The Complete History of the Musical Icon of Paris - Edith Piaf

Edith Piaf is a French singer and actress. Her unique interpretation of the "chanson" (or "French ballad") genre made Edith world famous. Among the signature songs are "Non, je ne regrette rien" and "La Vie en rose" ("Life in Pink" - that is, through "rose-colored glasses," from an optimistic point of view!)

More than 100 years have passed since Edith was born... It was December 19, 1915, a Saturday, about the same time as Albert Einstein's breakthrough in his general theory of relativity! The little girl arrived at the Tenon Hospital in the twentieth arrondissement of Paris, although, according to her own version of events, she was taken to the porch of her house at 72 Rue de Belleville after the ambulance failed to arrive... If this was fiction, the most legendary singer of France would not have to embellish the details of the rest of her life - full of romance, drama, tragedy... A childhood in a brothel, loss of sight as a baby, joining her acrobat father as a teenager, illegal drugs and forever lost love... Her life was like a drama: A very beautiful one, but one so cruel to the protagonist...

Yes, for today's generation of listeners the singer may be slightly out of fashion... But as the old soccer cliché says: fashions are temporary, but classics are permanent. The music of this legendary woman, with its languid cabaret motifs, is eternal. And a voice like Piaf's - capable of conveying strong emotions - is difficult to find, if not impossible at all...

The singer led such a bohemian and wild life that even Jim Morrison, buried like her in the Père Lachaise cemetery, looks like a punk kid... Her life was a punk opera long before the genre itself became popular!

Childhood, youth...

The singer's songs and manner of singing in many ways reflected the tragedies of her own, often difficult life... Her mother, the failed actress Anita Maillard, left little Edith in the care of her mother. But the woman was not up to the child, so she often poured her granddaughter in a bottle of wine diluted with water, so she did not disturb her. Eventually, the girl was handed back to her mother, who was running a brothel at the time. So Edith spent her childhood in a brothel... It is known that she became blind at the age of three due to a complication of meningitis... Fortunately, she regained her sight a few years later!

A couple of years later Edith joined her father, a circus acrobat. Together they performed in large squares: while the man delighted passers-by with acrobatic tricks, his nine-year-old daughter performed songs... The singer performed on the streets of Paris for a long time, earning modest money and often in the company of criminals...

In 1933 the singer gave birth to her daughter Marcelle, but a few years later the girl died of meningitis... In 1938 the singer became pregnant again, but the child was born dead. After that she was never able to become a mother again...

Getting started

In 1935, Edith was discovered by Louis Leplet, the owner of the local cabaret. He gave her her first well-paid job. It was Leplé who began calling his new singer "la môme piaf," which means "the little sparrow. He was obviously referring to the miniature size of the singer: less than 5 feet tall (142 cm) and about 90 pounds (40 kg). Soon this name became a professional name for our heroine...

In 1936, Louis Leple was killed by the mafia, and Piaf was under police surveillance for some time as a suspect (fortunately, all charges were soon dropped against her).

La Maume continued to sing about the streets where she was born and grew up all her life... Sticking to style, as an already successful singer she spent all her money on the farm!

“I told myself I want to raise cows!” she wrote in her memoirs. “It was a hype - then all the artists went into breeding. But in four years, I harvested two kilos of green beans, a pound of strawberries, and a few tomatoes… I raised two chickens, a rabbit, and all the cats in the area. The central heating cost me one and a half million francs ... And I sold my farm for almost nothing, and later, when I got sick, I had no money left to pay the hospital bill ... "

 

Because of the shortage, she was forced to sell valuable paintings and her jewelry collection. So... it is not surprising at all that after her death she left her second husband with a huge debt...

Personal life

Throughout her life she had many lovers, including world heavyweight boxing champion Marcel Cerdan. The relationship between him and Piaf was very stormy, despite the fact that Marcel had a wife and children!

Marcel committed a fatal act, ignoring Edith's fears about the flight ... In order to surprise her on stage in New York, in 1949 he boarded the Air France Lockheed Constellation ... As a result, the plane crashed into Monte Redondo in the Azores, and all the passengers (for a total of 48 people on board) died ... That night, Piaf went on stage after hearing the news and fainted twice in the middle of her performance. Until her death, she claimed that Serdan was her only true love.

Career

An unhappy personal life and an impeccable--albeit dramatic--style underscored the singer's expressive voice! She herself was able to thrill the audience with her passionate performance of songs that were often about loss and about love...

In addition to singing, she published two autobiographical books: Au bal de la random (1958) and the posthumously published Ma vie (1964). In addition, the persona of the singer has been the subject of several biographies as well as plays and films...

As for America, Piaf performed twice at Carnegie Hall (in 1956 and 1957). She also opened the world's largest market more than ten years before the Beatles (it wasn't until 1998 that she received a Grammy Hall of Fame award)! This is a great feat for a European artist, as such artists tend to sing mostly in French.

In fact, she popularized the French language abroad! Her tremendous influence extended to many artists widely known today, from Marianne Faithfull and Anne Calvi to Elton John!

Last years…

In later life Edith was involved in several serious car accidents, and her health deteriorated - partly due to alcohol abuse...

And now, the 47-year-old singer fell in love again! This time in a 27-year-old Greek hairdresser named Theo (Theofanis Lamboukas). Edith came up with her lover's stage name Sarapo (translated from Greek means "I love you"). She was with him until her death. Theo himself survived her by seven years, but died in a car accident ...

Piaf's last performance took place on March 31, 1963 at the Lille Opera House (capital of the Hauts-de-France region).

On October 10, 1963 the singer died. And on October 11, the body of the singer's friend Jean Cocteau was found... It is believed that he died after learning of her death.

Translation of the song - Non, je ne regrette rien (1960) "Non, je ne regrette rien" - "Non, je ne regrette rien"

Finally…

Throughout France, the death of the great singer was mourned, and thousands of people lined the route of her funeral procession.

After her death, Piaf received the highest award from the French government when the tricolor flag was hung on her coffin. It was not an empty gesture. During World War II, she toured the unoccupied zone of Vichy, France and apparently helped free up to 300 prisoners of war in Stalag III-D camp near Berlin, persuading the camp commandant to allow her to take pictures with all the prisoners-the pictures were then used to create false documents for them to be free French laborers in Germany.

In the years that have passed since Piaf's death, it has become commonplace to call musicians "brave" for various reasons: the release of an unusual album, unexpected statements in interviews, tours of rarely visited places, performances at concerts when feeling unwell ... But ... today we decided to remember a truly brave musician or rather, a singer. And her name is still revered as a national treasure.