Edith Piaf

The legendary singer Édith Piaf (real name Édith Giovanna Gassion) was born in the capital of France in 1915. Her father, Louis Gassion, was a street performer, and her mother, Annetta Maillard, was an actress but she did not succeed in her profession thought. Louis went to frontline at the very beginning of the World War I and pretty soon he found out that his wife dropped him and left the daughter with a grandmother. The conditions were awful, and Gassion took little Édith to Normandy, where she stayed with another grandmother. It is worth mentioning that latter had a brothel. Some time later Louis took Édith and they moved to Paris.

Piaf performed in the streets together with her father, so her talent was not ignored. Practically in no time she was invited to sing at the cabaret le Gerny’s. Its owner Louis Leplée was fascinated by Piaf’s vocals and he made a lot to the singer. He told her about the importance of the scene image and various arrangements. At this period of creativity the artist got the pseudonym La Môme Piaf, while the legendary nowadays stage name Édith Piaf appeared a bit later, after Édith met Raymond Asso. Asso not only wrote the songs for her, based on the peculiarities of her character, but also shared the life experience with Piaf. That definitely helped her to become herself. Soon after meeting Asso Édith performed at the famous concert hall ABC, thereby it brought her incredible fame and acknowledgment.

During the Second World War the artist performed at social gatherings and she helped to its prisoners. Moreover, Piaf managed to save many people by falsification of documents. Thus, during on of the concerts she gave fake documents to prisoners and due to them these people could leave the territory of the social gathering. Later they came to Piaf’s shows to thank her once again and to recall the tough war time.

Édith Piaf passed away in 1963 in Grasse. She was buried in Paris, in the cemetery Père Lachaise. The legend of French stage devoted her whole life to the creativity and millions of people admired and admire the warmth and sincerity that were given by Piaf. Her songs are considered to be the world’s classics: they make a listener think, smile or feel sad. Now all the music lovers who did not have a chance to get acquainted with Piaf’s creativity can do it easily, because a great number of the singer’s compilation albums had been released. One should just pick any of them.