Born in tiny North, South Carolina to Mamie Kitt, who was of Cherokee and African-American descent, and an American father (surname Kitt) of German and Dutch descent, she was raised by her maternal aunt Anna Mae Riley, whom she believed was her mother up until after Riley's death, when she was sent to live in New York City with her real mother.
Kitt began her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company and made her film debut with them in Casbah (1948). A talented singer with a distinctive voice, her hits include Let's Do It, C'est Si Bon (It's So Good), Just an Old Fashioned Girl, Monotonous, Love for Sale, I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch, Uska Dara, Mink, Schmink, Under the Bridges of Paris, and arguably her most recognizable hit, the sexily sung Christmas song Santa Baby. She sang quite a few songs in French, a language she picked up during her years performing in Europe, but she never lost her American accent, which made her French songs sound rather amusing to native French speakers. She dabbled in other languages as well, which she demonstrated in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.
In 1950, Orson Welles gave her her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952, introducing "Monotonous", "C'est Si Bon" and "Santa Baby", three songs with which she continues to be identified. During her run, 20th Century Fox filmed a version of the play. Welles and Kitt allegedly had a torrid affair during her run in Shinbone Alley, which earned her the nickname by Welles as "the most exciting woman in the world". In 1958, Kitt made her feature film debut opposite Sidney Poitier in The Mark of the Hawk. Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt would work on and off in film, television and on nightclub stages. In the late 1960s television series Batman, she played Catwoman after Julie Newmar left the role. This was the role for which she would best be remembered, owing to her purring feline drawl.
In 1968, however, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon that reportedly made First Lady Lady Bird Johnson weep uncontrollably. Professionally exiled from the U.S., she devoted her energies to overseas performances before returning to New York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a 'recipe' for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was distinctive.
In 1984, she returned to hit music with a dance song, Where Is My Man; the first certified Gold record of her career. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the country, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations.
In 2000, Kitt again returned to Broadway in the short but notable run of the revival of the 1920s-themed, The Wild Party, opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. In recent years she had also appeared as the Wicked Witch in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz.
One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and also did other voiceover work such as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot. She continued her role as Yzma on the spin-off TV series of The Emperor's New Groove, The Emperor's New School.
In recent years, Kitt's annual appearances in New York made her a fixture of the Manhattan cabaret scene. She took the stage at venues such as the Ballroom and, more recently, the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly stylized image, alternating between signature songs (such as "Old Fashioned Millionaire"), which emphasized a witty, mercenary world-weariness, and less familiar repertoire, much of which she performed with an unexpected ferocity and bite that presented her as a survivor with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of resilience - her version of Here's to Life, frequently used as a closing number, was a sterling example of the latter. This side of her later performances is reflected in at least one of her recordings, Thinking Jazz, which preserves a series of performances with a small jazz combo that took place in the early 1990s in Germany, and which includes both standards (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and numbers (such as Something May Go Wrong) that seem more specifically tailored to her talents; one version of the CD includes as bonus performances a fierce, angry Yesterdays and a live take of "C'est Si Bon" that good-humoredly satirizes her sex-kitten persona.
Personal life
Kitt was married to John William McDonald, an associate of a real-estate investment company, from 1960 to 1965. They had one child, a daughter, Kitt (b. 1962, married Charles Lawrence Shapiro); and two grandchildren, Jason and Rachel Shapiro.
Eartha Kitt died of colon cancer on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008.
April In Portugal
Eartha Kitt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When we discovered romance, like we never knew.
My head was in the clouds, My heart went crazy too,
And madly I said: "I love you."
Too soon I heard you say:
"This dream is for a day"
That's Portugal and love in April!
Those tears I know so well,
They told me it was spring fooling me.
I found my April dream in Portugal with you
When we discovered romance, like I never knew.
Then morning brought the rain,
And now my dream is through
But still my heart says "I love you."
This sad reality, To know it couldn't be,
That's Portugal and love in April!
The music and the wine convinced me you were mine,
But it was just the spring fooling me.
I found my April dream in Portugal with you
When we discovered romance, like I never knew.
Then morning brought the rain,
And now my dream is through
But still my heart says "I love you."
Eartha Kitt's song "April In Portugal" is about falling in love and the heartbreak that ensues. The lyrics describe the feeling of discovering romance in a new place and falling madly in love. However, the joy and happiness is short-lived as the reality of the relationship sets in. The singer realizes that the love they found was fleeting and nothing but a temporary fantasy.
The chorus of the song repeats that the dream was found in Portugal in April. This creates an image of a sweet and innocent love that was discovered unexpectedly, but it was too good to be true. The second verse of the song talks about how the tears fell when the rain showered, revealing the painful realization that everything was just a mirage.
The third verse drops the pretenses and acknowledges the fact that the love that was discovered will never be a reality. The music and wine of Portugal were enough to convince the singer that the love was real, but it was just the spring season playing tricks on them. Despite the heartbreak, the last line of the song still allows love to exist as the singer's heart still says "I love you," even if the love is no longer possible.
Line by Line Meaning
I found my April dream in Portugal with you
I found the perfect love experience while in Portugal with you
When we discovered romance, like we never knew.
We found love like we never knew or experienced before
My head was in the clouds, My heart went crazy too, And madly I said: "I love you."
I was so deeply in love that I couldn't even think straight, my heart was overflowing with emotions, and I said "I love you" out of pure passion
Too soon I heard you say: "This dream is for a day"
Unfortunately, you told me that our love is only for a short time
That's Portugal and love in April!
This is just how things are in Portugal and with love in the springtime
And when the showers fell, Those tears I know so well, They told me it was spring fooling me.
As the rain fell from the sky, I cried tears I know all too well, and it became clear that the springtime had simply fooled me into thinking our love was real
Then morning brought the rain, And now my dream is through
The next morning, reality set in and our love was over
But still my heart says "I love you."
Despite the fleeting nature of our love, my heart still holds on to loving you
This sad reality, To know it couldn't be, That's Portugal and love in April!
It's a sad realization that our love couldn't last, but it's a common occurrence in Portugal and with love in the springtime
The music and the wine convinced me you were mine, But it was just the spring fooling me.
The romantic atmosphere and intoxicating feeling of love convinced me that we were meant to be together, but it was all just a result of the springtime fooling me
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JIMMY KENNEDY, RAUL FERRAO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Rudipolt
very fine song Aloha from Hawaii
@muana13
EXCELLENT ~~~~Have a peaceful time ...ABRAÇOS de PORTUGAL
@elinorcastro793
BEAUTIFUL
@Lucie19801590
Magnifique chanson AVRIL AU PORTUGAL .Pays de mes origines .. Merci du partage ..Bises ..Lucie
@victornazaire3421
Une grande dame de la chanson ! Chanson de ma jeune adolescence !
@tombarac8253
Si je peux vous demander quel âge avez vous?
@mmkalymnos
ΤΕΛΕΙΟ ΚΟΜΜΑΤΙ ΓΕΜΑΤΟ ΑΡΜΟΝΙΑ
@elizalove47
Eartha Kitt!! sublime!✽♡😊💦🌹 ヅ♪♫ •🇨🇷️
@dchern
of the most underrated singers of the 50s,and of course it has nothing to do with her skin clour.
@leelarson107
You're over-playing that point.