Edith piaf daughter death
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Édith Piaf (born Édith Giovanna Gassion, 19 December, 1915 – 11 October, 1963), was a French singer and cultural icon who became universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads. Among her songs are "La Vie en rose" (1946), "Non, je ne regrette rien" (1960), "Hymne à l'amour" (1949), "Milord" (1959), "La Foule" (1957), "l'Accordéoniste" (1955), and "Padam… Padam…" (1951).
Despite the numerous biographies, many facts and events of Édith's life are shrouded in mystery. She was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, Paris, France, the high-immigration district later described by Daniel Pennac. Legend has it that she was born on the pavement of Rue de Belleville 72 but according to her birth certificate that was at Hôpital Tenon, the Belleville arrondissement hospital. She was named Édith after the executed British nurse Edith Cavell (Piaf —Parisian jargon for "sparrow"— came from a nickname she w
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Born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Paris in 1915, Piaf’s life was filled with tragedy. Abandoned by her mother, she lived in her Grandmother’s brothel. She then lost her eyesight for some time as a youth. At 14, she decided to join her father, a street acrobat, and it was while performing with him that she first sang in public.
Édith’s stage name came from Louis Leplée, her first employer and provider of steady gigs, who referred to her as “la mome Piaf”, meaning “the waif sparrow” in French. It was he who suggested her trademark black dress and his promotions led to a record deal. The association ended when Leplée was murdered, and Piaf was questioned as an accessory. But her songs of life on the streets began getting radio play in France in1936. Her lyrics consisted of deep, dark themes involving sex, drugs, and death that, while accompanied by her strong, yet sorrowful voice, made her a music sensation in France.
She toured the US in 1947 with a worldwide hit under her belt, “La Vie en Rose”, but suffered a tragic loss when her lover, world middleweight boxer Marcel Cerdan, w
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Edith Piaf has become synonymous with French Cabaret of the 1940s & 50s.
She remains France’s most popular singer.
Piaf’s life was the stuff of legend. She was born Edith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, Paris, and lived at 72 Rue de Belleville. She was named Edith after the WW1 British nurse Edith Cavel who was executed for helping French soldiers escape from German captivity. Piaf – a colloquialism for sparrow – was a nickname she would receive 20 years later by nightclub owner Louis Leplee, who discovered her singing on the streets.
Her mother, Annetta Giovanna Maillard (1895-1945), was of French descent on her father’s side and of Italian and Berber origin on her mother’s. She worked as a café singer under the name Line Marsa. Louis-Alphonse Gassion (1881-1944), Edith’s father, was a Norman street acrobat with a past in the theatre. Edith’s parents soon abandoned her, and she lived for a short time with her maternal grandmother, Emma (Aïcha) Saïd ben Mohammed (1876-1930) who ran a brothel in Normandy. There, prosti
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