'Édith Piaf' (
December 19 1915–
October 11 1963) was one of France's most beloved singers
[1] and became a national icon. Her singing reflected her tragic life, with her specialty being the poignant
ballad performed in a heartbreaking voice. Among her famous
songs are "
La vie en rose" (1946), "
Hymne à l'amour" (1949), "
Milord" (1959), "
Non, je ne regrette rien" (1960). A filmed biography on her life, titled
''
La Môme'' (released in English as ''
La Vie En Rose''), is currently in release (June 2007). There have been other dramatized versions of her life, including a
Tony Award-winning play entitled ''Piaf'', which was also telecast on PBS.
Early life
Despite numerous published biographies, much of Édith's life is shrouded in mystery.
[2] She was born 'Édith Giovanna Gassion'
[3] in
Belleville, Paris, the high-immigration district later described by
Daniel Pennac. Legend has it that she was born on the pavement of ''Rue de Belleville 72'', but her official birth certificate states she was born at Hôpital Tenon,
[4] the
hospital for the 20th
arrondissement of which Belleville is part. She was named Édith after the World War I British nurse
Edith Cavell, who was executed for helping French soldiers escape from German captivity.
[5] Piaf—a Parisian colloquialism for "
sparrow"—originated as a nickname she would receive 20 years later.
Her mother, Annetta Giovanna Maillard (1895–1945), was a part-Italian native of
Livorno, a port city on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. She was working as a café singer under the name ''Line Marsa''.
Louis-Alphonse Gassion (1881–1944), Edith's father, was a street acrobat
[6] with a past in the theatre. Piaf was soon abandoned by her parents, lived for a short time with her maternal grandmother, Emma (Aïcha) Saïd ben Mohammed (1876–1930), who was a
Kabyle. Shortly thereafter, Édith's father took the child to his mother, who was a cook at a brothel in Normandy, and he then joined the French Army in 1916 to fight in World War I. The prostitutes helped look after Edith.
From eight to fourteen she was allegedly blind. According to one of Piaf's biographies, she recovered her sight in what is referred to as a miracle, after her grandmother's prostitutes pooled money to send her on a pilgrimage honoring Saint
Thérèse de Lisieux. In 1929, at 14, she joined her father in his acrobatic street performances all over France, where she first sang in public.
She then took a room at Grand Hôtel de Clermont (18 rue Veron, Paris 18ème) and separated from him, going her own way as a street singer in
Pigalle,
Ménilmontant, and the Paris suburbs (cf. the song "Elle fréquentait la Rue Pigalle"). She joined her half-sister Simone Berteaut ("Momone")
in this endeavor, and the two became lifelong partners in mischief.
She was about 16 years old when she fell in love with a delivery boy, Louis Dupont.
At 17 she had her only child, a little girl named Marcelle, who died at the age of two of meningitis.
Like her own mother before her, Edith found it difficult to care for a child while living a life of the streets, so she would often leave Marcelle alone while she was away, and Dupont took the child to raise himself before Marcelle's death months later.
Edith's next boyfriend was a pimp by the name of Albert who took a commission from the money she made singing in exchange that he would not force her into life as a prostitute; one of her friends, a meek girl named Nadia, killed herself when faced with the thought of becoming a prostitute and Albert nearly shot Edith when she broke things off in reaction to Nadia's death.
Singing career
In 1935, Édith was discovered in the
Pigalle area of Paris
by the nightclub owner
Louis Leplée,
whose club Le Gerny off the
Champs Elysees was frequented by the upper and lower classes alike. He persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness, which, combined with her height of only 4 feet 8 inches
[7] (1.47 m),
inspired him to give her the nickname that would stay with her for the rest of her life and serve as her stage name, ''La Môme Piaf''
(The Waif Sparrow, Little Sparrow or Kid Sparrow in Parisian slang).
Leplée taught her the basics of stage presence and told her to wear a black dress which would later become her trademark apparel.
Leplée ran a large publicity campaign prior to her opening night, which resulted in a number of celebrities including actor
Maurice Chevalier attending the opening.
Her nightclub gigs led to her first two records produced that same year,
with one of them penned by
Marguerite Monnot, an ongoing collaborator throughout Piaf's life.
On
April 6 1936,
Leplée was murdered and Piaf was questioned in the matter and accused of being an accessory, but she was acquitted.
He had been killed by mobsters with previous ties to Piaf.
[8] This resulted in much negative media attention directed towards Piaf,
which threatened her career.
To rehabilitate her image, she recruited Raymond Asso, with whom she would also become romantically involved. He changed her stage name ''La Môme Piaf'' to "Edith Piaf," barred her undesirable acquaintances from seeing her, and commissioned Monnot to write songs unique to Piaf's previous life on the streets.
In 1940, Édith co-starred in
Jean Cocteau's successful one-act play ''Le Bel Indifférent''.
She began to make friends with famous people, such as Chevalier and the poet
Jacques Borgeat. She wrote the lyrics of many of her songs and collaborated with composers on the tunes. In 1944, Édith Piaf discovered
Yves Montand in Paris, made him part of her act, and became his mentor
and lover.
Within a year, he became one of the most famous singers in France, and she broke off their relationship when he had become almost as popular as she had.
During this time, she was in great demand and very successful in Paris
as France's most popular entertainer.
After the war, she became known internationally,
touring Europe, the United States, and South America. She helped to launch the career of
Charles Aznavour in the early
1950s, taking him on tour with her in France and the United States and recording some of his songs.
However, at first she met with little success with US audiences, who regarded her as downcast.
After a glowing review by a prominent New York critic, she met with better success
and her popularity in the United States was such that she appeared on the ''
Ed Sullivan Show'' eight times and at
Carnegie Hall twice (1956
and 1957).
Her signature song "La vie en rose"
was written in 1945 and was voted a
Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.
The legendary
Paris Olympia concert hall is where Piaf achieved lasting fame, giving several series of concerts at the hall, the most famous venue in Paris,
between January 1955 and October 1962. Excerpts from five of these concerts (1955, 1956, 1958, 1961, 1962) were issued on record and CD and have never been out of print. The 1961 concerts were promised by Piaf in an effort to save the venue from bankruptcy and where she debuted her song "Non je ne regrette rien".
In April 1963, Piaf recorded her last song, "L'homme de Berlin".
World War II
She and Simone Berteaut had taken up residence above a brothel frequented by German soldiers. Piaf was accused of being too friendly with the Germans or possibly collaborating with them, but she also dated a Jewish pianist during this time and co-wrote a subtle protest song with Monnot.
According to one story, singing for high-ranking Germans at the ''One Two Two Club''
[9] earned Piaf the right to pose for photographs with French
prisoners of war, to boost their morale. The Frenchmen were supposedly able to cut out their photos and use them as forged passport photos,
and some of them managed to escape.
Personal life
The great love of Piaf's life,
the married boxer
Marcel Cerdan, died in an October
1949 plane crash,
on a flight to The USA for a rematch with LaMotta.
Their affair made international headlines,
as Cerdan was the middleweight world champion and a legend in France in his own right. Piaf was later married twice. Her first husband was
Jacques Pills, a singer. They married in 1952 and divorced in 1956. Her second husband, Greek
, was a 26-year-old hairdresser-turned-singer and actor, 20 years younger than Piaf. They married in 1962. They sang together in some of her last engagements.
In 1951 she was involved in a car crash along with Aznavour, breaking an arm and two ribs, and thereafter had difficulty breaking serious morphine and alcohol addictions.
Two more near-fatal car crashes exacerbated the situation.
Her first husband, Jacques Pills, took her into rehab on three different occasions to no avail.
Death and legacy
The Statue of Édith Piaf
The grave of Édith Piaf, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
At the early age of 47, Piaf died of
liver cancer at
Plascassier, on the
French Riviera, on
October 11,
1963, the same day that her friend
Jean Cocteau died.
[10] She had slipped in and out of
consciousness for the first two months after her marriage to Sarapo, before dying.
It is said that Sarapo drove her body back to Paris secretly so that fans would think she had died in her hometown.
She was buried in
Père Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris, where her grave is one of the most visited.
Although she was denied a
funeral mass by the
Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris because of her lifestyle,
her funeral procession drew tens of thousands
of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the
cemetery was attended by more than 40,000 fans.
Aznavour recalled that Piaf's funeral procession was the only time since the end of
World War II that he saw Parisian traffic come to a complete stop.
A two-room museum is dedicated to Piaf, the
Musée Édith Piaf at 5, rue Crespin du Gast, 75011, Paris.
Today she is still remembered and revered as one of the greatest singers of France.
A film of Piaf's life by Olivier Dahan, ''
La Vie En Rose'', debuted at the
Berlin Film Festival in February, 2007. Titled ''La Môme'' in France, the film stars
Marion Cotillard as Piaf. Dahan's film follows Piaf's life from early childhood to her death in 1963.
David Bret's definitive biography, ''
Piaf, A Passionate Life'', was re-released by JR Books to coincide with the film's release.
Songs
This is a list of some of Piaf's songs.
;
1935
★ Mon apéro
★ La java de Cézigue
;
1936
★ L'étranger
★ Les mômes de la cloche
★ J'suis mordue
★ Fais-moi valser
★ La fille et le chien
★ La Julie jolie
★ Va danser
★ Chand d'habits
★ Reste
★ Les hiboux
★ Quand même
★ La petite boutique
★ Y avait du soleil
★ Il n'est pas distingué
★ Les deux ménétriers
;
1937
★ Mon légionnaire
★ Le contrebandier
★ Un jeune homme chantait
★ Tout fout le camp
★ Ne m'écris pas
★ C'est toi le plus fort
★ Le fanion de la légion
★ Partance
★ Dans un bouge du vieux port
★ Paris-Méditerranée
★ Browning
★ Entre Saint-Ouen et Clignancourt
★ J'entends la sirène
★ Mon coeur est au coin d'une rue
★ Le chacal
★ Corrèqu'et réguyer
★ Ding, din, don
;
1938
★ Madeleine qui avait du coeur
★ Les marins ça fait des voyages
★ С'est lui que mon coeur a choisi
★ Le grand voyage du pauvre nègre
★ La java en mineur
★ Le mauvais matelot
;
1939
★ Y`en a un de trop
★ Elle frequentait la rue Pigalle
★ Le petit monsieur triste
★ Les deux copains
★ Je n`en connais pas la fin
;
1940
★ Embrasse-moi
★ On danse sur ma chanson
★ Sur une colline
★ C`est la moindre des choses
★ Jimmy, c`est lui
★ Escale
★ L`accordeoniste
★ Y en a un de trop
;
1941
★ Où sont-ils mes petits copains?
★ C`etait un jour de fete
★ C`est un monsieur tres distingue
★ J`ai danse avec l`amour
★ L`homme des bars
;
1942
★ Simple comme bonjour
★ Le vagabond
★ Un coin tout bleu
★ C`etait une histoire d`amour
★ Sans y penser
;
1943
★ Tu es partout
★ J`ai qu`a l`regarder
★ Le chasseur de l`hotel
★ Le disque use
★ Le brun et le blond
★ Monsieur Saint-Pierre
★ Coup de grisou
;
1944
★ Un monsieur me suit dans la rue
★ Les deux rengaines
★ Y a pas d`printemps
★ Les histoires de coeur
★ C`est toujours la meme histoire
;
1945
★ Celui qui ne savait pas pleurer
★ Escale
★ Regarde-moi toujours comme ca
★ Les gars qui marchaient
★ Il riait
★ De l`autre cote de la rue
★ J'ai qu'à le regarder
;
1946
★ La vie en rose
★ Les trois cloches
★ Dans ma rue
★ J`m`en fous pas mal
★ C`est merveilleux
★ Adieu mon coeur
★ Le chant du pirate
★ Celine
★ Le petit homme
★ Le roi a fait battre tambour
★ Dans les prisons de Nantes
★ Miss Otiss regrets
;
1947
★ C`est pour ca
★ Mariage
★ Monsieur Lenoble
★ Qu as-tu fait John?
★ Un refrain courait dans la rue
★ Sophie
★ Le geste
★ Si tu partais
★ Une chanson a trois temps
★ Une chanson a trois temps (Au cabaret "Au coup de soleil")
★ Un homme comme les autres
★ Les cloches sonnent
★ Johnny Fedora et Alice blue bonnet
★ Le rideau tombe avant la fin
★ Elle avait son sourire
★ Monsieur Ernest a reussi
;
1948
★ Les amants de Paris
★ Il a chante
★ Les vieux bateaux
★ Il pleut
★ Cousu de fil blanc
★ Amour du mois de mai
★ Monsieur X
;
1949
★ Bal dans ma rue
★ Pour moi tout` seule
★ Pleure pas
★ Le prisonnier de la tour
★ L`orgue des amoureux
★ Dany
★ Paris
;
1950
★ Hymne a l`amour
★ Le chevalier de Paris
★ Il fait bon t`aimer
★ La p`tite Marie
★ Tous les amoureux chantent
★ Il y avait
★ C`est d`la faute a tes yeux
★ C`est un gars
★ Hymn to love
★ The three bells
★ Le ciel est ferme
★ La fete continue
★ Simply a waltz
★ Autumn leaves
★ Cause I love you
★ Chante-moi (en anglais)
★ Don`t cry
★ I shouldn`t care
★ My lost melody
★ La vie en rose (en anglais)
;
1951
★ Padam Padam
★ Avant l`heure
★ L`homme que j`aimerai
★ Du matin jusqu au soir
★ Demain il fera jour
★ C`est toi
★ Rien de rien
★ Si,si,si,si
★ Demain (il fera jour)
★ A l`enseigne de la fille sans coeur
★ Telegramme
★ Une enfant
★ Plus bleu que tes yeux
★ Le Noel de la rue
★ La valse de l`amour
★ La rue aux chansons
★ Jezebel
★ Chante-moi
★ Chanson de Catherine
★ Chanson bleue
;
1952
★ Au bal de la chance
★ Elle a dit
★ Notre-Dame de Paris
★ Mon ami m`a donne
★ Je t`ai dans la peau
★ Monsieur et madame
★ Ca gueule ca, madame (avec Jacques Pills)
;
1953
★ Bravo pour le clown
★ Soeur Anne
★ N`y va pas Manuel
★ Les amants de Venise
★ L`effet qu`tu m`fais
★ Johnny, tu n`es pas un ange
★ Jean et Martine
★ Et moi
★ Pour qu`elle soit jolie ma chanson (avec Jacques Pills)
★ Les croix
;
1954
★ La Goualante du pauvre Jean
★ Enfin le printemps
★ Retour
★ Mea culpa
★ Heureuse
★ Ca ira
★ Avec ce soleil
★ L`homme au piano
★ Serenade du pave
★ Sous le ciel de Paris
;
1955
★ Un grand amour qui s`acheve
★ Misericorde
★ C`est a Hambourg
★ Enfin le Printemps
★ Legende
;
1956
★ L`accordeoniste
★ Heaven have mercy
★ One little man
★ Avant nous
★ Et pourtant
★ Marie la Francaise
★ Les amants d`un jour
★ L`homme a la moto
★ Soudain une vallee
★ Une dame
★ Toi qui sais
;
1957
★ La foule
★ Les prisons du roy
★ Opinion publique
★ Salle d`attente
★ Les grognards
★ Comme moi
;
1958
★ C`est un homme terrible
★ Je me souviens d`une chanson
★ Je sais comment
★ Tatave
★ Les orgues de barbarie
★ Eden blues
★ Le gitan et la fille
★ Fais comme si
★ Le ballet des coeurs
★ Les amants de demain
★ Les neiges de Finlande
★ Tant qu`il y aura des jours
★ Un etranger
★ Mon manege a moi
;
1959
★ Milord
★ T`es beau, tu sais
;
1960
★ Non, je ne regrette rien
★ La vie, l`amour
★ Rue de Siam
★ Jean l`espagnol
★ La belle histoire d`amour
★ La ville inconnue
★ Non, la vie n`est pas triste
★ Kiosque a journaux
★ Le metro de Paris
★ Cri du coeur
★ Les blouses blanches
★ Les flons flons du bal
★ Les mots d`amour
★ T`es l`homme qu`il me faut
★ Mon Dieu
★ Boulevard du crime
★ C`est l`amour
★ Des histories
★ Ouragan
★ Je suis a toi
★ Les amants merveilleux
★ Les bleuets d`azur
★ Quand tu dors
★ Mon vieux Lucien
★ Je m`imagine
★ Jerusalem
★ Le vieux piano
;
1961
★ C`est peut-etre ca
★ Le denicheur
★ J`n`attends plus rien
★ J'en ai passé des nuits
★ Exodus
★ Faut pas qu`il se figure
★ Les amants (avec Charles Dumont)
★ No regrets
★ Le billard electrique
★ Marie-trottoir
★ Qu`il etait triste cet anglais
★ Toujours aimer
★ Mon Dieu (en anglais)
★ Le bruit des villes
;
1962
★ Dans leur baiser
★ A quoi ca sert l`amour
★ Le droit d`aimer
★ A quoi ca sert l`amour (avec Theo Sarapo)
★ Fallait-il
★ Une valse
★ Inconnu excepte de Dieu
★ Le droit d`aimer
★ Quatorze Juillet
★ Les amants de Teruel (of
Mikis Theodorakis and
Jacques Plante)
★ Roulez tambours
★ Musique a tout va
★ Le rendez-vous
★ Toi, tu l`entends pas!
★ Carmen`s story
★ On cherche un Auguste
★ Ca fait drole
★ Emporte-moi
★ Polichinelle
★ Le petit brouillard
★ Le diable de la bastille
★ Elle chantait (avec Theo Sarapo)
;
1963
★ C`etait pas moi
★ Le chant d`amour
★ Tiens, v`la un marin
★ J`en ai tant vu
★ Traque
★ Les gens
★ Margo Coeur Gros
★ Monsieur Incognito
★ L`homme de Berlin (son dernier enregistrement)
Her song
Hymne à l'amour inspired the film ''
Toutes ces belles promesses'' by
Jean-Paul Civeyrac. It was also translated into English as "
If You Love Me (Really Love Me)" and covered by various artists including
Kay Starr, who had a hit with it in 1954.
Films
Appeared in
★ ''
La garçonne'' (1936),
Jean de Limur
★ ''Montmartre-sur-Seine'' (1941),
Georges Lacombe
★ ''Étoile sans lumière'' (1946),
Marcel Blistène
★ ''Neuf garçons, un cœur'' (1947),
Georges Freedland
★ ''Al diavolo la celebrità'' (1949),
Mario Monicelli Steno
★ ''Paris chante toujours'' (1951),
Pierre Montazel
★ ''Boum sur Paris'' (1953),
Maurice de Canonge
★ ''Si Versailles m'était conté'' (1954),
Sacha Guitry
★ ''French cancan'' (1954),
Jean Renoir
★ ''Les Amants de demain'' (1959),
Marcel Blistène
About
★ ''
Édith et Marcel'' (1983),
Claude Lelouch
★ ''
La Môme '' (''
La Vie En Rose'' outside of France) (2007),
Olivier Dahan with
Marion Cotillard as Édith Piaf
Plays
★ ''Piaf'' (1978), by
Pam Gems
★ ''Pure Piaf'' (2006), a musical available for production featuring an actor/singer portraying Édith Piaf, singing Piaf songs and taking the audience on a journey through her life. Visit
Pure Piaf for information on the show, booking a performance, or obtaining the rights to perform it
"Le Bel Indifférent" Cocteau's play written for and starring Édith Piaf
Discography
★ ''The Voice of the Sparrow: The Very Best of Edith Piaf'', original release date: June, 1991
★ ''Édith Piaf: 30th Anniversaire'', original release date: April 5, 1994
★ ''Édith Piaf: Her Greatest Recordings 1935-1943'', original release date: July 15, 1995
★ ''The Early Years: 1938-1945, Vol. 3'', original release date: October 15, 1996
★ ''Hymn to Love: All Her Greatest Songs in English'', original release date: November 4, 1996
★ ''Gold Collection'', original release date: January 9, 1998
★ ''The Rare Piaf 1950-1962'' (April 28, 1998)
★ ''
La Vie en Rose'' (import), original release date: January 26, 1999
★ ''Montmartre Sur Seine'' (soundtrack import), original release date: September 19, 2000
★ ''Eternelle: The Best Of'' (January 29, 2002)
★ ''Love and Passion'' (boxed set), original release date: April 8, 2002
★ ''The Very Best of Edith Piaf'' (import), original release date: October 29, 2002
★ ''75 Chansons'' (Box set/import), original release date: September 22, 2005
★ ''48 Titres Originaux'' (import), (09/01/2006)
Edith Piaf on DVD
★ ''Edith Piaf - A Passionate Life'' (May 24th, 2004)
★ ''Edith Piaf : Eternal Hymn (Éternelle, l'hymne à la môme, Non-US Format, Pal, Region 2, Import)''
★ ''Piaf - Her Story, Her Songs'' (June 2006)
Books on Edith Piaf
★ ''The Wheel Of Fortune: The Autobiography of Edith Piaf'' by Edith Piaf (originally written in 1958, 5 years before her death), Peter Owen Publishers; ISBN 0720612284
★ ''Edith Piaf'', by Edith Piaf and Simone Berteaut, published January 1982; ISBN 2904106014
★ ''The Piaf Legend'', by
David Bret, Robson Books,1988.
★ ''Piaf: A Passionate Life'', by
David Bret, Robson Books, 1998, revised JR Books, 2007
See also
★
Music of France
★
French popular music
References
1. Édith Piaf: Biography
2. A complex portrait of a spellbinding singer Wesley Morris
3. 'La Vie en Rose': Édith Piaf's encore Peter Rainer
4. Biography: Édith Piaf
5. Two Paris Love Stories Thirza Vallois
6. Édith Piaf and Jacques Brel live again in Paris: The two legendary singers are making a comeback in cafes and theatres in the City of Light Joe Ray
7. The soul of the Sparrow Marshall Fine
8. Songbird Andre Mayer
9. The love of a poet Stuart Jeffries
10. Many unofficial sources, for example, this one, say she died on the afternoon of the previous day 10 October, and some say she died in Paris, not Plascassier.
External links
★
Édith Piaf photos
★
Édith Piaf songs
★
Piaf site
★
A photographic history of Édith Piaf
★
Tu Es Partout (English translation)
★
Pure Piaf, A musical showcasing Edith Piaf's music and life, written by Alex Ryer in 2006
★
Les conquêtes de Piaf
★
Édith Piaf Museum, Paris
★
Song Lyrics
★
La Vie En Rose - Official Movie Site
★
"The Guardian" critique of the movie "La Vie En Rose"
★
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