Cristina

Cristina Monet Zilkha ( Monet-Palaci, January 17, 1959 – April 1, 2020), known during her recording career simply as Cristina, was an American singer and writer, best known for her no wave recordings made for ZE Records in the late 1970s and early 1980s in New York City. Matthew Perpetua wrote that she "was a pioneer in blending the artsiness and attitude of punk with the joyful energy of disco and pop.... [which] helped pave the way for the massive successes of her contemporaries, like Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, and anticipated the rise of confrontational but danceable alt-pop acts..."

Early life

Cristina Monet Zilkha was born Cristina Monet-Palaci on January 17, 1956, in Manhattan to writer-illustrator Dorothy Monet and French psychoanalyst Jacques Palaci (1915-1995) (president of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, friend of Heinz Kohut, Austrian-born American psychoanalyst and author of Remembering Reik). She grew up in the United States, England, Italy, and France. Cristina studied drama at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and attended Harvard University. During a leave from Harvard, she was in a motorcycle accident in which a friend died, and she decided not to re-enroll.

Career Cristina was working as a writer for The Village Voice when she met Michael Zilkha, who later became her husband. A wealthy heir to England's Mothercare retail empire, Michael started ZE Records with Michel Esteban. Zilkha persuaded her to record a song titled "Disco Clone", an eccentric pastiche dance record written by Ronald Melrose, a classmate of hers at Harvard. The original recording, released as ZE001 in 1978, was produced by John Cale and was the first to be issued on the ZE label. A later version featured the uncredited Kevin Kline trying to seduce Cristina,

Though initially recorded as a tongue-in-cheek pastiche, Later, she released a cover of the Beatles' "Drive My Car" (also released as "Baby You Can Drive My Car"). She released the track "Things Fall Apart", produced by Was (Not Was), on ZE's Christmas Record, in 1981.

Cristina's second album Sleep It Off, on which she retained her sardonic tone, In 2005, she collaborated with New York musician Alex Gimeno aka Ursula 10000 on the track "Urgent/Anxious" off his Here Comes Tomorrow album.

She later contributed learned essays and reviews to publications such as London's Times Literary Supplement while battling autoimmune disorders, including relapsing polychondritis. after Michael Esteban revived the label.

Personal life and death Cristina Monet Palaci married entrepreneur Michael Zilkha. They divorced in 1990, and she returned to New York City.

On April 1, 2020, Cristina died in New York at the age of 61 after testing positive for COVID-19. Sleep It Off (1984, Mercury Records) "La Poupée qui fait non" (1980)