In December, the French singer Gilles Egro, whose voice is heard in the Oscar-winning biopic about Edith Piaf, “Life in pink color"(2007). Egro performs her songs in her own way, but sometimes it seems that she is that same French “sparrow” with huge sad eyes. Gilles is nostalgic for Paris in the middle of the last century, but at the same time, like few others, he knows how to live in the present. We talked with the singer about what she has in common with Edith Piaf, and also about what she really was like - a woman whose voice still remains a symbol of France.
Gilles Egro
Cannes native Gilles Egro for a long time specialized in French chanson and worked in musical theater. In 2005, director Olivier Dahan chose her “in the voice of Edith Piaf” for his film “La Vie en Rose” (La môme), which received numerous awards, including an Oscar for Best Actress, and was shown with great success around the world .
- Do you remember the first time you heard Edith Piaf’s song?
Yes very good. I was 12–13 years old, I listened to various records that were kept in our house. When I turned on the recording of Edith Piaf, I remember thinking that this was some kind of very old music. I started singing along with her and quickly learned many songs. And for some reason I wanted to know what kind of woman she was, the owner of such an incredible voice.
As far as I know, in addition to the songs of Edith Piaf, your repertoire used to include many things from the repertoire of other French chansonniers. Who are your favorites?
I sang a lot of songs from the repertoire of such authors and performers as Barbara, Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel - in fact, a little bit of everything. At the conservatory I specialized in lyrical opera and musical comedy, then I worked quite intensively in this genre, and in general I tried very different things - until the moment in 2005 when Edith Piaf finally captivated me.
"La Vie En Rose"
A film by French director Olivier Dahan, a biopic about Edith Piaf, released in 2007. The main role, which brought her the Oscar, Cesar and Golden Globe awards, was played by Marion Cotillard.
Is this related to your work in Olivier Dahan's La Vie En Rose? How did it happen that you became the voice of Piaf in this film?
Some time before this, I decided to make a concert of Edith Piaf’s songs - I was often asked why, having covered so many performers, I never turned to her. And I was a little afraid - the inevitable comparisons, simply that I wouldn’t be up to par. And in 2005 I finally decided. I rehearsed a lot and read a lot about her life. This was in January, and a month later I met a woman who was Edith Piaf's secretary. I came to the presentation of her book and asked for an autograph. We got to talking, I told her that I was preparing a concert of Piaf songs, and she asked me to perform something right there in the bookstore. That's what I did - and invited her to the upcoming concert. We began to communicate - we met, talked on the phone, she talked a lot about Edith. And then in October she called me before leaving for Paris ( Gilles Egro was born and lives in Cannes. - "Profile"), where she was supposed to meet with director Olivier Dahan, who was just looking for “the voice of Edith Piaf” for his film. She gave me my phone number, they called me, I came to the audition, we talked with Olivier, and a couple of days later I found out that I was approved. And in November I was already recording songs with Marion Cotillard. My performing style is different from Edith Piaf's. Also, I don't have her accent, but for the film I needed to become as much like her as possible, Marion helped me a lot with that.
I saw video clips of your performance. It’s clear from them that you are not trying to copy Edith Piaf. How do you manage to find this balance between your own personality and Piaf's personality?
I think that Edith Piaf, with whom I am very similar, helps me reveal my own essence. Sometimes I even think that she could sing the way I do. I have heard more than once from people who knew Piaf that my performance touches them precisely because they hear in my voice the feeling with which she sang. But I can’t say that I do this intentionally, it happens naturally, it comes from within. This is partly due to the fact that she has been with me for a very long time: I read a lot about her, talked with people in her circle. I really know and feel her well, and I understand that Edith, as she appeared on stage, is not always the real Edith. I feel like I'm a little bit of her on stage.
-What do you think she was like, the real Edith Piaf?
I think she was a very strong-willed woman. The profession was life for her. Like all artists, she was very lonely, lived with the feeling of time slipping away, and was afraid of not being able to do something in time. Edith was acutely aware of the present moment, which she lived incredibly intensely. It seems to me that she didn’t really think about the future, she just went towards her dream - to be a singer. And, contrary to prevailing stereotypes, she was very cheerful, joked a lot, and loved entertainment.
- Which episodes in the biography of Edith Piaf especially touch you?
The death of Marcel Cerdan is the most terrible event in her life. I was always amazed how she was able to survive this tragedy, continue to sing after this loss, the greatest love of her life, because at heart she always remained a little girl who never grew up. However, of course, she did not fully cope with Marcel’s death. I also personally relate to her story of her rise to success. I see parallels in it with my own destiny. Until a certain point, I was known mainly in the south of France, but after Daan’s film, my life changed dramatically, I perform all over the world - in Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan, and now I’m going to Russia.
- Do you feel some difference in the perception of you - and through you Edith Piaf herself - in different countries?
It's pretty much the same everywhere. All over the world she is one of the symbols of France, a great French singer, a woman who glorified love. And her songs are perceived regardless of knowledge of the language - the emotions embedded in them are important here.
Why, in your opinion, did Edith become a symbol of France - both for the French themselves and for the rest of the world?
She was the greatest singer of her time and remains unsurpassed - her voice is emotionally and vocally completely unique. In addition, she knew how to talk about very simple things with great, real feeling, and this always finds a response, touches some important strings of the soul.
- In one of your interviews, you said that since 2005, “Edith has been living with you.” What is this feeling?
I used to have the feeling that it was me, holding her hand, leading her through my own life: I listened and sang her songs, read a lot and thought about her. And now she lives with me, she is already inseparable from me, she is a part of me.
- Is your love for Edith Piaf a kind of nostalgia?
Yes, you can say that. Indeed, in her songs there is an imprint of that irretrievably gone time that you want to return. And the attractiveness of that era was in freedom, in the luxury of time, which we do not have now. We are constantly running somewhere, pushing ourselves into certain limits. I don't think it was like that before. Perhaps, in everyday terms, life was more difficult, but I think there was more joy in it, and people were closer to each other - because they could afford to stop and look around.
- How does your style of performance and acting change from performance to performance, what does it depend on?
It depends on my emotional state and the reaction of the audience. I have been playing this performance for two years now, and during this time it, of course, has managed to change. But all changes come spontaneously, during the concert, I don’t come up with anything in advance. This is a kind of intuitive process, born in an emotional connection with the audience, with the reaction of the audience.
- Which Edith Piaf song do you like most?
My favorite song is La Foule ("The Crowd"). It resonates with some inner feeling of mine. In general, in Piaf’s repertoire, I especially love songs from the late 1930s to the 1950s. They contain everything - the joy of life, love, pain, a whole range of emotions that replace each other, like in a kaleidoscope.
Musical performance-dedication “Edith”, Moscow International House of Music, December 18
Since childhood, Edith Gassion dreamed of becoming a singer. And the path to this dream was not strewn with roses. The first step she took was changing her last name. She chose a short and sonorous one - Piaf, which in French meant sparrow. Piaf's first serious performance took place on the stage of the newly opened Jernice cabaret in mid-autumn 1935.
A completely unknown performer took to the stage in an unknitted sleeveless sweater and a well-worn skirt. General bewilderment gave way to delight as soon as Edith began performing the song. The applause did not subside even after she left the stage. From that moment on, creative success accompanied her throughout her life.
Biography of the singer and difficult childhood
Many envied her. They always gossiped that, most likely, Baby Piaf was born right on the street. After all, her father was a street acrobat, and the contractions of his wife, an actress of the lyrical genre, began and, most likely, ended right at the gas lamp on the way home.
Edith Piaf was not embarrassed by secular gossip, nor was she upset by provocative publications in the yellow press. She stayed away from all this and did not give any comments or refutations.
Moreover, she often colored her strange memories of childhood with obvious fiction, the fruits of her wildest imagination.
It is absolutely certain that in childhood she suffered severe inflammation of the cornea, bilateral keratitis, and poor vision greatly hindered her in the future, forcing her to sometimes move by touch. The details of the miraculous healing are unknown, that’s why it’s a miracle. But, thank God, Piaf did not become blind.
At the age of 16, Edith Gassion had already fully established herself as a street singer and she had made her first boyfriend from an indecently numerous series of her most diverse men. Louis Dupont, "Little Louis" was the culprit of her one and only early pregnancy, and on February 11, 1933, Edith gave birth to a pretty daughter, named Marcella Dupont.
In December of the same year, the young mother spoke to the soldiers in the Turel barracks, where she was charmed by a blond man with eyes the color of a cloudless sky, either Albert or Henri... Their relationship lasted a couple of weeks, and then the soldier was transferred to Africa. Edith's husband, unable to return his wife, took his daughter to him. And Edith continued to sing and meet men. Meanwhile, her two-year-old daughter died of meningitis...
...The singer's career at the Jernice casino was short-lived. In April 1936, her employer “Papa Leple” was killed. True, after the casino closed, Piaf never returned to the street.
After spending the spring and summer on the Youth Song of 1936 tour of France, she began singing in two cabarets at once - Odette's and the Latin Quarter. As her compatriots wrote, her unique voice inexorably took the soul.
The singer’s fate was changed by a meeting with the poet and composer Raymond Asso. Edith sang “My Legionnaire” and a dozen more of his songs, and he drove away a lot of her boyfriends, stopped promiscuous relationships, and even forbade her own father from coming to the apartment, who also wanted his dividends from the growing recognition of his daughter’s talent.
Edith Piaf is already 22 years old. Her name is on everyone's lips. “The street wench’s costume and apron were gone. Baby Piaf is dressed in simple clothes black dress. She changed her repertoire towards sentimentality, but gained significantly in the rigor of style”... She was praised a lot.
And then the war began. Raymond Asso went to the front, saving the singer from the painful explanations of the impending breakup, and Edith, who could not stand loneliness, began to live with the actor Paul Meurisse. She continued to sing, traveling around the unoccupied territory, her success on the stage and in cinema grew stronger. Merissa, who went into the army, was replaced by one “friend”, then another...
In October 1942, Edith decided to return to Paris, which was in German hands, and her success was triumphant. The next year she went on a kind of tour to Berlin - to perform in factories and in front of camp prisoners.
At the end of the war, Yves Montand entered her life - for a long time (joint concerts continued for several years), but it was the love affair that did not last long. Passion in just a week gave way to mutual respect and complete understanding.
The 1947 tour in America gave her another lover - the world-famous boxer Marcel Cerdan, a married man and father of a family.
He died in a plane crash on San Miguel Island in October 1949. In his honor, Piaf sang “Hymn of Love” on the stage of “Versailles” and several more songs. And she lost consciousness without finishing her performance.
The consolation that subsequent men brought her was short-lived and fragile. Eddie Constantin, Andre Pousse, Toto Gerardin, Jacques Pills... She, however, married the latter for four years. But what do we care about these names? Where there is fame, there will always be hangers-on.
Chronic rheumatism made Edith addicted to drugs; she generally took alcohol to relieve stress all the time. I had to undergo treatment at the clinic... This treatment was the “first sign” - since then, Piaf has been overtaken by various illnesses every now and then.
The exhausting summer tour of 1954 was interrupted by surgery - peritonitis broke out. A few months later, she, already rested, performed at the prestigious Olympia and went on a 14-month tour of the United States. Next are Cuba, Mexico, Brazil...
Three new lovers, and all three are denied "access to the body" by Georges Moustakas. Piaf is already 42, and his new lover, a poet and composer, is only 24 years old... They had an accident at an intersection called “God's Grace.” Shock, injury, ruptures of two tendons... Hospital again.
In February 1959, while on tour in America, Piaf developed ulcerative bleeding. A month in the clinic. Then readmission due to intestinal obstruction. In September of the same year, the singer was operated on for acute pancreatitis, and in December another three weeks of her life were taken away by viral hepatitis...
Illnesses, remissions, repeated hospitalizations, in between - new tours and lovers... For one of them - hairdresser Theofalis Lambukas, 26 years old - Piaf married again on October 9, 1962, giving her husband a delightful model railway as a wedding gift.
Two weeks after the wedding, the couple performed brilliantly on the Olympia stage, and then, one after another, new hospitalizations with blood transfusions began... Piaf celebrated her last wedding anniversary in the hospital again: the splenic artery burst...
Edith Piaf died on Friday October 11, 1963. The singer's farewell resulted in a funeral on a national scale. The whole of Paris - forty thousand people - accompanied her coffin to the Père Lachaise cemetery...
Edith Piaf - VIDEO
“I don’t sing for everyone - I sing for everyone!” — Edith Piaf
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Soul of Paris. At the good luck ball
“Yesterday a great singer was born on the ABC stage in France,” wrote the newspapers the day after her performance in the most famous music hall in Paris of young Edith, a street girl who has experienced many tragedies in her early twenties.
Fragile, petite, not distinguished by her striking appearance, but strong, with an extraordinary voice reflecting her deep soul, the girl captivated the spoiled public of the capital of France. Very soon, the hard work and perseverance of this Real Woman led her to worldwide success.
A frail body, stunning, flexible, floating hands, the eyes of a blind man who has just received his sight, and some kind of magical attractiveness. Edith was woven from contradictions - a rude, courtyard girl lived in her, shy, intimidated, passionately looking for love girl and chic Woman, the embodiment of style and greatness.
She was always surrounded male attention, she was never alone. Nobody abandoned her - Edith was always the first to leave. This little woman was looking for true feelings, someone you can rely on and to whom you can open up to the end... But I couldn’t find it.
Only one person left her, the only one real love Edith is Marcel Cerdan, whom she remembered before last day own life. He would have been glad to stay, but he couldn’t...
Edith Piaf (Edith Giovanna Gassion) was born on December 19, 1915 in Paris. Her mother was the failed actress Anita Maillard, and her father was the acrobat Louis Gassion. The girl was born at the height of the First World War and Louis was at the front at that time.
When the happy father returned, he learned that his wife had left him and given the child to her mother. Louis was horrified to see the conditions in which his daughter was kept - the girl was unkempt, dirty, and frightened. The “loving grandmother” often gave the baby wine so that she would not interfere with her doing more important things...
Louis sent Edith to be raised by his mother in Normandy. Here the child was received with love and care. However, Edith had to live in a brothel - Grandma Gassion was its owner...
It soon became clear that the girl was completely blind. For three years they tried in vain to cure her in a variety of ways, and, in despair, at the end of August 1921 they took her to Lisieux to the altar of St. Theresa. Then the first miracle happened in the life of Edith Piaf - she received her sight.
And then the time came - Edith went to school. Everything could be wonderful, but studying only brought new suffering to the little girl - respected fathers of respectable families were disgusted that a girl living in a brothel was studying with their offspring.
Edith had to leave school and her father took her to Paris, where she began performing with him in city squares. Louis Gassion performed acrobatic performances accompanied by his daughter's singing. Edith Piaf never received a decent education - until the end of her life she wrote with errors.
The little street singer grew up quickly - at the age of 14, she, together with her half-sister Simone, earned about 300 francs a day by singing and rented a room in a hotel.
Of course, just as early in the life of the energetic, restless girl, lovers appeared. Already at the age of 17, she gave birth to a child, daughter Marcelle, from store owner Louis Dupont. Soon there was discord in the young family - Louis insisted that Edith quit her job. The future legend of Paris left him.
In 1935, Louis took Marcelle to his place in the hope of returning his beloved. But Edith did not return, and the girl fell ill with the Spanish flu, which was raging in Europe at that time. The unfortunate mother, visiting her daughter in the hospital, became infected from her. Both were on the verge of death, but Edith recovered and Marcel died. This was the only child of Edith Piaf.
As soon as twenty-year-old Edith recovered from the blow, the owner of the Zhernis cabaret, Louis Leple, appeared in her life. It was he who came up with the pseudonym Piaf for Edith Gassion, which means “little sparrow.” She really looked like a disheveled sparrow, frightened, looking for warmth and comfort.
Posters with her new name - “Baby Piaf” appeared on cabaret posters. The success was resounding, but did not last. A little over a year later, Leple was shot, and suspicion fell on Piaf, since the showman included her in his will...
Again tragedy, suffering, tears. It seemed that she was born for torment. But a new miracle happened - Baby Piaf met Raymond Asso, a poet who forever and dramatically changed the life of a street girl.
It is to this person that the world owes the appearance of the Great Edith Piaf. He came up with her image, created songs especially for her, taught her how to dress and behave in high society. Baby Piaf became Edith Piaf and soon performed at the ABC music hall on the Grands Boulevards.
When she came on stage, angular and strange, the audience was perplexed. But then she began to sing. The powerful voice coming from the very depths of her wounded soul shocked the listeners. The audience applauded... This evening became Giovanna Gassion's second birthday.
Her life began with her heart wide open to numerous novels, noisy scandals, betrayals and mistakes, hobbies and losses, unbearable suffering and immeasurable joy.
Edith Piaf broke up with Raymond Asso at the outbreak of World War II. Then she acted in films, being at the peak of success.
At that time she showed special courage and heroism. Edith helped prisoners of war - she performed for them in Germany, and after the concerts she gave them everything they needed to escape. She took pictures with them “as a souvenir,” and in France, these photos were used to make fake documents for them.
After 1945 she became known throughout the world. She was admired, idolized, placed on a pedestal of glory. Edith Piaf gave numerous concerts, toured in different countries, and flew to another continent - to the USA.
This was perhaps the happiest period in the singer’s life. In 1947, she met Him - Marcel Cerdan, a 31-year-old boxer and multiple champion of France.
His wife lived in Casablanca, and journalists, of course, could not ignore the connection between him and Edith. Marcel agreed without hesitation to the press conference, which became one of the shortest in history.
“Yes, Edith Piaf is my mistress. And a mistress only because I'm married. Under other circumstances, I would have married her,” Cerdan said, without waiting for the newspapermen’s questions.
The next day, not a single word about this couple appeared in any publication. And the Great Piaf received a huge basket of flowers “from the gentlemen”, with the words: “To the woman who is loved more than anything in the world.”
In the fall of 1949, Edith performed in New York. On October 28, the beloved, the most tender and affectionate, generous, impeccable Marcel flew out to her. She was waiting for him, dreaming of taking him into her arms after separation. Now, very soon they will meet. What happiness!
His plane crashed over the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores.
That evening she finally went on stage. She sang “Hymn of Love” and fainted.
His death was the most severe blow in the life of Edith Piaf. She tried to forget herself with morphine. “The moment when you inject yourself not so that you feel good, but so that you don’t feel bad, comes very quickly,” she said later...
But Piaf did not give up. She survived this pain, she found the strength to move on. Faith saved her - “Sparrow” remembered her wonderful insight:
“My life began with a miracle.<…>Since then, I have not parted with the images of Saint Theresa and the baby Jesus. And because I am a believer, death does not frighten me. There was a period in my life after the death of a person dear to me when I myself called on her. I have lost all hope. Faith saved me."
Three years later, when she was 37 years old, she fell in love again and even got married. Her chosen one was the singer Jacques Pils. But their marriage very soon broke up.
In the same year, Edith Piaf was involved in two car accidents at once, after which doctors, in order to alleviate physical pain, they gave her morphine injections... The singer again fell into drug addiction.
After a while, the strong Woman survived this too. She took the stage again. She sang for millions, she acted in films. From 1958 to 1961, her schedule was extremely busy - performances, long tours in America, a tour of France...
In 1961, at the forty-sixth year of her life, she learned that she was terminally ill with liver cancer. On March 18, 1963, her last performance took place, at the end of which the audience gave her a standing ovation for a long time.
But last years The great Edith Piaf was painted last love“It was 27-year-old hairdresser of Greek origin, Theo. She died happy.
So the great singer left, forever leaving a deep mark on history and music, becoming a legend and the soul of Paris...
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The song about the sparrow, which she sang as a girl, turned out to be fateful
The nickname Piaf, colloquially meaning “little sparrow,” became the stage name of this truly great artist of the 20th century.
Edith Giovanna Gassion was born on the night of December 19, 1915, right on the sidewalk of a Parisian street. Her mother, circus performer Anette Maillard, wrapped the newborn in the raincoat of a policeman who arrived in time, and a month later she gave her daughter to be raised by her parents.
Miracle with restored vision
The First World War was underway. Edith's father, street acrobat Louis Gassion, went to the front soon after the birth of his daughter. The rude and uncouth parents of her mother, Anette Maillard, practically did not monitor the child. On the baby's menu, the main dish was... wine, which she was given mixed with milk. The illiterate grandmother did not wash her granddaughter, and practically no one spoke to Edith.
When Louis Gassion arrived on vacation in 1917, he decided not to leave the girl with his wife’s parents. His mother, Louise Gassion, who worked as a cook in a brothel, agreed to take the child with her. There the baby was washed and dressed in a new dress. It turned out that under the crust of dirt was hiding a lovely creature - alas, completely blind! Even in the first months of her life, Edith developed cataracts, but no one simply noticed it.
Louise Gassion did not spare money for treatment, but the doctors were powerless. The women from the brothel decided to pray to Saint Teresa to heal Edith. Together with Louise and the baby, they went on a pilgrimage, after which they returned home and began to wait for a miracle. After some time, it turned out that Edith had indeed received her sight! She was six years old.
Street singer
After the war, Edith's father sent his daughter to school. But other parents did not want a child living in a brothel to study next to their offspring. And from the age of nine, the girl began to earn money with her father on the streets and squares of Paris. Louis demonstrated tricks to the public, and Edith sang and collected money. This continued until she was taken to the Juan-les-Pins cabaret.
From the age of fourteen she already lived independently. When Edith turned fifteen, the girl met her younger sister by father Simona. Simone's mother insisted that the girl bring money into the house, relations in the family were difficult, and Edith took Simone to her place. They began singing on the street, earning about 300 francs. There was enough for a room in a bad hotel, clothes, wine and canned food.
Men appeared in Edith's life early. She regularly fell indiscriminately in love and abandoned her chosen ones. The father of her only child, Louis Dupont, was no exception. Edith met him at the age of seventeen. A year later, the couple had a daughter, who was named Marcel. Edith still worked hard and, if Louis could not look after the child, she took her daughter with her. One day Dupont asked her to choose between him and her work. Edith slammed the door.
Photo from gahetna.nl
The sisters began to live together again. Edith sang at night, and her daughter stayed at the hotel. One day after a performance, a young mother discovered that Louis had taken the girl. In this way he hoped to return Edith. At that time, the Spanish flu was raging in Europe, Marcelle fell ill and was hospitalized. After visiting her daughter, Edith herself became infected. She managed to recover, but Marcel died.
Baby Piaf
At the age of twenty, Edith met the owner of the Zhernice cabaret, Louis Leple. A chilled woman was stomping around on the street in October in a large oversized coat and shoes on her bare feet, waiting for a passerby to give a coin to a street performer. Suddenly someone said: “You’re crazy, singing outside in this weather!” The phrase belonged to a well-groomed gentleman of about forty in an elegant suit. Edith answered rudely: “I need something to eat!” The man asked: “Do you want to perform in a cabaret? Come tomorrow at four, I’ll listen to you.” He tore a piece of paper from the newspaper and wrote down the address. At that time, Zhernis was considered the most fashionable Parisian establishment. The intuition of an experienced producer immediately told Leple that he had found a nugget. He promised to make a debut in a week and, as legend has it, came up with a pseudonym for the singer. Leple said: “You are so small and fragile that the name Little Piaf would suit you.”
He taught her how to rehearse with an accompanist, select and direct songs, and explained the enormous importance of an artist’s costume, his gestures, facial expressions, and behavior on stage. In Zhernis, the posters read: “Baby Piaf,” and the success of the first performances was enormous.
On February 17, 1936, Edith Piaf sang at a big concert at the Medrano circus along with such French pop stars as Maurice Chevalier, Mistinguette, and Marie Dubois. And a short appearance on Radio City allowed her to take the first step towards real national fame. Listeners called the live broadcast and demanded that Baby Piaf perform again...
Breakthrough to the starry sky
The successful start was interrupted by tragedy. For unknown reasons, cabaret owner Louis Leple was shot in the head. Edith Piaf was among the suspects, since the producer left her a small amount in his will. The newspapers inflated the dirty story, and visitors to the cabaret in which Piaf performed behaved hostilely, believing that they had the right to “punish the criminal.” As a result, Edith was left without work and decided to go to the provinces until the scandal subsided. But rumors followed her there too. Piaf had to go out singing again. It is not known how it would have ended if not for a note found in a holey pocket under the lining: “Raymon Asso” and a telephone number. Edith barely remembered that it was the poet she had met in Zhernis. Edith called Paris and then came to Raymond.
Asso promised her success, but demanded discipline and began to drill her in full. He taught etiquette, and having learned that Piaf could not really write, he came up with several options for autographs for her: “As a sign of great sympathy”, “With all my heart”... At the same time, Raymon created Piaf’s repertoire and unique style. Every day he and Edith discussed new songs and rehearsed. Soon their persistence bore first fruit. The director of the largest concert hall in Paris, ABC, agreed to give the first part of one of Edith's concerts.
Photo from astrology.gr
That day she performed for the first time not as Malyutka, but as Edith Piaf. She performed new things she had learned with Raymon, and the huge hall roared with delight. The public did not want to let her go. Piaf had to remember songs from the old repertoire. And the press the next day exclaimed: “Yesterday a great singer of France was born on the ABC stage!”
Money, men, cinema and war
Edith's financial situation changed dramatically. She bought her own house in the center of Paris, and the best designers were decorating it. But the star, having moved into the mansion... preferred to sleep in the concierge's room. Piaf felt more comfortable there than in a huge bedroom with antique furniture. The mansion was always open to Edith's many friends. Some managed to live with her for a month, or even more. Champagne and caviar were not in the kitchen, but if someone had asked the singer how much money she had in her account, they would hardly have received a sane answer. She always lived by the principle: if you have money, it’s good, if you don’t, I’ll make money.
And she also had one rule, which she later spoke about in her biographical book. It concerned relationships with men: “When love cools down, it must either be warmed up or thrown away. This is not a product that is stored in a cool place.” Following her principle, at the beginning of World War II, Edith broke up with Raymond. Then she met the writer, poet, playwright, artist and film director Jean Cocteau, who invited her to play in his play “The Indifferent Handsome Man.” The production had big success. In 1941, based on the play, the film “Montmartre on the Seine” was made, in which Edith received the main role. Later she starred in other films, including with her young lover and protégé Yves Montand. In general, she loved to provide patronage, and then forget about yesterday’s lovers, whom she introduced to people...
During the Second World War, the French were able to appreciate Piaf's patriotism. She performed in Germany in front of her compatriot prisoners of war, and after the concerts she gave them what they needed to escape (things, forged documents), risking being captured and executed.
After the war, American impresarios became interested in Piaf and offered to organize a tour of US cities. Going overseas, Edith had no idea that she would meet there the greatest love of her life - Frenchman Marcel Cerdan, world boxing champion.
A fairy tale with a cruel ending
The athlete got to Edith’s concert by accident. And after the performance, enchanted, he called the singer at the hotel to arrange a meeting. This is how their romance began. Next to Piaf, the big champion was timid, tried to remain silent and fulfilled her every whim. He bought Edith her first mink coat. She gave Marcel diamond cufflinks, suits and crocodile leather shoes. In America, the couple appeared everywhere together. But in Casablanca, Cerdan was waiting for his wife Marinette and sons Marcel and Rene, to whom little Paul was eventually added. And the athlete in love returned to them, torn into pieces, not knowing what to do, and trying to comply with the rules of official decency.
During her next tour of America, Piaf was looking forward to Cerdan's arrival from Paris. He was supposed to appear only in a week, and the singer called him in France. She asked me to hurry up because I couldn’t bear the separation anymore. Edith was standing backstage at New York's Versailles Hall, preparing for a performance, when she was told that the plane on which Cerdan was flying to America had crashed near the Azores. Marcel's corpse was identified by the watch that the famous boxer, out of a strange habit, wore on both hands.
Drugs, diseases and the best songs
After the death of Marcel, Piaf underwent four courses of detoxification for the treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction, three hepatic comas, two attacks of delirium tremens, seven operations and two bronchopneumonia. Her soul suffered incredibly.
Still from the film “Star Without Light”
One day Edith was in a car accident and broke her arm and two ribs. The injuries received were not life-threatening, but caused severe pain. To remove it, the patient was injected with drugs. The singer recovered quickly and the pain subsided. When Piaf developed arthritis, she habitually turned to drugs, and soon this began to affect her psyche - Edith tried to throw herself out of a window. Only the presence of her friend Marguerite Monod prevented disaster.
Then doctors discovered she had cancer. Piaf lost a lot of weight and cut her hair. Her face, according to eyewitnesses, resembled a skull covered in skin. At forty-five, this woman looked sixty. During this sad period, she performed her best songs, including Non! Je ne regrette rien (No! I don’t regret anything) is a poignant masterpiece, the poems of which were composed in September 1960 by the young poet Charles Dumont.
Last love, last concert
The singer met 26-year-old Greek hairdresser Theofanis Lambukas when she was once again in the hospital. She was told that in the corridor a young man was asking permission to enter the ward. Edith nodded in agreement. A tall stranger appeared on the threshold, dressed all in black, with dark hair and the same eyes. He introduced himself as Theo and handed the sick man a small doll, explaining that this unusual toy from his native Greece would certainly bring good luck. Edith laughed out of surprise... The next day he came with flowers.
A few months later, Theo asked Edith if she would agree to become his wife. At first Piaf objected, but then agreed. For the sake of her lover, Piaf converted to Orthodoxy. Their wedding took place on October 9, 1962 in Orthodox Church, to which Theo belonged. Soon the happy newlywed gave a concert at the Olympia in Paris. The audience, stunned with delight, chanted: “Hip-hip-hurray, Edith!” And only Theo knew that Piaf had at most a year left. The doctors revealed this verdict to him.
In April 1963, the artist's liver failed, and she was admitted to the Neuilly hospital in an unconscious state. After intensive treatment, her condition temporarily improved, the patient ordered to be taken south, to the village of Plaskassier, but it was already clear that she was doomed. Edith could not eat, suffered from pain, her weight melted to 34 kilograms.
