"Diamonds" - a song by French singer Amanda Lear

Amanda Lear

Amanda Lear is a French singer, lyricist, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist....

 released in 1980 by Ariola Records

Ariola Records

Ariola Records is a German record label. As of the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of BMG which in turn has since become a part of the international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment...

.

Song information

"Diamonds" was released as the second single from Amanda's fourth album, Diamonds for Breakfast

Diamonds for Breakfast

Diamonds For Breakfast is the fourth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in January, 1980 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc...

. It was another Monn

Anthony Monn

Anthony Monn a.k.a. Tony Monn is a German singer, composer, and record producer.Monn started his career as a singer in the German schlager genre in the early 1970s...

-Lear collaboration, with the singer writing the lyrics and Monn providing arrangement and producing the track. Musically, "Diamonds" is a campy

Camp (style)

Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...

, disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

-pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 track, with the words revealing an inspiration of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is a song introduced by Carol Channing in the original Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , which was written by Jule Styne and Leo Robin...

". The B-side of the single was "It's a Better Life" from the same album, a song about a couch potato spending her days in front of TV.

The song turned out to be successful, especially in Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

. It remains one of the biggest hits from the album and belongs to Amanda Lear's most memorable tunes. In 2006 Spanish singer Pedro Marín

Pedro Marín

Pedro Marín is a Spanish pop singer, actor and TV performer.-Biography:Marín débuted on the popular music scene in Spain as a teen idol in the early 1980s with hits such as "Que no" and "Aire." He was the first Spanish artist to work with synthesisers and electronic instruments being a reference...

 covered the song on his record Diamonds, a tribute album

Tribute album

A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...

 including interpretations of chosen Amanda Lear's tracks.

Music video

The music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 for "Diamonds" was shot in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. It pictures Amanda walking and dancing nearby Van Cleef & Arpels

Van Cleef & Arpels

Van Cleef & Arpels is a French jewellery, watch, and perfume company that was founded in 1896 by Charles Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef. They opened their first boutique in 1906 at 22 place Vendôme, Paris...

 boutique at Place Vendôme

Place Vendôme

Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the...

. The video also includes scenes with the singer having a bath and eating the title diamonds for breakfast in her bed. For the video, single cover as well as Diamonds for Breakfast album cover, Amanda sported a new, shorter haircut.

Chart performance

Chart (1980)	Peak position
Germany Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...	30
Sweden Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	18
Norway VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...	7