Why everyone loves Lele Pons: what we know about the eccentric Instagram star

The American star, who captivated many viewers with her six-second videos, was able to make a splash in another field. The number of subscribers on the popular Instagram network has exceeded 30 million. Not everyone can laugh at themselves, play pranks on their friends, classmates, and colleagues. Lele Pons has this art in full. Many subscribers today, looking at the young diva, are wondering: how did she manage to turn from a green frog into a beautiful princess? We will tell you more about this in today’s article by comparing photos before and after plastic surgery.

Early life and education[edit]

Lily Pons at CKAC, Montreal, 1939.
Pons was born in Draguignan, near Cannes, to a French father, Léonard Louis Auguste Antoine Pons, and an Italian-born mother, Marie (née Naseau), later known as Marie Petronil Pons. She first studied piano at the Paris Conservatoire, winning first prize at the age of 15. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, she moved with her mother and younger sister Juliet (born 22 December 1902 - died 1995) to Cannes. , where she played the piano and sang for soldiers at receptions in support of the French troops and at the famous Carlton Hotel, which was converted into a hospital and where her mother worked as a volunteer nurse.

In 1925, with the support of soprano Dina Bäumer [nl] and August Mesritz, a successful publisher who agreed to finance her singing career, she began taking singing lessons in Paris with Alberto de Gorostiaga [es]. She later studied singing with Alice Zeppilli in New York. [2] [3] On October 15, 1930, Pons married her first husband, Mezritz, and spent the next few years as a housewife. The marriage ended in divorce on December 7, 1933. [12]

Was there plastic surgery?

Having earned a lot of money, Eleanor Pons decided to work on her image. Since childhood, having an unprepossessing appearance, the girl was the subject of heated discussion from her classmates.

It was possible to remove the hump from the nose and correct the inwardly curved tip with the help of rhinoplasty. She openly told her fans about this. Currently, the Internet celebrity has a neat and graceful nose that can only be envied.

To emphasize the beauty of the face, to make the chin sharper, and the cheekbones more prominent, I had to use fillers. With these changes, the oval of the face was transformed, natural features became clearer and more expressive.

As followers and fans assure, it could not have happened without mammoplasty. In the latest photographs, Lele increasingly begins to emphasize her now more appetizing breasts and put her figure on display. Well that's right! If there is something to show, then you need to do it.

2018-11-19

Author: Svetlana Sergienko

Career[edit]

Pons made a successful opera debut in the title role of Léo Delibes' Lakme

in Mulhouse in 1928 under the baton of Reynaldo Hahn, and then performed several coloratura roles in French provincial opera houses. She was discovered by dramatic tenor and impresario Giovanni Zenatello, who took her to New York, where she auditioned for Giulio Gatti-Casazza, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. Following Amelita Galli-Curci's retirement in January 1930, the Met needed a star coloratura. Gatti-Casazza immediately hired Pons and she also signed a record deal with RCA Victor.

On January 3, 1931, Pons, unknown in the United States, made her Met debut as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor

, in which case the spelling of her name was changed to "Lily". Her performance received huge acclaim. She became a star and inherited most of Galli-Curci's important coloratura roles. After this point, her career was mainly in the United States. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1940. From 1938 to 1958 she was married to conductor André Kostelanetz. In 1955, they built a house in Palm Springs, California. [4]

Pons in a costume from the movie “ I Dream Too Much”

, 1935.

Pons was the leading soprano at the Met for 30 years, appearing 300 times in 10 roles from 1931 to 1960. Most often she played the roles of Lucia (93 performances), Lakme (50 performances), Gilda in Verdi's opera Rigoletto

(49 performances) and Rosina in Rossini's opera
The Barber of Seville
(33 performances). She drew a record crowd of more than 300,000 people to a free concert at the 1939 Chicago Music Festival in Grant Park. [5]

In 1944, during World War II, Pons canceled the fall and winter season in New York and instead toured with the USO, entertaining troops with her singing. Her husband, Andre Kostelanetz, led a group of American soldiers who accompanied her voice. The pair performed at military bases in North Africa, Italy, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, India and Burma in 1944. [6] In some places, the sun's warmth at outdoor performances was so overbearing that Pons, always wearing a strapless evening gown, held wet towels to her head between numbers. [7]

In 1945, the tour continued to China, Belgium, France and Germany in a performance at the front line. [8] Returning home, she toured the United States, breaking attendance records in cities such as Milwaukee, where 30,000 people attended her July 20, 1945 performance. That same month she also played in Mexico City, directed by Gaetano Merola. [9]

Other roles in her repertoire include Olympia in Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann

, Philine in Ambroise Thomas's
Mignon
, Amina in Vincenzo Bellini's La
somnambula
, Marie in Donizetti's
Daughter of the Regiment
, the title role in Delibes's play
Lakmé
, the Queen in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's
The Golden Cockerel
and the title role in Donizetti's opera
Linda di Chamouni"
(the role she performed in the premiere of the Metropolitan Opera on March 1, 1934).
The last major new role Pons performed (she learned the role during her first season at the Met) was Violetta in La Traviata
, which she sang at the San Francisco Opera.
Another role that Pons learned but decided not to sing was Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande
;
The reason, as she admitted in a later interview, was twofold: first, she felt that the role belonged to soprano Bidu Sayao; and secondly, because the tessitura lay mainly in the middle register of the soprano voice, and not in the upper register. In her final performance at the Met, on December 14, 1960, she performed "Caron nom" from the isopera Rigoletto
as part of a gala concert. [10]

She has also performed as a guest at the Opera Garnier in Paris, the Royal Opera House in London, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and the Chicago Opera. Her last opera performance was as Lucia in 21-year-old Plácido Domingo's Edgardo in 1962 at the Fort Worth Opera. [1] On February 11, 1960, Pons appeared on the Ford

on NBC
starring Ernie Ford
. [eleven]

Although Pons continued to sing concerts after her retirement, her greatest recognition came in May 1972, when the media announced that she would come out of retirement to sing a concert at Lincoln Center under the baton of André Kostelanetz, her ex-husband. All tickets for the concert were sold out within an hour of their availability. The program for the historic concert, which took place on Wednesday evening, May 31, 1972, did not include any of the coloratura arias that Pons sang in her prime, but did include those more suited to her 74-year-old range. as in previous concerts, she included "Estrellita" among the songs in her program and received a long standing ovation after the final note.

Pons today

Today, Lele Pons is an influential star on Instagram (28.1 million followers) and YouTube (11.5 million subscribers). She managed to become a judge on the Mexican version of the show “The Voice”. She was interviewed and photographed for the cover of GQ magazine.

For a long time, Lele dated Yutup Juanpa Zurita. Now they are best friends and support each other in any endeavor. Pons shares life's best and worst moments with Hannah, Twan, Anwar and Julissa.

The girl still pleases her fans with funny videos, dance clips and cool photographs. Helps to believe that fiesta is alive as long as the heart wants it. And every day proves that nothing is impossible in life - there are only dreams and their achievement.

Legacy[edit]

A village in Frederick County, Maryland, 10 miles south of Frederick, Maryland, is named Lilipons in her honor. [13]

George Gershwin was in the process of writing a piece of music dedicated to her when he died in 1937. An incomplete sketch was found among Gershwin's papers after his death, and was eventually restored and expanded by Michael Tilson Thomas; it was given the simple title "For Lily Pons". [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

Pons donated Ita, her pet ocelot, to the New York Zoological Garden when it became too dangerous to remain in her Ansonia apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Pons received the pet, which she believed was a baby jaguar, from a friend in Brazil. The pet and Pons were very attached to each other, but he growled at visitors and was considered dangerous. [22]

In the cartoon «

Merrie Melodies,” 1937’s
“A Forest Full of Cuckoos,” features
a caricature of Pons as the “Lily Swans.”

In the 2016 Stephen Frears film Florence Foster Jenkins

Pons is played by Aida Garifullina.

There is a line of Depression-era glassware originally created in the 1930s known as "Lily Pons". It comes in several colors and is shaped like lily petals and lily flowers. [23]

Filmography

Movies

A television

Music videos

Links[edit]

Notes

1. ^ abc Fred Cohn (October 2011). "Tiger Lily". Opera News
   .
   76
   (4).
2. ^ ab Drake and Bill Luedecke 1999, p. 24.
3. ↑
   Edwin Schallert (October 28, 1951).
   "Broadway Singer, Featured in Movies, Looks to a Rosy Future." Los Angeles Times
   .
4. Meeks, Eric G. (2012). The Ultimate Guide to Palm Springs Celebrity Homes
   . Horatio Limburger Oglethorpe. item 282. ISBN. 978-1479328598.
5. Macaluso, Tony; Bachrach, Julia S.; Samors, Neil (2009). Sounds of Chicago's Lakefront: Celebrating the Grant Park Music Festival
   . Book Publishing Company of Chicago. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-9797892-6-7.
6. "Lily Pons Is Here". Latest news roundup
   . Delhi: Carl Warren Weidenberner. April 11, 1946 archived from the original on June 30, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
7. Drake & Beall Lüdecke 1999, p. 186.
8. Drake & Beall Lüdecke 1999, p. 151.
9. Drake & Beall Lüdecke 1999, p. 82.
10. ↑
    Gala concert, Metropolitan Opera, December 14, 1960
11. "The Ford Show, Tennessee Starring Ernie Ford". www.ernieford.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2010. Retrieved November 25, 2010.
12. Cannes Tourist Office
13. "Lilypons, Maryland (MD)". AllRefer.com
    . Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
14. “Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, Piano Preludes, Story, Violin Piece, Second Rhapsody, for Lily Pons, Sleepless Night, Los Angeles Philharmonic Promenade and Michael Tilson Thomas” – via itunes.apple.com.
15. “For Lily Pons, for piano (Gershwin...&#124); Recording details and tracks". AllMusic
    .
16. "George Gershwin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Los Angeles Philharmonic - Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue / Second Rhapsody for Orchestra and Piano / Piano Score / Preludes of Unpublished Piano Works". amazon.com
    .
17. ↑
    Tune No. 79 "For Lily Pons" (Arranged by M. Tilson Thomas for piano) by Michael Tilson Thomas;
    Los Angeles Philharmonic on Amazon Music". amazon.com
    .
18. ↑
    Erickson, Raymond (August 18, 1985).
    "Gershwin Stars Showcase American Musical Diversity". New York Times
    .
19. Jablonski, Edward; Stewart, Lawrence D. (August 22, 1996). The Gershwin Years: George and Ira. paragraph 362. ISBN 9780306807398.
20. "For Lily Pons (Gershwin Tune No. 79)" performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Michael Tilson Thomas on Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, Preludes for Piano, Story, Violin Piece, Second Rhapsody, For Lily Pons, Sleepless Night, Promenade by Sony Classical/Legacy.
21. "Recommended Musical Recordings of George Gershwin (Musical Works)". music.minnesota.publicradio.org
    .
22. Toomey, Bill (February 20, 2015). "The Met Opera's Lily Pons left her pet at the Bronx Zoo." Bronx Times-Reporter
    . paragraph 48.
23. "Lily Pons". www.carnivalheaven.com
    . Retrieved January 15, 2022.

Sources

• Drake, James A.; Beall Ludecke, Christine (1999). Lily Pons: A Centenary Portrait
  . Amadeus Press. ISBN 1-57467-047-6.

Finding yourself

Lele Pons knew from childhood that humor would save the world. So, she responded to all sorts of minor quarrels or misunderstandings with sincere laughter and an appropriate joke. This talent made the lady one of the most influential young personalities in the world.

The lady started with ridiculous six-second videos on the Vine platform. At first I did everything myself, and later I involved my parents, relatives, friends and classmates in the filming process. The successful debut was marked by a sharp increase in subscribers and likes. The girl was admired not only by casual spectators, but also by those classmates who had previously not accepted her appearance.

After graduating from Miami Country Day High School, Lele thought about continuing her studies at Berkeley College. But Los Angeles was already waiting for the future star with open arms.

Repertoire

She became a Met soprano in the 1930s, playing three hundred times in ten roles from 1931 to 1960. Lakme and Lucia were two of her favorite roles. His most performed roles:

• Lucia
  , Lucia di Lammermoor (ninety times).
• Lakme
  (fifty times).
• Gilda
  , Rigoletto (forty new times).
• Rosina
  from The Barber of Seville (thirty-three times).

Other roles in his repertoire:

• Olympia
  from The Tales of Hoffmann.
• Filina
  de Mignon.
• Amina
  from "Somnambula".
• Marie
  in The Regiment's Daughter.
• The Queen
  in The Golden Cockerel.
• And the title role of Linda de Chamounix Donizetti (who sang at the premiere at the Met on March 1, 1934).

Discography

Singles

List of singles as lead artist, with selected chart positions and certifications, showing year released

Notes

1. "Se Te Nota" did not chart on the Monitor Latino Venezuelan Airplay chart, but peaked at number six on the Venezuelan Pop Airplay chart. [36]