Cristina

Who is Cristina?

Cristina Monet-Palaci, known professionally as Cristina, is a singer and writer, best known for her No Wave recordings made for ZE Records around 1980 in New York.

A Harvard drop-out, and the daughter of a French psychoanalyst and an American illustrator-novelist-playwright, she was working as a writer for The Village Voice when she met Michael Zilkha, who later became her husband. A wealthy heir to England's Mothercare retail empire, Zilkha was just starting ZE Records with Michel Esteban. Zilkha persuaded her to record a song called "Disco Clone", an eccentric pastiche dance record written by Ronald Melrose, a classmate of hers at Harvard. The original recording, released as ZE001, was produced by John Cale and was the first to be issued on the ZE label. A later version featured the uncredited Kevin Kline trying to seduce the breathy Cristina.

"Disco Clone" was a cult success and encouraged ZE to release a full-length album in 1980, which was produced by August Darnell. The album was later reissued as Doll in the Box. Cristina also issued, on a 12" single, a poker-faced cover of Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" with new lyrics which led its authors, Leiber and Stoller, to sue and get it withdrawn for many years. Later, she released a cover of the Beatles' "Drive My Car". She also released a track, "Things Fall Apart", produced by Was, on ZE's Christmas Record, in 1981.