The Life of Liza Minnelli: Glory, Drugs, and Heartbreak

Liza Minnelli has made a return, or perhaps not. Artificial Intelligence has blurred the once clear boundary between reality and artifice, fostering a dangerous confusion between certainty and simulation. The actress, who turned 80 on Thursday, insists that it is her voice heard in 'Kids, Wait Til You Hear This', but some claim it is a clone and that she did not participate in the recording of this unusual song with a powerful deep house style, far from her usual genre. The project was produced by ElevenLabs, a company specializing in new media, which fuels suspicions, although the star has stated that cutting-edge technology was only used to add arrangements.

The mediocrity of the composition is the only certainty in this matter. The artist, or her double, merely adds a few phrases to the dance rhythm. In any case, it is evident that this is merely a promotional strategy. The song shares its title with the memoirs to be published next month. Thirteen years after her last original melody, presented in a TV series, this comeback does not announce a new album, but the release of 'Eleven Album', a collective work featuring musicians of various backgrounds, including another old glory like Art Garfunkel.

The star's return to the forefront breaks a silence of more than thirteen years and unfolds through several milestones. The first occurred in 2024 with 'Absolutely Real', a documentary that narrated her personal and professional trajectory with the participation of the protagonist herself. The story emphasizes the process that led a young aspiring actress, daughter of an icon like Judy Garland, to her transformation into a diva who possibly surpassed her mother in fame. This success is truly exceptional because Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz' is part of the Anglo-Saxon cultural universe.

Liza's overwhelming success occurred just three years after the death of her predecessor, in 1969. The young woman took on the leading role of a film that adapted a musical, itself inspired by Christopher Isherwood's book 'Goodbye to Berlin'. She portrayed the dancer Sally Bowles in the story called 'Cabaret'. The critical and public reception was sensational. The performer demonstrated her enormous talent as an actress and singer, a distinctive contralto voice, the ability to take on complex choreographies, and, ultimately, to create a character integrated into the common imagination, beyond specific identities. It was the beginning of a legend.

Resilience is one of the virtues attributed to her. Her stage abilities are undisputed and, above all, are evident with the status of EGOT, meaning she is one of the rare entertainment figures who has received the cinematic Oscar, the theatrical Tony, the musical Grammy, and the television Emmy, the awards of the American show business.

But the parallels with her mother's qualities are not limited to professional excellence; they also extend to her dramatic personal trajectory, and here the daughter wants to establish differences. The cliché that when the lights go out, the dark side appears is not false in the case of Minnelli and Garland.

The mother was a child in the system of the big studios and, like other celebrated teenagers, suffered strong pressures, including the instigation to consume drugs to lose weight, sleep, or perform better on set. The addiction to drugs and alcohol was induced and contributed to her premature aging and disappearance, due to an overdose of painkillers.

Liza's discourse shifts the focus completely. She does not deny her responsibility with similar problems, but she does not hide the truth, as happened in classic Hollywood, and acknowledges that she has sought help. Her descent into hell was different. The star began using Valium after Judy's death and diversified her drug addiction due to her involvement in the New York nightlife scene of the 1970s and early 1980s, particularly in circles frequenting the legendary Studio 54. Those who dealt with her then, such as Andy Warhol and designer Halston, claimed she demanded the entire catalog of available substances.

She not only knew how to escape from drugs. She also recovered from viral encephalitis and her latest biography is rich in the 'phoenix' quality in the creative field. The artist has alternated traditional Broadway with projects with the Pet Shop Boys and swapped major screen productions for appearances in series like 'Arrested Development', where she knew how to laugh at herself.

The similarities between the two divas are not limited to an extraordinary career and bad habits. There are other even more disturbing similarities that suggest certain emotional instability. The first married five times and the eldest daughter, four. Judy is attributed marriages with two homosexuals, Vincente Minnelli, Liza's father, and Mike Herron, and the daughter, with Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen. Both also share the status of gay icons and their alignment within the most liberal and committed Hollywood stream, in the case of the latter by becoming a spokesperson in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

According to Liza herself, the key to her success lies in having surrounded herself with interesting and extravagant people, with a sense of spectacle that was contagious, and in this regard, she mentions singer and songwriter Kay Thompson and the brilliant choreographer Bob Fosse. "Don't hang around with people you don't like" was one of the pieces of advice she received from those masters. The result? A status of such dimensions that it is appreciated in the compelling fact that she is recognized, simply, by her first name. Who can share such a privilege? In North America, for example, a certain Judy.