Lida Goulesco was born in Petrograd in 1917.

At the time, her father, the famous tzigane violin player, John Goulesco, had been in the Tsar's service for fifteen years. At the outbreak of the revolution, the Goulesco family went into exile, staying briefly in Constantinople and finally settling in Paris as had a large number of immigrants before them.

There, the father began to perform, as Jean Goulesco, in restaurants and cabarets that were proliferating at the time, and where the likes of Valia Dimitrievitch and Volodia Poliakoff could be heard. This was the setting in which Lida Goulesco grew up - an atmosphere which, together with the musical talent prevailing in her family, led her effortlessly into singing and dancing in early childhood. She was seventeen when the owner of one of the most elegant Parisian cabarets became subjugated by the expressive power of her voice. Her first public appearances became famous beyond the frontiers of France, winning enthusiastic acclaim in New York, London and Rome, among other musical centers.

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