Edith Piaf

Edith Piaf was a French singer and actress who became an icon of French popular music. Her life was marked by poverty, illness, addiction, and tragedy, but also by passion, resilience, and artistic genius. She sang about love, loss, and sorrow with a distinctive voice that touched millions of listeners around the world. Piaf was born in Paris on December 19, 1915, as Edith Giovanna Gassion. Her mother was a singer and circus performer of Italian descent, and her father was an acrobatic street performer from Normandy. She was abandoned by her mother at birth and raised by her paternal grandmother, who ran a brothel in Normandy. She suffered from an eye disease that caused temporary blindness from age three to seven. She claimed that she was cured by a miraculous pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Piaf began her career as a street singer at the age of 14, touring with her father or singing solo in the streets of Paris. She was discovered by a nightclub owner named Louis Leplée in 1935, who gave her the stage name La Môme Piaf (The Little Sparrow) and introduced her to the Parisian show business. She soon became popular for her emotional and powerful renditions of the chanson, or French ballad, a genre that she helped to modernize and popularize. Some of her early hits include "Mon légionnaire", "L'Accordéoniste", and "La Vie en rose", which became her signature song. Piaf's fame increased during the German occupation of France in World War II. She performed for both the French resistance and the German soldiers, and was accused of collaboration by some after the war. She also helped several Jewish friends and colleagues to escape the Nazi persecution by using her influence and contacts. She had a tumultuous love life, marked by several affairs and marriages. Her most famous lover was the French boxer Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash in 1949. Piaf dedicated one of her most famous songs, "Hymne à l'amour", to him. Piaf's career reached its peak in the late 1940s and 1950s, when she toured internationally and performed in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Olympia. She collaborated with many famous composers and singers, such as Charles Aznavour, Yves Montand, Georges Moustaki, and Marlene Dietrich. She also appeared in several films, such as La Vie en rose (1946), Les Amants de demain (1959), and The Longest Day (1962). She received many honors and awards for her work, such as the Legion of Honor in 1959. Piaf's health deteriorated in the last years of her life due to liver cancer, alcoholism, and drug addiction. She died on October 10, 1963, at the age of 47, in Plascassier, near Grasse. She was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where thousands of fans attended her funeral. Her music remains popular and influential to this day, inspiring many artists across genres and generations.