Monika: Today I would like to introduce to you one of the most inspirational women that I ever met. I am talking to Galia Salimo, a French cabaret artist, model, dancer, TV celebrity, the star of the Parisian shows at Le Carrousel, Le Palace, l'Alcazar, le Queen, le Manko, known as the queen of Parisian nights. She is the author of "Quand j'étais petit garçon" (2017) and “Quelque chose en moins... ou en plus” (2022). Hello Galia!
Galia: Hello Monika!
Monika: You look fantastic. What is the secret of your everlasting beauty?
Galia: The look of the others.
Monika: I must try it myself! Could you say a few words about yourself?
Galia: What to say about me??? A few words won't be enough that's why I started to write a biography we are now at volume 2 and I am writing the third volume.
Monika: In 2017, you published “Quand j'étais petit garçon". What inspired you to share your story?
Galia: Looking back, I wanted to relive and share the incredible adventure that my life has been and quite naturally I started with childhood.
Monika: In 2022, you published the second part titled “Quelque chose en moins... ou en plus”. Does the book focus on your cabaret career?
Galia: Yes absolutely. I recount my arrival at the difficulties and the chances, then my rise in this environment of feathers and sequins, the Carrousel, the Alcazar, the tours around the world, and my decision to go to London to become there definitively the one I was.
Monika: What are we going to read about in the third volume?
Galia: I will retrace all the difficulties of accepting to be this new person that I had decided to be. My sublime encounters that helped me achieve my conversion to a new profession to become the queen of the most famous nightclub of the 90s, and 2000s.
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| "The look of the others." |
Galia: How can you have a happy childhood when you are imprisoned in a body that is not yours, in a hostile environment and confronted with racism???
Monika: When did you decide to become a cabaret artist?
Galia: When I decided to become who I am today in the 70s, there weren't several possibilities, it was prostitution or cabaret, the first solution was unthinkable and luckily I was good at dancing.
Monika: How about singing?
Galia: We would scream… I am what I am…!! And especially Flowers by Miley Cyrus.
Monika: Do you remember your first show?
Galia: Yes, it was an audition at Madame Arthur in Antwerp in Belgium, it was a disaster, I had the bad idea to do a striptease on a Charleston…
Monika: The beginning was not too good but your career at Madame Arthur was fantastic. How do you recall those years and performances?
Galia: It was amazing, there was a small orchestra and I was singing Coccinelle’s song, I felt like I was living a dream, it was delicious.
Monika: Madame Arthur was closed for many years, and it was entirely restored and reopened in November 2015. Did you have a chance to visit it?
Galia: Yes, I went back to see the new show, it's something else entirely, it's the mixture of genres, women with beards and incredible talent, a reflection of our time when gender has replaced sex.
Monika: Do you keep in touch with other ladies from Madame Arthur?
Galia: No, but recently with BAMBI we participated in a documentary where we met them.
Monika: You worked for many Parisian nightlife cabarets as a nude dancer. The most challenging aspect of being a dancer is our sense of body imperfections. The thought of exposing my body in the presence of the audience and media would be a bit paralyzing for me, I must say. You looked like a million dollars yourself but did you have to overcome this feeling of imperfection?
Galia: Not on the stage, the lights, the public gave me a feeling of power, being the object of all eyes gave me strength, a power that I did not know in my everyday life. On stage, I became the actress of my destiny and my shyness faded.
Monika: Why did you choose Galia for your name?
Galia: It was my friends who thought I looked like the heroine of a film called GALIA.
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| "On stage, I became the actress of my destiny and my shyness faded." Photo: Eric Cazalot. |
Monika: We all pay the highest price for the fulfillment of our dreams to be ourselves. As a result, we lose our families, friends, jobs, and social positions. Did you pay such a high price as well? What was the hardest thing about your coming out?
Galia: No, my conviction of being on the right path and my lucky stars probably never made me feel that there was a price to pay and if there had been, I had already settled it with a childhood of misery. I never came out, it was not necessary. I worked at the Carrousel de Paris whose slogan was “the most beautiful transvestites in the world” so there was no need to proclaim it.
Monika: Was your family surprised by your transition?
Galia: I left everything the day I decided to become who I knew I was and only saw my parents a few years later happy to find myself.
Monika: Do you remember the first time you saw a transgender woman on TV or met anyone transgender in person that opened your eyes and allowed you to realize who you are?
Galia: Yes it was a real revelation. A gorgeous young girl in a bar... my friends tell me bluntly "he's a man" all my childhood dreams have resurfaced. I had found my way, it was proof that it was possible (you can read the whole scene in my first book).
Monika: Did you have any transgender sisters around you that supported you during the transition?
Galia: I had the chance to start at the Carrousel, we were 22 transsexuals from all over the world, it was a real hive, a universe where each brought their own experience to others, BAMBI, CAPUCINE, CHOUCHOU. The progress was spectacular, we were the Carousel girls…
Monika: From all over the world? I heard about April Ashley from England. And other girls were from which countries?
Galia: From Brazil - Rogeria and Valeria, from Italy, from Uruguay - Doriana, from America - LesLee, from Japan - Carrousel-Maki, and from Greece, in fact from all over the world!
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| "I left everything the day I decided to become who I knew I was." |
Monika: How were the girls selected at the Carrousel? Do you remember your job interview?
Galia: We auditioned on stage and the director hired us or not.
Monika: All the girls looked very feminine and beautiful. I guess that beauty was an essential factor in being accepted at the Carrousel.
Galia: Yes, unlike Madame Arthur, the essential criterion was femininity and the official slogan was “The most beautiful transvestites in the world” with this label we did not go unnoticed and it was necessary for the eyes of the public to justify this assertion.
Monika: The Carousel was one of the most popular cabarets in Paris. I guess all of you, Coccinelle, Bambi, and other ladies had the status of celebrity. Did you enjoy it?
Galia: Yes it was great but we felt it even more during our tours around the world, which I talk about in my second book, Whenever we arrived in a country we were greeted by journalists and the TVs were fighting over our interviews.
Monika: Did the Carousel team travel a lot in Europe?
Galia: A lot, but also in Asia, Australia, Egypt, the Middle East, and even Las Vegas.
Monika: All the girls were beautiful and talented. It is a pity that only Coccinelle managed to become a successful actress…
Galia: Coccinelle was the first and she had an innate sense of buzz she would have been the queen of buzz and social networks today.
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| "Today everything is open, it is no longer rare to meet our sisters in all professions." |
Galia: In those years there was no need for a prescription to obtain hormones, we bought them in pharmacies or during our visits to Switzerland where we went on tour twice a year.
Monika: And the gender reassignment surgery? Was it available only in Dr. Burou’s clinic in Casablanca?
Galia: The first like Coccinelle, BAMBI, and Capucine left for Casablanca. But in the 80s we all went to London to see Doctor Phillips.
Monika: If I am not mistaken, Coccinelle was the first Carrousel girl that found Dr. Burou?
Galia: Absolutely she is our mother to all...
Monika: What do you think about the present situation of transgender women in your country?
Galia: Today everything is open, it is no longer rare to meet our sisters in all professions, in all walks of life... everything is more fluid and I am very happy for them.
Monika: Had you been born later, you would not have to choose between cabaret or prostitution. You could be a model, actress, lawyer, or any other professional. Are you not jealous?
Galia: I was a model, but it was not my trip, I love the scene too much that's why I can't be jealous because I was doing what I loved.
Monika: Do you like fashion? What kind of outfits do you usually wear? Any special fashion designs, colors, or trends?
Galia: Fashion goes out of fashion, nothing beats its own style, casual chic…
Monika: I remember copying my sister and mother first, and later other women, trying to look 100% feminine, and my cis female friends used to joke that I try to be a woman that does not exist in reality. Did you experience the same?
Galia: Being mixed race I only had blondes around me and in no way did I want or could look like them and I realized that was my strength.
Monika: By the way, do you like being complimented on your looks?
Galia: Like any human being and maybe a little more since I am an artist.
Monika: When I saw the first wrinkle on my face I got very depressed. Our beauty fades away so quickly. Are you afraid of getting old?
Galia: I entered this new stage. It doesn't scare me because if beauty passes the charm remains…and life is full of surprises at any age…
At the start of the school year, I will be at the Theater to play “The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler… it will be the first time in France that a transsexual will play in this play… long live life.
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| "I believe more in friendship than in love." |
Galia: No, when I started, this kind of association did not exist and I have no vocation to be an activist.
Monika: Could you tell me about the importance of love in your life?
Galia: I believe more in friendship than in love, which I find too ephemeral. I only love passion and it can't last forever.
Monika: What would you recommend to all transgender women that are afraid of transition?
Galia: That they shouldn’t it... because if they're afraid it's because they're not ready... it has to be vital and unconditional.
Monika: My pen-friend Gina Grahame wrote to me once that we should not limit our potential because of how we were born or by what we see other transgender people doing. Our dreams should not end on an operating table; that’s where they begin. Do you agree with this?
Galia: How does gender relate to our potential, our talents? I completely agree with your friend… the operation is only a step that should take us towards our fulfillment, it is a stage, not a goal.
Monika: Galia, it was a pleasure to interview you. Thanks a lot!
Galia: Thank you, Monika!
All the photos: courtesy of Galia Salimo.
© 2023 - Monika Kowalska
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| The books are available on Amazon and Amazon. |
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