Liza Minnelli, Robert De Niro - New York, New York (Original Motion Picture Score) (1977)

Liza Minnelli, one of the last great legends of the American entertainment industry, turns eighty on March 12. The only Oscar-winning artist who was born to Oscar-winning parents, has experienced both glittering heights and dark depths in her life. Her fate is eerily reminiscent of that of her mother, Judy Garland, but she was able to be reborn even in the most difficult moments.

“I inherited my drive from my mother, my dreams from my father,” says Liza Minnelli, who was born in the heart of Hollywood in 1946, the daughter of film director Vincente Minnelli and the tragic Judy Garland. She was in front of the camera at her mother’s side at the age of three, but behind her early glamour was a troubled childhood: after her parents divorced, she grew up in hotel rooms with her alcoholic and drug-addicted mother.

Her career got a real boost in 1964, when she was able to perform at the London Palladium with her mother, who, although she supported her daughter, encouraged her not to imitate him, but to find her own voice.

Minnelli lost her mentor at the age of twenty-three, when Garland died of a sedative overdose. By then, Liza was already a recognized talent: at the age of nineteen, she became the youngest actress to win a Tony Award. However, it was Cabaret in 1972 that brought her world fame: she was able to receive the Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA for her role as Sally Bowles. Although her film career later became more turbulent, her dominance on stage and in concert halls – as in the Grammy-winning Liza with Z – remained unquestionable.

In the eighties, she also fell into a vortex reminiscent of her mother's: drugs and alcohol nearly tore her life in two.

On the advice of Elizabeth Taylor, he went to rehab and rose like a phoenix.
He achieved worldwide success at the Freddie Mercury memorial concert in 1992 and conquered Budapest in 2006 at the Papp László Sportaréna. Although his personal life – with four divorces and no children – hides painful wounds, and his health has now forced him into a wheelchair, his zest for life is unbroken. He is coming out for his eightieth birthday with a new song and an autobiographical book, proving that his star still shines brightly, and although he has experienced more disappointments than he can count, his friends describe him as follows:

He is like a phoenix, spreading his wings and being reborn, he has incredible strength and courage.