Thursday, February 3, 2022 at 5:00pm Eastern

Born in Cairo in 1933, Yolanda Gigliotti went to France at the age of 21. Unable to find a job, she tried singing, and quickly worked her way to stardom under the stage name Dalida. Alas, immense professional success went hand in hand with endless personal tragedy. She gained cult status after her death in 1987, and her bust stands in a square in Montmartre which bears her name, close to the house where she lived for 25 years.

Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 5:00pm Eastern

As a teenager, Josephine Baker fled extreme poverty and racial violence in St Louis, Missouri, and in 1925, at the age of 19, left America for Paris, where she took the public by storm wearing almost nothing but a flimsy banana skirt. A star of the stage for half a century, she was a life-long dedicated civil rights activist and adopted children from around the globe. On 30th November 2021, she joined the “great men” of France in the Paris Pantheon, the first black woman to receive this highest of honours.

Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 5:00pm Eastern

Born in Paris in 1844, the illegitimate daughter of a courtesan, at the age of 17 Sarah Bernhardt got herself a position at the prestigious Comédie Française, only to be promptly fired after slapping the leading actress. However, with her good looks, talent, eccentricities and a head for business, she ended up an international superstar, bought a theatre, slept in a coffin, and remains one of the most famous actors of all time.