Edith Piaf Biografy

Edith Piaf Biography
(Born Dec. 19, 1915, Paris, France—died Oct. 11, 1963, Paris) French singer and actress whose interpretation of the chanson, or French ballad, made her internationally famous.Among her trademark songs were “Non, je ne regrette rien” (“No, I Don't Regret Anything”) and “La Vie en rose” (literally “Life in Pink” [i.e., through “rose-coloured glasses,” from an optimisticpoint of view]).

Piaf's songs and singing style seemed to reflect the tragedies of her own difficult life. Her mother, a café singer, abandoned her at birth, and she was taken in by her grandmother,who reared the girl in a house of prostitution. Piaf became blind at the age of three as a complication of meningitis but recovered her sight four years later. A few years after that she joined herfather, a circus acrobat, and accompanied him while he performed. She sang in the streets of Paris until discovered by Louis Leplée, a cabaret owner, who gave her her first nightclub job. It was Lepléewho began calling her “la môme piaf,” Parisian slang for “little sparrow,” in apparent reference to her diminutive size—under 5 feet (142 cm) tall and about 90 pounds (40 kg) in weight. She lateradopted the name professionally. Her debut was acclaimed by the actor Maurice Chevalier, who was in the audience that night.

In 1935 Piaf made her theatrical debut, and within a few years she was singingin the large music halls of Paris. Initially her material was standard music hall fare, but eventually she had songwriters such as Marguerite Monnot and Michel Emer writing songs specifically forher. In the mid-1940s she became a mentor to the young Yves Montand, and she worked with him in the film Étoile sans lumière (1946; “Star Without Light”). She had an affair with the middleweight boxerMarcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash on his way to meet her. Her unhappy personal life and unadorned though dramatic style underlined her expressive mezzo-soprano voice, and she was able to move...