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🙂 Hello dear readers! In the article “Edith Piaf: biography, personal life, facts, video” – about the main stages of the life of the great French singer. About love and beloved men.
Edith Piaf: personal life
Edith Piaf did not recognize sanctimonious morality and obeyed only her feelings. Fearing loneliness, the great singer threw herself into the very flame of passions. And she humbly accepted the suffering that befell her, repeating: “You have to pay for love with bitter tears.”
The beginning of the legend
On a chilly evening, a tiny figure in a shabby coat appeared on the street in the poorest quarter of Paris, stopped at the corner and suddenly began to sing. Passers-by, hurrying on business, froze, listening to the powerful voice of the little ragamuffin.
The girl’s name was Edith Giovanna Gassion, she was only fifteen. Years later, she will remember these street performances and selflessly construct the legend of her life. She will even tell that her mother gave birth to her right on the dirty sidewalk …
In fact, Edith was born in the Belleville clinic – a dysfunctional Parisian area. His mother, a cheap cabaret singer named Annette, drank and worked as a prostitute. She quickly lost interest in the baby and sent her to her alcoholic parents.
Having returned from the front, the father, seeing the situation in which little Edith fell, immediately took the sickly girl to his mother, the owner of the brothel. Strange, but in such an inappropriate place for a child, Edith lived well: the girls took care of her, fed and dressed up.
At the age of three, the girl became blind: due to infection, the corneas of the eyes became inflamed. When the doctors could not help her, the priestesses of love put on modest clothes and went to the church to pray to Saint Teresa for recovery. And the miracle happened!
Life in a brothel made Edith tolerant of other people’s vices, but distorted her idea of love: “I was not sentimental, it seemed to me that a woman should follow a man at the first call.”
Difficult freedom
At fourteen, Edith already performed on the Parisian streets with her acrobat father, and then settled in a cheap hotel with her half-sister Momon. So her independent life began …
“Many people think that my early years were terrible. They weren’t, they were beautiful! – said the singer. – Yes, I was starving, freezing in the streets. But she was free: she could get up late, dream, hope … “
At sixteen, Edith fell in love with the messenger Louis Dupont and gave birth to a daughter from him, whom she named Marcella. However, she soon almost forgot about the existence of both: every day she sang on the street, and whiled away the evenings in a cafe in the company of petty thieves.
In the hope of returning the windy girlfriend, Louis took his daughter to him. But two years later, deprived of care, Marcella died of meningitis. The death of the baby shocked Edith, but she preferred to live in the future. The young woman could not even imagine that she was not destined to become a mother again …
Songbird
Pimp Albert became Edith’s new friend. He took most of the money Edith made by singing and tried to get her to serve clients. Edith refused, and one day he put the barrel of a pistol to his mistress’s temple.
The girl fled when her friend Nadia, who did not want to engage in prostitution, decided to commit suicide. Twenty-year-old Edith was rolling downhill, and then fate unexpectedly gave her a chance for salvation: her singing was heard by Louis Lepley, the owner of the Gernice cabaret.
Edith was so nervous that she almost failed the audition. But as soon as she began to sing, not a trace of excitement remained. Lepley glanced at the diminutive girl and came up with a pseudonym – Little Piaf (“piaf” is translated as “sparrow”).
“Songbird” knitted a simple black dress for her debut. Her nondescript appearance was more than compensated for by a powerful voice, and from the very first song she conquered a discerning audience. Leple realized that he had found a real diamond, and began to cut it: he taught Edith the basics of stage skills, introduced him to secular circles.
The serene life did not last long. In April 1936, Louis Leplet was found murdered in his apartment, and the shocked Edith was considered an accomplice in the crime. The press wrote in detail about the singer’s former ties with the criminal world.
The poet Raymond Asso came to the rescue. He became the new producer of the “songbird”, achieved a contract with the famous ABC theater and discouraged dubious friends from his ward.
Edith Piaf and Raymond Asso
By the late 1930s, Edith had developed into a successful and wealthy singer. Raymond unceremoniously treated his Galatea, forcing her to behave herself in society. The collaboration quickly developed into a whirlwind romance.
Time to give
Fortunately, the Second World War prevented. Raymond went to the fountain, and Edith had an affair with actor Paul Maurice. “I hate loneliness, I just can’t live in an empty house!” She sighed. The restrained Paul was the complete opposite of the outgoing Edith, but they were drawn to each other.
During the war, the most famous French singer not only continued to perform, but also managed to help the prisoners of war. “If God allowed me to earn so much, it is only because He knows: I will give everything,” Edith assured. And she kept her word, generously gifted everyone.
Piaf did not skimp on money or feelings. She plunged into relationships, forgetting about everything, she was torn apart by unbridled passion and jealousy.
In 1944, at one of the concerts, the newly minted star noticed a supernumerary chansonnier named Yves Montand. The friends accompanying the singer, having heard his singing, were completely delighted and applauded for a long time.
“I don’t know what you find in him,” Piaf said irritably. “He sings terribly and cannot dance, and on top of that, he is so narcissistic!”
Nevertheless, the friends persuaded Edith to change her anger to mercy. She watched another Montana show and admitted that the guy has the ability. Piaf was so honest with herself and others that she even apologized to Yves for the words she said in a narrow circle of friends.
Thirty-year-old Piaf became Montana’s mentor, wrote songs for him, introduced him to the right people. She claimed that only platonic relations connected her with Yves. But few believed in this …
Yves Montand and Edith Piaf
Thirty-year-old Piaf became Montana’s mentor, wrote songs for him, introduced him to the right people. She claimed that only platonic relations connected her with Yves. But few believed in this …
In the ring with fate
After the war, Edith’s fame overcame the ocean, and the singer was offered a tour of the United States. At her concert in New York, the world boxing champion Marcel Sedan, a French of Arab descent, happened to be. The reputation of an exemplary family man did not prevent him from starting to look after Piaf.
Dinner in a fancy restaurant turned into a date. Marcel was the first man who needed Edith herself, and not her talent, connections or money. He presented Piaf with jewelry, invited to matches and did not hide his love.
Marcel Sedan and Edith Piaf
Next to the “sparrow” the boxer turned into a tame bear cub. Edith knitted sweaters for her beloved and accompanied her to training. “The relationship with Marcel gave my chaotic life a kind of precarious balance,” she recalled.
In the fall of 1949, Piaf again performed in the United States and desperately missed Serdan, who remained in Europe. “I beg you, come quickly!” – Edith shouted into the telephone receiver. He, too, was impatient to see her, he heeded her pleas and abandoned the idea of going by steamer.
The plane crashed over the Azores … This is the end of the tale about the queen of music and the king of the ring.
Hymn to love
The news of the death of a loved one knocked down Edith. The sister hardly kept her from committing suicide, but could not keep her from self-destruction. “I don’t want to live, I’m already dead,” Piaf repeated, seeking oblivion in drugs and alcohol.
The singer attended seances and sat alone for hours, plaguing herself with reproaches. A woman with a sunken face, immersed in severe depression, hardly resembled the great Piaf, who had recently sparkled with happiness.
It was never possible to recover from the loss of Edith. In memory of Marcel, she wrote the song “Hymn to Love”, which she never sang. Piaf’s rare concerts were held with a tragic anguish that ebbed her fame as a “singer of grief”.
Charles Aznavour and Edith Piaf
Edith’s loneliness was a little brightened up by friendship with the young singer Charles Aznavour, who took on the duties of a personal secretary. And again, a tragedy almost happened – Edith and Charles were in a serious car accident.
To numb the pain in the broken arm and ribs, the doctor prescribed Piaf morphine. Relatives did not recognize the singer: she lived from dose to dose, purposefully destroying herself. Even the romance and subsequent marriage with chansonnier Jacques Pill did not give her strength.
Over the four years of family life, Piaf saw doctors and nurses more often than her husband. Jacques, a loyal and caring husband, unfortunately also suffered from alcoholism. The outcome of the marriage was a foregone conclusion.
Trying to numb the pain …
After the divorce, the singer was waiting for another accident and another attempt to drown out the pain with morphine. “I felt an indomitable need to destroy myself,” she admitted. “But, approaching the edge of the abyss, I wanted to go up all the time.”
Piaf’s premonition did not deceive: fate presented the 47-year-old singer with a farewell gift. The 27-year-old Greek Theophanis Lambukas was handsome and well built. And he looked at Edith with his dark eyes so anxiously that she gave up …
Theo Sarapo. and Edith Piaf
So a hairdresser with a complicated name turned into a singer Theo Sarapo. Edith chose this name, remembering that “sarapo” in Greek means “I love you.” Because weakened by illnesses and sorrows of loss, Piaf fell in love again.
In October 1962, the couple got married. Many considered the Greek a gigolo, but Theo touchingly courted his wife, and the voices of ill-wishers fell silent. He drove Piaf in a wheelchair, did not leave his wife’s bed for a second and carefully concealed the terrible diagnosis from her – cancer.
But Edith felt the approach of death and therefore forced her husband to take an oath: he would never fly on airplanes. Theo kept his promise, but it was not possible to deceive fate: he died in a car accident, having outlived his wife by only seven years.
But that was later, and then Theo had to put an end to the beautiful and sad legend of Edith Piaf. She died on October 10, 1963 on the Riviera. Bursting into tears, Theo put his wife’s body in the car and rushed to Paris. He understood: the life of the great Piaf should end in the same place where it began – in the city of love.
Facts from the life of Edith Piaf
- The singer got her name in honor of the nurse Edith Cavell, who was shot by the Germans in the First World War.
- Louis Leplet strictly ordered the singer to wear a black dress for concerts. Later, black dresses became the singer’s trademark.
- Edith learned about the death of Marcel on the day of the next concert, but found the strength to go on stage, declaring that she would sing for her beloved.
- Upon learning of the death of Edith, her friend and poet Jacques Cocteau, quietly said: “I want to die next.” He passed away a few hours later.
- Theo did everything to give the public the impression that Edith died in Paris. He believed that the singer, personifying France, should complete her journey in this city.
- Edith Piaf’s height is 1,47 m.Zodiac sign is Sagittarius. Birthday – December 19, 1915. Death Day – October 10, 1963 (Grasse, France).
Video
Friends, be sure to watch this video! Interesting facts, documentaries, rare photos and songs of Piaf. The most valuable addition to the theme “Edith Piaf: Biography”
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