Who Are Those Singers & Musicians ~ Norma Jordan

 

Norma Jordan is an American born showgirl, actress and singer, who made a name for herself in Italian showbiz from late 1960s to mid-1980s. She is the daughter of an insurance company director and a language teacher. An article on La Stampa, dated November 11,1977, describes her as a "28 Detroit-born black girl who arrived in Italy in 1971" but according to The Pittsburgh Courier (5.5.1973) she was native of Norfolk, Virginia. Norma was already known in Italy in late 1960s: in 1969 the Italian-Spanish Spaghetti Western "Il prezzo del potere" (The Price of Power, 1969) was released and she appeared as Annie Goddard. The film starred Van Heflin, Giulinao Gemma and Ray Saunders and introduced Norma as supporting actress and singer (her song was called "Catch a Star from the Sky" and was included in the soundtrack of the film). In 1971 she was involved as a witness in a crime case, the double murder of a young black American actress (Tiffany Hoyveld a former roommate of Norma) and her Italian boyfriend Giuliano Carabei, that took place between 15 and 16 of December 1971 on Marignano lake, near Rome.

Jordan was selected Italy’s television “New Actress of the Year” in 1970 for her series of TV performances in musicals and films. Norma appeared in Italian films such as Federico Fellini’s “Satyrician”, “Roma Bene” with Virna Lisi and “The Olympics: with Ryan O’Neal. Denmark in the musical “Annie Get Your Gun” and German TV productions of “The Greatest Thief” with Kurt Jurgens and Biography” with Paul Hubschmid.

She was a model for men's magazines as a cover girl in the Italian edition of Playboy (June 1975, February 1978) and also appeared in Playmen (in issue #3 of 1977).

At the end of the 1970s she was launched a solo career as a singer of disco music by releasing the albums ‘Feel Me’ (Ciao Records, 1979), recorded between Munich and the "Stone Castle" in Carimate, with the successful 45 rpm Disco Beat, conceived by the same arranger as Donna Summer, and ‘No Obligations’ (Ciao Records, 1980), produced by Thor Baldursson. The year before (1978) she wrote the song "Dreaming My Life Away" for jazz musician Jimmy Owens. In 1980 she participated in the "Girofestival della canzone" conducted by Awana Gana.

After 1983 her name disappeared from the news.

JORDAN, Norma [1949, Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A. -     ] – model, stage, film, TV actress, songwriter, singer.

The Price of Power – 1969 [sings: “Catch a Star from the Sky”]