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Jula de Palma Biography
(with extracts from the Encyclopedia of Italian Music)
Jula (pronounced "Yula") de Palma was born in Milan on April 21, 1931. Her given name is Jolanda Maria de Palma but everybody called her Jula and the nickname would also be her name as a singer.
Jula graduated from the Ginnasio Liceo G. Parini and, through the British Institute in Milan, obtained a Cambridge Degree in English Language and Literature. But her dream is to be an actress. She auditions for Director Irma Vassia and is immediately given the lead in two plays that Vassia's company is entering in a contest with forty other amateur players' companies from all over Italy. Jula and the leading actor - Alberto Lionello - win first prize in the contest as does the company, named "La Baracca."
Despite her immediate success as an actress, it is her passion for singing and especially for jazz and for american songs that will lead Jula to another branch of the entertainment world.
By chance, one day in 1948, while shopping for records with her mother and her sister, she meets an italian singer, Teddy Reno. He is also the owner of a Record Company, the CGD. Jula's mother mentions to him her daughter's contralto voice, her passion for jazz and for the french new wave of songs, and her admiration for Mo. Lelio Luttazzi, a young and very talented pianist and conductor, under contract with the CGD. Almost as a joke, Teddy makes an appointment for Jula to audition with Lelio Luttazzi. The audition turns into a jam session and immediately afterwards, Teddy Reno signs the young singer with CGD.
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