Amanda Lear

Lear's origins are unclear, with the singer providing different information about her background and keeping her birth year a secret from her long-term husband Alain-Philippe. Contested facts include her birth date and place, the gender she was born as, names and nationalities of her parents, and the location of her upbringing. Most sources claim 18 June 1939, including Bibliothèque nationale de France or 18 November 1939 to be her birth date, including GEMA. Her birth year, though, has variously been given as 1941, 1946, and 1950. During a 2010 interview with French newspaper Libération, Lear presented her identity card to the journalist, which read: "born 18 November 1950 in Saigon". Georges Claude Guilbert claims, "Most biographers believe she was born in 1939, whatever she might declare to the contrary."

As for her birthplace, Saigon and British Hong Kong appear to be the most credible versions, but places like Singapore, Switzerland, and even Transylvania have been rumoured as the singer's birthplace. She was reportedly the only child of her parents, who later divorced. Most sources, including Lear's 1965 wedding certificate from the Chelsea registry office, confirm that her father was a French army officer. Her mother was a Russian. According to the General Register Office for England and Wales, her birth surname was Tap. According to the French Republic, her birth surname was Tapp. In a 1976 interview with Carmen Thomas for a German television show, Lear confirmed that her father was British and mother was Russian and that they both had died. However, she later claimed that her mother had a French background. In 2021, she confirmed she was born in Saigon.

Lear allegedly grew up in the South of France and in Switzerland, or between London and Paris, or in Nice. She learned English, German, Spanish, and Italian in her teens, and would use multilingualism in her professional life. The academic Georges Claude Guilbert claims, "Linguists observe that she has a French accent when she speaks (and sings) in English".

The Guardian, on 24 December 2000, summarized the information relating to these aspects of Lear's life as follows:

Lear's background remains a mystery. She has variously let it be known that her mother was English or French or Vietnamese or Chinese, and that her father was English, Russian, French or Indonesian. She may have been born in Hanoi in 1939, or Hong Kong in either 1941 or 1946. Once she said she was from Transylvania. And to this day, it is a matter of conjecture as to whether she was born a boy or a girl.