Queen of Chinatown
"Queen of Chinatown" (also typed "Queen of China-Town") is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1977 by Ariola Records. It met with a big chart success and remains one of Lear's biggest hits to date. Background. The song's lyrics were written by Amanda Lear herself and the music was composed by Anthony Monn, her musical partner at that time. It's an uptempo disco composition with characteristic oriental elements. The song was released as the sixth and final single from Lear's debut album "I Am a Photograph" in late 1977 , however, was included only on the album's re-issue, replacing "La Bagarre". The B-side of the single was "Alphabet", which had earlier received a separate A-side single release in the Netherlands. In Japan, "The Lady in Black" was released on the side B. "Queen of Chinatown" was heavily promoted by numerous TV performances in 1977 and 1978. The song became Lear's biggest hit up to that point and now remains one of her most memorable songs. It reached number 2 in Germany, which is her highest chart achievement in that country to date, and number 2  in Italy, where it was kept off the top spot for four consecutive weeks in February 1978 by Matia Bazar's singles "Solo tu" and "...E dirsi ciao". The song was recorded again in 1998 for the "Back in Your Arms" album. Minor label Mag Music released that re-recording as a promotional only 12" vinyl single with four mixes in the summer of 1999. Hungarian DJ Sterbinszky released a remix of "Queen of Chinatown" in 2005, using a sample from the original recording. The track reached no. 5 in Hungarian singles chart. In the same year, German producer DJenetix  remixed the track for the various artists compilation "Disco Celebration" which consisted of contemporary remixes of the hits from the 70s and 80s. The new version was released as a single in 2006. In 2008, Amanda recorded another version of the song for her "Amour toujours" album, in fact a re-release of the 2006 album "With Love". Music videos. A music video was filmed for German TV show "Musikladen". It presents the singer wearing an oriental dress and holding a hand fan, performing the song with two backup dancers. This music video was released on a 3-DVD box  set "Das beste aus dem Musikladen Vol. 1" in 2012, together with ten other videos that Lear had made for the show. Another video was filmed for Italian prime time TV show "Premiatissima", hosted by Lear in 1982. This video was later used in her television special "Ma chi è Amanda?", aired in Italy in February 1983.