Background

Ethnicity: Edith Piaf was of French, Moroccan, and Italian descent.

Edith Piaf was born as Giovanna Gassion in Paris on December 19, 1915. Her father was Louis-Alphonse Gassion, a street acrobat from Normandy and her mother was Annetta Giovanna Maillard, a caf singer from Italy.

She was abandoned by her mother and lived with her maternal grandmother. Her father, before enlisting with the French Army during World War I, took her to his mother who ran a brothel.

When she was twelve years old, her father took her with him and traveled all over France showcasing his acrobatic street performances.

Education

Edith Piaf did not receive any formal education.

Career

In 1930, Piaf met Simone ‘Momone’ Berteaut, a half-sister and companion, and together they toured, singing, to earn money for themselves in the suburbs of Paris. In 1935, Piaf was discovered by Louis Leplée, who owned the successful club Le Gerny off the Champs-Élysées. Her nervous energy and small stature inspired the nickname that would stay with her for the rest of her life: La Môme Piaf ("The Little Sparrow"). Piaf received guidance in the literary arts from French poet/historian Jacques Bourgeat, while Leplée ran a major publicity campaign promoting Piaf’s opening night, which was attended by the likes of Maurice Chevalier. She was popular enough to record two albums that same year. He nicknamed her ‘La Mome Piaf’ meaning ‘The Little Sparrow’ because of her short height. Leplee taught her the basics of stage presence and asked her to wear a black dress. It was to become her trademark look. Her opening night was attended by many celebrities including, Maurice Chevalier.

In 1936, Leplee was murdered. She was arrested and later acquitted. Her reputation was ruined. She recruited Raymond Asso to give her an image makeover. He gave her the stage name, ‘Edith Piaf.’ In 1940, she starred in Jean Cocteau’s play, ‘Le Bel Indifferent.’ She became friends with personalities such as Maurice Chevalier and Jacques Borgeat. She wrote the lyrics and partnered with composers. In 1944, she discovered Yves Montand in Paris. She included him in her act. She was his mentor and lover until she broke off with him after he became famous.

By this time, she became quite famous in France. She helped the Argentine folklore singer, Atahualpa Yupanqui, and Charles Aznavour built their careers. After the war, her fame spread quickly. She toured Europe, South America, and the United States. Although American audiences were initially put off by her dour demeanor and dark clothes, Piaf garnered glowing reviews and ultimately achieved enough of an audience to warrant several televised performances on The Ed Sullivan Show throughout the 1950s.

She gave many memorable performances in Bruno Coquatrix's Paris Olympia music hall. In 1961, she helped to save the hall from bankruptcy by offering debut performance of her song, ‘Non, je ne regrette rien.’

Her last song, ‘L'Homme de Berlin,’ was recorded in April 1963. She died of liver cancer on the French Riviera. Her body was secretly brought to Paris by her husband, Theo Sarapo. She was not given a funeral mass by the Archbishop of Paris owing to her lifestyle. Her funeral procession was attended by a huge crowd. She is buried next to her daughter, Marcelle, in Pere Lachaise Cemetary, Paris.

Achievements

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  Piaf is considered the greatest icon of French popular music. Albeit her short physical stature, audiences the world over were amazed by her powerful vocals. Her music embodied the wretched life of the streets of Paris and was highly sentimental and passionate. She had an endless stream of lovers. After cementing her place in the world of music, she took upcoming musicians under her wings and groomed them.
  
  A museum has been built in her memory called the Musee Edith Piaf. Her songs appear in many movies such as Saving Private Ryan, Inception, Bull Durham, La Haine, The Dreamers and Madagascar 3.
  
  Movies made in her life include ‘Piaf,’ ‘Edith et Marcel,’ ‘Piaf. .. Her Story. .. Her Songs,’ and ‘La Vie en Rose.’ A biography on her life was written by David Bret called ‘Piaf, A Passionate Life.’
  
  Her signature song ‘La vie en rose’ won a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. She won Grammy nominations for ‘Best Album Cover (other Than Classical) Award’ and for ‘Best Album Notes Awards.’

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Montmartre sur Seine 1936
  • Boum sur Paris 1953
  • Les Amants De Demain 1958

• music

  • The Voice of the Sparrow - The Very Best of Édith Piaf 1977
  • 30th Anniversaire 1994
  • Edith Piaf: Her Greatest Recordings 1935-1943 1995
  • The Early Years, Volume 3 (1938-1945) 1996
  • Gold Collection 1998
  • The Rare Piaf 1950-1962 1998
  • La vie en rose 1999
  • Love & Passion 2002
  • Edith Piaf: L'Intégrale 2007
  • Absolutely Essential 2011

Religion

Edith Piaf never went on stage without her cross necklace. She was a devout Catholic and believed in her faith because of the experience of her childhood. When she was a little girl, she lived in a brothel in very poor conditions, and because of these horrible conditions, she developed a disease called Keratitis, which made her blind. The woman that took care of her in the brothel told her to pray to Saint Therese of Lisieux to regain her eyesight. Edith was accompanied by her grandmother and several women of the brothel as she made a pilgrimage to the shrine of this saint. After this visit, at age seven Edith regained her eyesight. This was the beginning of her love for Catholicism and her immense faith in God.

The 1905 French law on the separation of church and state sets the tone for the time period during Edith Piaf's life. This law was enacted under the Third Republic and states that France would let anyone practice their own religion and that France would no longer be connected to the Catholic church. This continued throughout the 1940s and 1950s when Edith was at the height of her career. Despite this movement of the French people away from the church, Edith stayed true to her faith because of the great miracle that she experienced as a child. This is why Edith would never perform without her cross around her neck.

Views

Quotations: "I was hungry. I was cold. But I was also free. Free not to get up in the morning, not to go to bed at night, free to get drunk if I liked, to dream. .. to hope."

"As far as I'm concerned, love means fighting, big fat lies, and a couple of slaps across the face."

"When he takes me in his arms, and speaks to me softly, I see the world through rose-colored glasses."

"I always thought my days spent in darkness gave me a very special sensitivity. Much later, when I really wanted to hear, really 'see' a song, I'd close my eyes, and when I wanted to bring it out of the very depths of myself, out of my guts, out of my belly, when the song had to come from far away, I'd close my eyes."

"I've been thinking about Jesus. Don't you find it a bit strange that, since He was living with His family and all, He up and left them just when they needed him most?"

"I'd like to see one person - just one - who would own up to having been a coward."

"Performers and their public should never meet. Once the curtain comes down, the performer should fly away like a magician's dove."

Personality

Piaf posed with French prisoners and then used the photographs to make passports for them.

Physical Characteristics: In 1951, Piaf broke her arm and two ribs in a car crash. Her injuries were further aggravated when she was involved in two more near-fatal accidents. She became addicted to morphine and alcohol.

She was left-blind due to keratitis in childhood, and allegedly had miraculous healing when she was sent on a pilgrimage to honor, Saint Therese of Lisieux.

Connections

In 1932, Piaf fell in love with Louis Dupont. He moved in with her and Momone. He persuaded her to stop street performances. When she became pregnant, she started working in a wreath-making factory. In 1933, she gave birth to her daughter, Marcelle. Piaf returned to street singing much to the fury of Louis Dupont, whom she never married. They quarreled frequently.

Edith parted ways with Louis Dupont and left with Momone and Marcelle to stay at a hotel. Piaf then had an affair with the former middleweight world champion, Marcel Cerdan, who was already married. He later passed away in a plane crash, while traveling from Paris to New York to meet her in October 1949.

In 1952, she married Jacques Pills, her first husband. Their marriage ended after four years. In 1962, she married Theo Sarapo, who was twenty years younger than her. He was a Greek hairdresser who had turned a singer and actor. He performed with her in some of her shows. She was with him until her death.

Father:

Louis-Alphonse Gassion

Piaf's father only treated her well when she began to make him money by singing on street corners. This impacted her relationships in her later life, as she had many short love affairs, but never really settled down with one man.

Mother:

Annetta Giovanna Maillard

Piaf's mother abandoned her at a young age because she did not want to care for a child.

Spouse:

Theophanis Lamboukas

A singer and actor, Théo Sarapo was around 20 years younger than Édith Piaf and the couple tied the knot in 1962. They performed together on a couple of occasions and remained together until Piaf’s death.

Daughter:

Marcelle Dupont

Marcelle died at the age of two, in 1935, from meningitis.

ex-spouse:

Jacques Pills

ex-boyfriend:

Louis Dupont

At a very young age, Edith fell for a young man named Louis Dupont with whom she had her first and only child.

ex-boyfriend:

Marcel Cerdan

Edith only fell in love once, and it was to a man who came into her life around 1947. His name was Marcel Cerdan, a famous French boxer who was married at the time of their romance. However, affairs were common in the mid-1900s. At the height of World War II, the ideals about sex were changing, and Paris was becoming the sensual city it is now seen as. Affairs were common especially among people of higher class and wealth. Unfortunately, Edith and Marcel's love affair was cut short due to a tragic plane crash that killed Marcel just two short years after they met.

Friend:

Marlene Dietrich

Piaf was very good friends with Marlene Dietrich, who was the maid of honor at her wedding to Jacques Pills.

References

• The last love of Edith Piaf