The voice of the children is edith piaf. “Edith Piaf and I are very similar

One winter night in 1915, a woman was giving birth on the sidewalk of a dirty Parisian street. She wrapped the newborn girl in a raincoat of a policeman who came running to the cries and named Edith. That, perhaps, is all that the circus performer Anette Maiar did for her daughter, before giving her up to her parents and prudently hiding. The baby's father, Louis Gasion, immediately after her birth, went to the front. This is how the great Edith Piaf was born.

On the Boulevard Chapnel, a man approached a grubby nineteen-year-old girl, and the "in love" couple went to the hotel. The girl looked so pathetic that he asked: - "Why are you doing this?" "I need to bury my daughter, ten francs are not enough," she replied. The man gave her money and left.

The only daughter of Edith Giovanna Gasion has died and she will have no more children. She will survive four car accidents, a suicide attempt, three hepatic coma, a bout of insanity, two delirium tremens, seven operations, the first and second world wars, drive crowds of men crazy, and die in 1963 before reaching fifty. All of France will bury her, and the whole world will mourn her. On her grave they will write simply - EDITH PIAF.

Edith Piaf (real name and surname Edith Giovanna Gassion, Gassion) (December 19, 1915, Paris - October 11, 1963, ibid.), French singer (chansonnier).

She was born into an artistic family. Her mother was the unsuccessful actress Anita Maillard, who went by the stage name Lina Marsa. Edith's father, Louis Gassion, earned his living as a street acrobat. When did the first World War, he volunteered for the front and received his first two-day leave only at the end of 1915 in connection with the birth of his daughter.

In 1917, Louis Gassion, having arrived in Paris on another front-line vacation to see his daughter, found out that his wife left him and gave Edith to be raised by her mother, who treated the child so badly that it was literally horrified. Louis Gassion decided to send his daughter to his own mother in Normandy, in Bernay.

It turned out that Edith was completely blind. Louise Gassion made every effort to cure the child. Doctors said that blindness came as a result of a strong blow to the head or an infectious disease left unattended. When there was no other hope left, her grandmother took Edith to Lisieux to Saint Teresa, where thousands of pilgrims from all over France gather every year. The trip was scheduled for August 19, 1921, and on August 25, 1921, Edith received her sight. She was six years old.

Until the age of eight, Edith went to school, surrounded by the cares of a loving grandmother, but then her father took Edith to Paris, where they began to work together on the squares - her father showed acrobatic tricks, and his nine-year-old daughter sang.

When Edith was fifteen years old, she met her younger paternal sister Simone. Simone's mother insisted that the eleven-year-old daughter begin to bring money into the house, relations in the family, where, in addition to Simone, seven more children grew up, were difficult, and Edith took her younger sister to her, and when her father did not like it, she left home.

Edith made money by singing on the street until she was taken to the Juan-les-Pins cabaret. This was her first engagement, which, however, did not yet mean fundamental changes - in the cabaret Edith sang the same way as on the street.

Here Edith met Louis Dupont, whom she soon married, a year later her daughter Marcel was born. The marriage was not successful, since Edith had to deal with both her daughter and sister, and, in addition, feed her family.

Edith told her husband that she did not intend to continue to solve money problems alone, and offered to leave. But Louis did not want to put up with this, wanting to tie his wife, he took the child to him. Soon Edith found out that her daughter was seriously ill, after spending a couple of days in the hospital with the girl, Edith herself fell ill.

The notorious "Spaniard" in Europe, which in those years carried away hundreds human lives, was difficult to treat. Doctors most often just waited, hoping for the viability of the patient. Edith recovered, but her daughter died - the "Spanish flu" turned into meningitis.

In the same year, Edith was twenty-two years old. When she was singing on the street, she was noticed by Louis Leple, the owner of the cabaret "Gernis" on the Champs Elysees, and invited to perform in his program. He taught her how to rehearse with an accompanist, how to choose and direct songs, and explained how important the artist's costume, his gestures, facial expressions, and behavior on stage are.

It was Leple who found the name for Edith - Piaf (in Parisian slang it is "little sparrow"). In "Zhernis" on posters her name was printed as "Baby Piaf", and the success of the first performances was huge. Louis Leple explained to Edith that the actress should have her own repertoire, and Jacques Bourgea wrote the first songs especially for Edith - "Words without a story" and "Junkman".

On February 17, 1936, Edith Piaf performed in a big concert at the Medrano circus, along with such French pop stars as Maurice Chevalier, Mistangette, Marie Dubas, and a short performance on the Radio City allowed her to take the first step to real fame. The listeners called on the radio, directly on the air, and demanded that Baby Piaf performed more and more.

However, the period of well-being for Edith soon ended. Louis Leple tragically died (he was shot in the head). The police considered a variety of versions, but Edith was also among the suspects, since Leple indicated in his will a small amount of money that she was supposed to receive after his death.

The press regarded the incident as a tidbit: Edith began to receive invitations to perform in respectable cabarets, but she was invited in most cases so that the public looked at "the same girl from the newspapers." The visitors behaved hostilely, believing that they had the right to "punish the criminal."

When the situation became completely critical, Raymond Asso entered the life of Edith, it was to him that in many respects the merit of the birth of the "Great Edith Piaf" belongs. Asso worked with the famous artist Marie Duba, whom Edith admired and considered the standard of a pop singer.

Asso set a condition - he will help Edith achieve whatever she wants, in exchange for unquestioning obedience. He began to teach Edith not only what was directly related to her profession, but also everything that she lacked: how to behave at the table, at a reception, in company, how to maintain a pleasant conversation, how to dress and the like.

Raymond Asso began to create the "Piaf style", starting solely from the individuality of Edith, he wrote songs suitable only for her, "made to order" - "Paris-Mediterranean", "She lived on Pigalle Street", "My Legionnaire", "Vympel for the legion." The music for these songs was written by Marguerite Monod, an amazingly gifted composer. She was a lifelong friend of Edith.

Thanks to Reymond Asso, the story of Edith Piaf became the story of her songs and, on the contrary, no one could and did not want to distinguish the stage image from the real woman. Edith Piaf perfectly mastered the language and manners of a woman in love - passionate, desperate, fearless. She was the heroine who experienced these feelings - reckless love, unselfish, but certainly rejected, and therefore bitter.

It was Raymond Asso who ensured that Edith performed at the ABC Music Hall on the Grands Boulevards, the most famous music hall in Paris. Performance in "ABC" was considered an exit to the "big water", initiation into the profession. Before performing in this music hall, Asso told Edith that "Baby Piaf" would not look on the luxurious ABC poster, this name is more suitable for a cabaret. Since then, Edith has performed under the name "Edith Piaf". Success in "ABC" forced the press to write about Edith: - "Yesterday on the stage of" ABC "in France, a great singer was born."

At the beginning of World War II, Edith broke up with Raymond Asso, she had already outgrown him, he taught her everything he could teach, and she no longer needed a teacher. During this period, Edith met the famous French poet, playwright and director Jean Cocteau.

Cocteau was a very talented and versatile person, he subtly understood music, singing, plasticity. He was the first person with such a weighty authority in the art world who said: - "Madame Edith Piaf is brilliant." Jean Cocteau, insisted that Edith had an amazing gift for a dramatic actress, and invited her to play in a small play of his composition "Indifferent Handsome". The rehearsals went well and the play was a great success. It was shown for the first time in the 1940 season.

Edith's game made such an impression that Georges Lacombe decided to make a film based on the play. And in 1941, the film "Montmartre on the Seine" was filmed, in which Edith received the main role. During the filming of Montmartre on the Seine, Edith met Henri Conte, a journalist who sincerely admired her talent and wrote a lot about her. Conte wrote some of Edith's best songs: "Wedding", "Mr. St. Pierre", "Heart story", "Padam ... Padam ...", "Bravo, clown!".

In the same year, the young composer Michel Emer showed Edith his song, which then entered her repertoire and became fantastically popular - the song "Accordionist". In the future, Edith collaborated a lot with Emer, he wrote for her "Mr. Lenoble", "What did you do with John?", "The holiday continues", "The played record", "On the other side of the street", "Telegram".

During the war, Edith's parents died. During the occupation, Edith performed a lot in prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, took pictures with German officers and French prisoners of war "as a keepsake", and then in Paris, these photographs were used to make fake documents for soldiers who fled from the camp. Edith then went to the same camp, was even nicer to the officers, and secretly handed out false identities to prisoners of war.

Edith helped many aspiring performers find themselves and start their path to success - Yves Montand, the Companion de la Chanson ensemble, Eddie Constantin, Charles Aznavour. Unfortunately, some of them chose to forget about it.

In 1947, Edith went on tour in Greece, and then, for the first time, in the United States. It was in America that she met her greatest love in her life. There were many romantic stories in Edith's life. One of these stories, which later began to live independently and turned into a myth, into a kind of image of love, is connected with the tragically deceased Marcel Cerdan.

When Edith was introduced to the famous French boxer Marcel Cerdan, she was not particularly delighted, while Cerdan himself claimed that this meeting was a miracle for him. It was difficult to hide the rapidly developing romance - Serdan had a wife and three sons. The press immediately jumped at the opportunity to make a big scandal out of the stormy romance of two French celebrities.

However, Serdan quickly put an end to this, stating without further ado that Edith is his mistress only because he is married and at the moment does not have the opportunity to dissolve his marriage. The next day there will be no word about Piaf and Cerdan in any newspaper. Edith will also receive an incredible basket of flowers and a note: - "From the gentlemen. To the woman who is loved more than anything in the world."

(To be continued)

women's online magazine - Notes of the Wild Mistress

Sources used in the article: E.R. Sekacheva. Big Encyclopedia Cyril and Methodius, website http://people.h15.ru, articles by Oksana Yarosh, People's History website, Cult of Personalities magazine (January / February 2000).

Soul of Paris. At the ball of luck

“Yesterday, a great singer was born on the ABC stage in France,” the newspapers wrote the day after the performance in the most famous music hall in Paris, young Edith, a street girl who has experienced quite a few tragedies in her early twenties.

Fragile, miniature, not distinguished by a bright appearance, but strong, with an unusual voice reflecting her deep soul, the girl conquered 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, amazing, flexible, soaring hands, the eyes of a blind man who has just begun to see clearly, and some sort of magical attraction. Edith was woven from contradictions - she lived in a rude, courtyard girl, a shy, intimidated girl passionately looking for love, and a chic Woman, the embodiment of style and greatness.

She was always surrounded male attention she was never alone. Nobody abandoned her - Edith always left first. This little woman was looking for true feelings, someone on whom you can lean and who you can open up to the end ... But she did not find.

Only one person left her, Edith's only true love is Marcel Cerdan, whom she remembered before last day own life. He would have been glad to stay, but he could not ...

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 abandoned him and given the child to his mother. Louis was horrified to see the conditions in which his daughter was kept - the girl was neglected, dirty, intimidated. "Loving grandmother" often gave the baby wine to drink 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 - grandmother 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 fine, but study brought only new suffering to the baby - respected fathers of decent 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 to perform with him in the city squares. Louis Gassion showed acrobatic numbers to the singing of his daughter. Edith Piaf never received a decent education - until the end of her life she wrote with errors.

The little street singer matured quickly - at the age of 14, she, along with her half-sister Simone, earned about 300 francs a day singing and rented a room in a hotel.

Of course, just as early in the life of an energetic, restless girl, lovers appeared. Already at the age of 17, she gave birth to a child - daughter Marcel from the store owner Louis Dupont. Soon there was a discord in the young family - Louis insisted that Edith quit her job. The future legend of Paris left him.

In 1935, Louis took Marseille to him in the hope of returning his beloved. But Edith did not return, and the girl fell ill with the "Spanish flu" that 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.

Barely twenty-year-old Edith recovered from the blow, the owner of the cabaret "Gernis" Louis Leple appeared in her life. It was he who came up with Edith Gassion pseudonym Piaf, which means "sparrow". She really looked like a disheveled sparrow, frightened, looking for warmth and comfort.

Posters appeared on cabaret posters with her new name - "Baby Piaf". The success was resounding, but not lasting. a little more than a year later, Leple was shot dead, and suspicions 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 abruptly turned the life of a street girl.

It is to this man 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, behave in high society. Baby Piaf became Edith Piaf and soon performed at the ABC Music Hall on the Grand Boulevards.

When she entered the stage, angular and strange, the audience was perplexed. But behold, she sang. A powerful voice emanating from the very depths of her wounded soul plunged the listeners into shock. The audience applauded ... This evening was the second birthday of Giovanna Gassion.

Her life began with her heart open to numerous novels, noisy scandals, betrayals and mistakes, hobbies and losses, unbearable suffering and immense joy.

With Raymond Asso, Edith Piaf broke up with the outbreak of World War II. Then she acted in films, being at the pinnacle of success.

Then 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 was photographed with them “as a keepsake”, and in France, fake documents were made for them from these photos.

After 1945, she became known throughout the world. She was admired, idolized, elevated to the pedestal of fame. Edith Piaf gave numerous concerts, toured in different countries, flew to another continent - in the USA.

It was perhaps the happiest period in the life of the singer. In 1947, she met Him - with Marcel Cerdan, a 31-year-old boxer, multiple champion of France.

His wife lived in Casablanca, and journalists, of course, could not ignore the connection between him and Edith. Marseille agreed without hesitation to the press conference, which was one of the shortest in history.

“Yes, Edith Piaf is my mistress. And a lover just because I'm married. Under other circumstances, I would have married her, ”said Serdan, without waiting for the questions of the newspapermen.

The next day, not a 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, most gentle and affectionate, generous, impeccable Marseille flew to her. She was waiting for him, dreamed of taking him into her arms after parting. Here, very soon they will meet. What happiness!

His plane crashed over the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores.

That evening, she still 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 not in order to feel good, but in order not to feel bad, comes very quickly,” she said later ...

But Piaf did not give up. She survived this pain, she found the strength in herself to move on. She was saved by faith - "Sparrow" remembered her miraculous insight:

“My life began with a miracle.<…>Since then, I have not parted with the images of St. 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 her. I lost all hope. Faith saved me."

Three years later, when she was 37, she fell in love again and even got married. Her chosen one was the singer Jacques Pils. But their marriage fell apart very soon.

In the same year, Edith Piaf got into two car accidents at once, after which doctors gave her morphine injections in order to alleviate physical pain ... The singer again fell into drug addiction.

After a while, a 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 overly busy - performances, long tours in America, a tour of France ...

In 1961, at the age of forty-six, 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 hall applauded her standing for a long time.

But last years The great Edith Piaf was brightened up by the last Love - He was the 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, who became a legend and the soul of Paris ...

Edith Gassion dreamed of becoming a singer since childhood. And the path to this dream was not strewn with roses. The first step she took was to change 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 cabaret "Jernis" in the middle of autumn 1935.

A completely unknown performer took the stage in an unknitted sleeveless sweater and a battered skirt. General bewilderment gave way to delight, as soon as Edith began to sing the song. The applause did not subside even after she left the stage. Creative success from that moment accompanied her throughout her life.

Biography of the singer and difficult childhood

Many envied her. It was always rumored 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, did not upset the provocative publications in the "yellow" press. She kept herself aloof from all this, did not give any comments or rebuttals.

Moreover, she often colored her strange memories of childhood with obvious fiction, the fruits of the most violent fantasy.

It is absolutely certain that in childhood she suffered severe inflammation of the cornea of ​​​​the eyes, bilateral keratitis, and poor eyesight greatly interfered with her in the future, sometimes forcing her to move by touch. The details of the miraculous healing are unknown, that's why it is a miracle. But, thank God, Piaf did not become blind.

At the age of 16, Edith Gassion was already fully established as a street singer and she got her first boyfriend from an indecently numerous series of her most diverse men. Louis Dupont, "Baby Louis" became the culprit of her only and such early pregnancy, and on February 11, 1933, Edith had a pretty daughter, who received the name Marcella Dupont.

In December of the same year, the young mother spoke to the soldiers in the prison barracks, where she was fascinated by a blond 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, continuing to sing and date men. Meanwhile, her two-year-old daughter died of meningitis ...

... The career of the singer in the casino "Gernis" was short-lived. In April 1936, her employer "Papa Leple" was killed. True, after the closing of the casino, Piaf did not return to the street.

After spending the spring and summer on a tour of France "Youth Song of 1936", she began to sing in two cabarets at once - "At Odette" and "Latin Quarter". As her compatriots wrote, her unique voice inexorably took the soul.

The fate of the singer was changed by a meeting with the poet and composer Raymond Asso. Edith sang "My Legionnaire" and a dozen of his songs, and he turned off a lot of her boyfriends, stopped promiscuity, forbade even her own father from the apartment, who also wanted his dividends from the growing recognition of his daughter's talent.

Edith Piaf is 22 years old. Her name is on everyone's lips. “The street girl's costume and apron are gone. Baby Piaf is dressed in a simple black dress. She changed her repertoire in the direction of sentimentality, but she won significantly in the severity of style ”... She was praised a lot.

And then the war began. Raymond Asso went to the front, saving the singer from painful explanations of the impending break, and Edith, who could not stand loneliness, began to live with actor Paul Meurisse. She continued to sing, driving around the unoccupied territory, her successes on the stage and in the 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 the hands of the Germans, and her success was triumphant. The following year, she went on a kind of tour to Berlin - to perform at factories and in front of prisoners of the camps.

At the end of the war, Yves Montand entered her life - for a long time (joint concerts lasted 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", a few more songs. And she lost consciousness without finishing the performance.

The consolation that subsequent men brought her was short-lived and fragile. Eddie Constantine, Andre Puss, Toto Gerardin, Jacques Pills ... She, however, married the latter for four years. But what do we care about these names? Where there is glory, there will always be hangers-on.

Chronic rheumatism addicted Edith to drugs, she generally took alcohol to relieve stress all the time. I had to be treated in the clinic ... This treatment was the "first sign" - since then, Piaf has continually been overtaken by various sores.

The exhausting summer tour of 1954 was interrupted by an operation - peritonitis broke out. A few months later, already rested, she performed at the prestigious Olympia and went on a 14-month tour of the United States. Next - Cuba, Mexico, Brazil ...

Three new lovers, and all three are denied "access to the body" because of Georges Moustaki. Piaf is already 42, and the new lover, poet and composer, is only 24 years old ... They had an accident at the intersection with the name "God's mercy". Shock, wound, two tendon ruptures… Hospital again.

In February 1959, while on tour in America, Piaf developed ulcerative bleeding. month in the clinic. Then re-hospitalization due to intestinal obstruction. In September of the same year, the singer was operated on for acute pancreatitis, and in December, viral hepatitis took three more weeks of her life ...

Diseases, remissions, repeated hospitalizations, in between - new tours and lovers ... For one of them - the hairdresser Theofalis Lambukas, 26 years old - Piaf remarried on October 9, 1962, giving her husband a delightful model of the railway for the wedding.

Two weeks after the wedding, the couple brilliantly performed on the Olympia stage, and then, one after another, new hospitalizations with blood transfusions began ... Piaf again met the anniversary of her last wedding in the hospital: the splenic artery burst ...

Edith Piaf died on Friday 11 October 1963. Seeing the singer turned into a funeral on a national scale. To the Pere Lachaise cemetery, her coffin was escorted by the whole of Paris - forty thousand people ...

Edith Piaf - VIDEO

“I don’t sing for everyone – I sing for everyone!” — Edith Piaf

In December, French singer Gilles Egro, whose voice sounds in the Oscar-winning biopic about Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose (2007), comes to Moscow with a musical performance-dedication "Edith". Egro performs her songs in her own way, but sometimes it seems that she is the same French "sparrow" with huge sad eyes. Gilles is nostalgic for Paris of the middle of the last century, but at the same time, like a few, 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 - a woman whose voice is still a symbol of France.

Gilles Aigros

A native of Cannes, Gilles Aigros long time specialized in French chanson, worked in musical theater. In 2005, director Olivier Dahan chose her as the "voice of Edith Piaf" for his film La Vie en Rose (La môme), which won numerous awards, including the Oscar for Best Actress, and was shown worldwide with great success. .

- Do you remember the first time you heard a song by Edith Piaf?

Yes very good. I was 12-13 years old, I listened to various records that were kept at our place. When I turned on the recording of Edith Piaf, I remember thinking that it was some very old music. I began to sing along with her, 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, besides the songs of Edith Piaf, your repertoire used to include many pieces from the repertoire of other French chansonniers. Who are the most loved?

I sang many 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 lyric opera and musical comedy, then I worked quite intensively in this genre, but in general I tried very different things - until the moment when Edith Piaf finally captured me in 2005.

"Life in Pink"

A film by French director Olivier Dahan, a biopic about Edith Piaf, released in 2007. main role, which brought her the Oscar, Cesar and Golden Globe awards, it was performed by Marion Cotillard.

Is it 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 that, I decided to make a concert of the songs of Edith Piaf - I was often asked why, having covered so many performers, I never turned to her. And I was a little afraid - the inevitable comparisons, just that I would not be up to par. And in 2005, I finally made up my mind. I rehearsed a lot and read a lot about her life. That 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 started talking, I said that I was preparing a concert of Piaf's songs, and she asked me to perform something right there, in the bookstore. Which 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 in October she called me before leaving for Paris ( Gilles Aigro was born and lives in Cannes. - "Profile"), where she was supposed to meet with director Olivier Dahan, who is just looking for the "voice of Edith Piaf" for his film. She gave me my phone, they called me, I came to the audition, we talked with Olivier, and after a couple of days I found out that I was approved. And in November I was already recording songs with Marion Cotillard. My performing style is different from that of Edith Piaf. 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 have seen video footage of your performance. It is just noticeable from them that you do not seek to copy Edith Piaf. How do you manage to find this balance between your own personality and that of Piaf?

I think that Edith Piaf, with whom we are very similar, helps me to discover 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 it on purpose, 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 of her circle. I really know and feel her well, and I understand that Edith, as she appeared on stage, is far from always the real Edith. I feel like I'm a bit of her on stage.

- And what was she like, the real Edith Piaf, what do you think?

I think she was a very strong-willed woman. Her profession was her life. Like all artists, she was very lonely, she lived with a sense of slipping time, she was afraid of missing something. Edith was keenly aware of the present moment, which she lived incredibly intensely. It seems to me that she did not really think about the future, she just went to her dream - to be a singer. And yet, contrary to prevailing stereotypes, she was very cheerful, joked a lot, loved entertainment.

- What episodes in the biography of Edith Piaf touch you especially?

The death of Marcel Cerdan is the most terrible event in her life. I was always amazed at how she was able to survive this tragedy, continue to sing after this loss, the biggest love of her life, because in her heart she always remained a little girl who never grew up. However, to the end, of course, she did not cope with the death of Marcel. I also personally close to her story of ascent to success. I see in it parallels 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, now I'm going to Russia.

- Do you feel any difference in the perception of you - and through you Edith Piaf herself - in different countries?

Everywhere is about the same. Throughout the world, she is one of the symbols of France, a great French singer, a woman who sang love. And her songs are perceived regardless of the knowledge of the language - the emotions embedded in them are important here.

Why, in your opinion, Edith has 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 still remains unsurpassed - her voice is emotionally and vocally completely unique. In addition, she was able to talk about very simple things with great, real feeling, and this always resonates, touches some important strings of the soul.

- In one of the interviews, you said that since 2005, "Edith lives with you." What is this sensation?

I used to have the feeling that it was me, taking her by the hand, leading her through my own life: I listened to 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 irrevocably gone time that you want to return. And the attraction of that era is in freedom, in the luxury of time, which we do not have now. We are constantly running somewhere, driving ourselves into certain limits. I don't think it was like that before. Perhaps, in everyday life, 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, the reaction of the audience. I have been playing this performance for two years now, and during this time, of course, it has managed to change. But all the changes come spontaneously, during the concert, I don't think of anything in advance. This is a kind of intuitive process, born in an emotional connection with the audience, with the reaction of the audience.

- What song by Edith Piaf do you like the 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 like the songs of the late 1930s-1950s. Everything is in them - the joy of life, love, pain, a whole range of emotions that replace each other, as in a kaleidoscope.

Musical performance-dedication "Edith", Moscow International House of Music, December 18

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Songs performed with a sensual, deep voice Edith Piaf knows the whole world - still the first notes of the melody "Je ne regrette rien" make people all over the planet wipe their eyes from sentimental tears. However, few people know that the fate of this fragile woman, whom the first posters called "baby Piaf", was hard and tragic.

Difficult childhood

Edith was born in 1915, the son of a failed actress and an equally unsuccessful acrobat. As soon as the child was born, the First World War broke out in Europe and Edith's father (at birth she was named Edith Giovanna Gassion) went to the front. While he was at war, the girl's mother suddenly realized that the family would not bring her happiness and flew away from her daughter's life, leaving her in the care of a completely irresponsible grandmother who loves to kiss the bottle. The kind grandmother did not disdain strong wine and often poured the drink into her granddaughter's bottle - the girl quickly fell asleep and did not disturb her guardian.

The father, who returned from the front, immediately took his daughter from a terrible relative and took her to his mother, who lived in Normandy. Unfortunately, at that moment it turned out that the baby was completely blind - for several years she was taken to doctors and churches, hoping for a miracle and her eyesight finally returned.

Despite the fact that the paternal grandmother doted on Edith, it was not easy for the girl to live in her house - the old woman kept a real brothel. In the end, her father took her with him to Paris, where they began to make money on the streets with a simple number: the girl sang, and the man showed acrobatic tricks. Soon Edith took her younger sister by father Simone and began to live separately, independently earning her living.

Rise of the legend

It is clear that Edith was never chaste - not with such a childhood. At 17, she had her first and only child, a girl named Marcel. Unfortunately, relations with the daughter's father did not work out, and then a tragedy occurred altogether. At the age of three, Marcel died of meningitis, which in those years they could not treat. Piaf had no more children.

In the same year, when Marseille died, the graceful, skinny Edith was heard by the owner of the Zhernis cabaret, Louis Luple. It was with performances on his stage that the stellar career of the singer began.

It was he who came up with her pseudonym Piaf, which means "sparrow". Perhaps he was inspired by her “eyes of a blind man who saw clearly”, diminutiveness, disheveled curls.

Unfortunately, Louis Leple was destined for an even crueler fate: he was shot in the head. The killer was never found, and Piaf herself became one of the suspects, after which, of course, she had to leave the cabaret.

Triumphs and defeats

During the war, Piaf actively spoke to the military, their families, and even helped organize escapes for prisoners of war. However, real fame came to her immediately after World War II - Piaf became incredibly popular, she was called to perform in the best concert halls in Paris, and then the world, all of France instantly fell in love with her voice and gentle image.

It was during this period that she met the love of her life - boxer Marcel Cerdan. The couple could not see each other often - Piaf constantly flew to New York, then to European capitals, gave concerts, met with fans, and Serdan built a career. Their connection was cut off unexpectedly and unfairly - the plane in which Marcel Cerdan flew to the USA at a performance by his beloved crashed over the ocean.

Piaf continued her concert activity, but her heart was broken - to drown out the pain, she did not disdain morphine and other drugs. Against the backdrop of the greatest fame she had achieved as a singer, Edith was desperately lonely as a woman:

“The audience pulls you into their arms, opens their heart and swallows you whole. You are filled with her love, and she is filled with yours. Then, in the fading light of the hall, you hear the sound of departing steps. They are still yours. You no longer shudder with delight, but you feel good. And then the streets, darkness, the heart becomes cold, you are alone.

Despite its difficult life, Edith helped talented friends with great enthusiasm. It was she who "discovered" and literally pulled Yves Montand, Charles Aznavour and other stars onto the stage. She also helped her last lover - the hairdresser Theo, known under the creative pseudonym Sarapo. She was 47, and he was 27, it was he who was with her until the very end.

Constant touring and performances, as well as drug use and a difficult emotional state, soon undermined the singer's health - she suffered from sclerosis, cirrhosis of the liver, and often ended up in hospitals. In 1963, little Edith took to the stage for the last time - it happened at the Opera House in Lille, France. She died six months later.

Edith Piaf is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. Until now, fresh flowers appear on her grave every day - fans never forget the tiny sparrow who sang with an angelic voice and lit hearts with his music.