Cristina (singer)



Cristina Monet-Palaci[2]  (b. 2nd January 1959), known professionally as Cristina, is a singer and writer, best known for her No Wave recordings made for ZE Records around 1980 in New York.

A Harvard drop-out,[3]  and the daughter of a French psychoanalyst and an American illustrator-novelist-playwright, she was working as a writer for The Village Voicewhen she met Michael Zilkha, who later became her husband.[4]  A wealthy heir to England's Mothercare retail empire, Zilkha was just starting ZE Records with Michel Esteban. Zilkha persuaded her to record a song called "Disco Clone", an eccentric pastiche dance record written by Ronald Melrose, a classmate of hers at Harvard.[5] The original recording, released as ZE001, was produced by John Cale and was the first to be issued on the ZE label.[6]  A later version featured the uncredited Kevin Kline trying to seduce the breathy Cristina.[4]

"Disco Clone" was a cult success and encouraged ZE to release a full-length album in 1980, which was produced by August Darnell (aka Kid Creole).[4]  The album was later reissued as Doll in the Box. Cristina also issued, on a 12" single, a poker-faced cover of Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" with new lyrics which led its authors,Leiber and Stoller, to sue and get it withdrawn for many years.[3]  Later, she released a cover of the Beatles' "Drive My Car". She also released a track, "Things Fall Apart", produced by Was (Not Was), on ZE's Christmas Record, in 1981.

Cristina's second album, Sleep It Off, was produced by Don Was and released in 1984 with a sleeve design by Jean-Paul Goude (a year before he used the same idea for Grace Jones). Her lyrics dryly detailed a world of urban decadence, but the record flopped, and Cristina retired to domestic life in Texas. She and Zilkha divorced in 1990 and she returned to New York.[4]  She has more recently contributed learned essays and reviews to publications such as London's Times Literary Supplement, while battling a debilitating illness.[4]  Her two albums for ZE were reissued in 2005. ==Discography == ===Studio albums<span class="mw-editsection mw-editsection-expanded" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em;color:rgb(85,85,85);"> === ===Singles<span class="mw-editsection mw-editsection-expanded" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left:-0.25em;margin-right:0.25em;color:rgb(85,85,85);"> ===
 * Cristina (1980, Ze Records)
 * Sleep It Off (1984, Ze Records)
 * Doll in the Box (2004, Ze Records) - Expanded re-issue of Cristina
 * Sleep It Off (2004, Ze Records) - Expanded re-issue
 * "Disco Clone" (1978)
 * "Is That All There Is?" (1980)
 * "Baby You Can Drive My Car" (1980)
 * "La Poupée Qui Fait Non" (1980)
 * "Things Fall Apart" (1981)
 * "Ticket To The Tropics" (1984)