Lio is a Belgian singer and actress, born Wanda Ribeiro de Vasconcelos in 1962 in Mangualde, Portugal. She moves to Belgium with her family in 1968 and becomes one of the best-known pop figures in francophone Europe during the 1980s. Her work is associated with dance, electronic and pop music.

Music career

Lio builds an extensive discography and releases a run of singles that find success in francophone pop. Her best-known hit is Banana Split, which becomes her biggest song. In 1982, the American duo Sparks works with her on the album Suite Sixteen, where some of her earlier songs are translated into English and Banana Split is reworked as Marie Antoinette.

Collaborations

She collaborates with several important French artists, including Etienne Daho and Jacno.

Film

Lio first appears on screen in 1983 in Chantal Akerman’s The Eighties. Akerman casts her again in the 1986 film Golden Eighties, a musical set in a Paris shopping centre, where she plays a carefree hairdresser. She does not sing in the film.