to his “Dear Izmir”, where he sings for every opportunity, visits his family and old friends and tries to relieve his loneliness and homesickness.
Kalen Galenti, Moreno's last relative who died in 2013, says that this romantic, full of life, full of flesh and sympathetic man is a true Izmir lover: “Despite all the fame of Dario, his glorious life, the port where he took refuge was Izmir. Boyozu, marzipan, chewing gum paste, driving around Kordon with a carriage, the Izmir Fair would not have changed for anything. Canım could never sing his song Izmir completely, he would start crying in the middle of the song.”
He plays the role of Sancho Pancho in the musical Don Quichotte, written and staged by Jacques Brel and starring Moreno. The Belgian premiere of the work is held in Brussels on October 4, 1968. Moreno, who was awarded the Medal of arts by Prince Paola of Belgium for his outstanding achievement in his role, died on December 1, 1968, at the age of 47, as a result of a disturbance he suffered while on his way to Paris from Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport, before the Paris premiere of the work on December 10.
At a friend's meeting, he said, “Izmir, my sweet and dear city... one day if I die away from you, let them bring me to you. But if they take him to my grave, let them not say that he is dead, let them say that he is sleeping in his bosom ... My sweet Izmir ...”, although he was buried far from Izmir, in Israel, at the insistence of his mother. His friends, who could not fulfill his will, could only take the land of Izmir to Him. According to journalist-writer Yaşar Aksoy, Dario Moreno, a true Izmir lover, has a star of the moon icon on his tombstone, and it says “Izmir boy David Arugete is lying here” in Turkish.
