Biography “Voices of Paris. Edith Piaf. The fate of the baby with the voice of an angel Breakthrough to the starry sky

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Songs sung by a sensual, deep voice Edith Piaf knows the whole world - until now 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, who was called “baby Piaf” by the first posters, was difficult and tragic.

Difficult childhood

Edith was born in 1915, the son of a failed actress and 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 fighting, 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 granny did not disdain strong wine and often poured the drink into the bottle for her granddaughter - the girl quickly fell asleep and did not bother 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 vision finally returned.

Despite the fact that her 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 earn money on the streets with a simple number: the girl sang, and the man showed acrobatic tricks. Soon Edith took her younger sister on her father's side, Simon, and began to live separately, earning her own living on her own.

Rise of a legend

It is clear that Edith has never been chaste - not with such a childhood. At 17, she gave birth to her first and only child - a girl named Marcel. Unfortunately, the relationship with the daughter's father did not work out, and then a tragedy happened. At the age of three, Marcel died of meningitis, which in those years could not be treated. Piaf had no more children.

In the same year, when Marseille was gone, the graceful, skinny Edith was heard by the owner of the cabaret "Gernice" Louis Luplet. It was with performances on his stage that the singer's stellar career began.

It was he who invented her pseudonym Piaf, which means "sparrow". Perhaps he was inspired by her “eyes of a blind man who saw his sight,” her diminutiveness, disheveled curls.

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

Triumphs and defeats

During the war, Piaf actively spoke to the military, their families, even helped organize the escape of prisoners of war. However, real fame came to her right after the Second World War - Piaf became incredibly popular, she was called to perform in the best concert halls in Paris, and then in 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 was building a career. Their connection ended unexpectedly and unfairly - the plane in which Marcel Cerdan flew to the United States at the performance of his beloved crashed over the ocean.

Piaf continued her concert activity, but her heart was broken - in order to numb the pain, she did not disdain morphine and other drugs. Amid the greatest fame she achieved as a singer, Edith was desperately lonely as a woman:

“The audience pulls you into their arms, opens their heart and engulfs you entirely. You overflow with her love, and she with yours. Then, in the dying light of the hall, you hear the noise of leaving footsteps. 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 her difficult life, Edith with great enthusiasm helped talented friends. It was she who "opened" 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 pseudonym Sarapo. She was 47, and he was 27, it was he who was with her until the very end.

Constant tours and performances, as well as drug use and a difficult emotional state, early undermined the singer's health - she suffered from sclerosis, cirrhosis of the liver, and often ended up in hospitals. In 1963, little Edith took 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.

From childhood, Edith Gassion dreamed of a career as a singer. And the path to this dream was not strewn with roses. The first step she took was to change her last name. She chose the short and sonorous - Piaf, which in French meant sparrow. Piaf's first serious performance took place on the stage of the freshly opened Jernis cabaret in mid-autumn 1935.

A completely unfamiliar performer took the stage in a loose-fitting sleeveless sweater and a worn-out 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. From that moment on, creative success accompanied her throughout her life.

Biography of the singer and a difficult childhood

Many were jealous of 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 lyric genre, began and, most likely, ended right at the gas lamp on the way home.

Edith Piaf was not embarrassed by gossip, provocative publications in the "yellow" press did not upset. She stayed away from all this, did not give any comments or refutations.

Moreover, she often colored her strange childhood memories with sheer fiction, the fruits of her wildest fantasy.

It is absolutely certain that in childhood she suffered severe inflammation of the cornea of ​​the eyes, bilateral keratitis, and poor vision greatly interfered with her in the future, forcing her to move by touch at times. 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 had already completely taken place as a street singer and she had the first boyfriend from the indecently numerous line of her most diverse men. Louis Dupont, "Little Louis" became the culprit of her only and such an early pregnancy, and on February 11, 1933, a pretty daughter was born to Edith, named Marcella Dupont.

In December of the same year, a 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 singer's career at the Jernis casino was short-lived. In April 1936, her employer, Papa Leplet, was assassinated. However, after the closure of the casino, Piaf never returned to the street.

After spending the spring and summer touring 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 was inexorably suffocating.

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 discouraged a lot of her boys, stopped promiscuous relationships, forbade even her own father from appearing in 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 suit and apron are gone. Baby Piaf is dressed in a simple black dress. She changed her repertoire towards sentimentality, but she won a lot in the severity of her style ... ”She was much praised.

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 tolerate loneliness, began to live with the actor Paul Meriss. She continued to sing, driving around unoccupied territory, her successes on stage and in cinema grew stronger. Meriss, who went to 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 next year, she went on a kind of tour to Berlin - to perform in factories and in front of prisoners of 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. In just a week, passion 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 São Miguel Island in October 1949. In his honor, Piaf sang the "Hymn of Love" on the stage of "Versailles", a few more songs. And she fainted without finishing her performance.

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

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

An exhausting summer tour in 1954 was interrupted by an operation - peritonitis broke out. A few months later she, already well-rested, performed at the prestigious Olympia and embarked on a 14-month US tour. Next - Cuba, Mexico, Brazil ...

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

In February 1959, while on tour in America, Piaf developed ulcerative bleeding. A 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 three more weeks of her life were taken away by viral hepatitis ...

Illnesses, 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 an amazing model of the railway for a wedding.

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 again met her last wedding anniversary in the hospital: the splenic artery burst ...

Edith Piaf died on Friday 11 October 1963. Seeing off the singer resulted in a national funeral. A whole Paris accompanied her coffin to the Père Lachaise cemetery - forty thousand people ...

Edith Piaf - VIDEO

"I don't sing for everyone - I sing for everyone!" - Edith Piaf

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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 "sparrow", became the stage name for 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 cloak of a police officer who arrived in time, and a month later gave her daughter to be raised by her parents.

Miracle with returned sight

The First World War was going on. Edith's father, a street acrobat Louis Gassion, went to the front soon after the birth of his daughter. Her mother's rude and uncouth parents, Anette Maillard, barely followed the child. In the baby's menu, the main dish was ... wine, which was given to her, mixed with milk. The illiterate grandmother did not wash her granddaughter, practically no one spoke to Edith.

When Louis Gassion came 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 a crust of mud is a lovely creature - alas, absolutely blind! Even in the first months of her life, Edith developed cataracts, but no one just noticed it.

Louise Gassion did not spare money for the treatment, but the doctors were powerless. The women from the house of tolerance decided to pray to Saint Teresa so that she would 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 really regained 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 in the streets and squares of Paris. Louis showed the audience tricks, 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 on her own. When Edith was fifteen, the girl met her younger sister on her father's side, Simone. Simone's mother insisted that the girl bring money to the house, relations in the family were difficult, and Edith took Simone to her place. They began to sing in the street, earning about 300 francs. Enough for a room in a bad hotel, clothes, wine and canned food.

Men appeared early in Edith's life. She regularly fell in love indiscriminately 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 sit with the child, took her daughter with her. One day, Dupont asked her to choose between him and her job. Edith slammed the door.

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The sisters began to live together again. Edith sang at night, and her daughter stayed at the hotel. One day after the performance, the young mother discovered that Louis had taken the girl. Thus he hoped to get Edith back. While the Spanish flu was raging in Europe, Marseille fell ill and was hospitalized. After visiting her daughter, Edith herself became infected. She managed to recover, but Marcel died.

Baby Piaf

At twenty, Edith met Louis Leplet, the owner of the Gernice cabaret. In October, a chilled woman was trampling on the street in a large oversized coat and shoes on bare feet, waiting for a passer-by to give a coin to a street artist. Suddenly someone said: "You're out of your mind - to sing on the street in this weather!" The phrase belonged to a sleek gentleman of about forty in an elegant suit. Edith replied rudely: "But there is something I need something!" The man asked: “Do you want to perform in a cabaret? Come tomorrow at four, I'll listen to you. " He tore off a piece of paper from the newspaper and wrote down the address. At that time, "Gernis" was reputed to be the most fashionable Parisian establishment. The intuition of an experienced producer immediately told Leplet that he had found a nugget. He promised to arrange a debut in a week and, as the legend says, he came up with a pseudonym for the singer. Leple said: "You are so small and fragile that the name Baby Piaf will suit you."

He taught her how to rehearse with an accompanist, choose and direct songs, explained how important the artist's costume, his gestures, facial expressions, behavior on stage are. 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 in the Medrano circus with such French pop stars as Maurice Chevalier, Mistinguette, Marie Dubois. A short appearance on Radio City allowed her to take the first step towards real national fame. The listeners called on the air and demanded that Little Piaf perform more ...

Breakthrough to the starry sky

The successful start was interrupted by tragedy. For unknown reasons, the owner of the cabaret, Louis Leplet, was shot in the head. Edith Piaf was among the suspects, since the producer in the will left her a small amount. The newspapers fanned a dirty story, and visitors to the cabaret in which Piaf performed were hostile, believing that they had the right to "punish the criminal." As a result, Edith was left without work and decided, until the scandal subsides, to go to the provinces. But rumors haunted her even there. Piaf had to go outside to sing again. It is not known how it would have ended if it had not been for a note found in a pocket full of holes under the lining: "Raymond Asso" and a phone number. Edith barely remembered that this was the poet she had met at Zernis. Edith called Paris and then came to see Raymond.

Asso promised her success, but demanded discipline and began to drill in full. He taught etiquette, and upon learning that Piaf did not know how to write properly, he came up with several versions of autographs for her: “As a sign of great sympathy”, “From the bottom of my heart” ... At the same time, Raymon created Piaf's repertoire and unique style. Every day she and Edith discussed new songs, rehearsed. Soon their tenacity bore fruit. The director of the largest concert hall in Paris ABC agreed to give the first part of one of Edith's concerts.

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On that day, she first performed not as a Baby, but as Edith Piaf. She performed new things that she had learned with Raymon, and the huge hall roared with delight. The audience did not want to let her go. Piaf had to remember songs from the old repertoire. And the press the next day exclaimed: "Yesterday the 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, the best designers were engaged in its decoration. But the star, having entered the mansion ... chose to sleep in the concierge's room. There, Piaf felt more comfortable than in a huge bedroom with antique furniture. The mansion has always been open to Edith's many friends. Some managed to stay with her for a month or more. Champagne, caviar in the kitchen were not translated, but if someone asked the singer how much money she had in her account, he would hardly receive a sane answer. She always lived by the principle: if you have money - good, if not - I will earn.

And she also had one rule, which she later told about in a biographical book. It concerned relationships with men: “When love cools down, you need to either warm it up or throw it away. This is not a product stored in a cool place. " Following her principle, at the beginning of World War II, Edith broke up with Raymond. Then she met with the writer, poet, playwright, artist and film director Jean Cocteau, who invited her to play in his play "Indifferent Handsome". The production was a great success. In 1941, based on the play, the film Montmartre on the Seine was filmed, in which Edith got 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 brought out to people ...

During the Second World War, the French were able to appreciate the patriotism of Piaf. She performed in Germany in front of compatriot prisoners of war, and after the concerts she gave them what they needed to escape (things, forged documents), at the risk of being captured and executed.

After the war, Piaf became interested in American impresario and offered to arrange a tour of US cities. Going overseas, Edith did not suspect that she would meet the greatest love of her life there - the Frenchman Marcel Cerdan, the world boxing champion.

A tale with a cruel ending

The athlete got to Edith's concert by accident. And after the performance, fascinated, he called the singer at the hotel to make an appointment. So their romance began. Next to Piaf, the big-time champion was shy, tried to keep quiet and did her every whim. He bought Edith her first mink coat. She gave Marcel diamond cufflinks, suits and crocodile leather shoes. In America, a couple appeared everywhere together. But in Casablanca, Cerdan was awaited by his wife Marinette and sons Marcel and Rene, to whom little Paul was eventually added. And the athlete in love returned to them, torn to 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 the arrival of Cerdan from Paris. He was supposed to appear only a week later, and the singer called him in France. She asked to hurry up, because she can no longer bear the separation. Edith was standing backstage at New York's Versailles, preparing for her performance when it was reported that the plane on which Cerdan was flying to America had crashed near the Azores. The corpse of Marcel was identified by the watch, which the famous boxer, by a strange habit, wore on both hands.

Drugs, disease and 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.

Shot from the movie "A Star Without Light"

Once Edith got into a car accident, broke her arm and two ribs. The injuries sustained were not life threatening, but they caused severe pain. To remove it, the patient was injected with drugs. The singer quickly recovered, the pain subsided. When Piaf developed arthritis, she habitually turned to drugs, and soon this began to affect her psyche - Edith tried to jump out of the window. Only the presence of her friend Marguerite Monod prevented the disaster.

Then the doctors discovered she had cancer. Piaf lost a lot of weight, cut her hair. Her face, according to eyewitnesses, resembled a skull covered with leather. At forty-five, this woman looked sixty. During this sad period, she performed her best songs, including Non! Je ne regrette rien (No! I'm not sorry for anything) is a poignant masterpiece whose verses were composed in September 1960 by the young poet Charles Dumont.

Last love, last concert

The singer met the 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 in the doorway, dressed all in black, with dark hair and the same eyes. Theo called himself and handed the sick little doll, explaining that this unusual toy from his native Greece will certainly bring good luck. From surprise Edith laughed ... The next day he came with flowers.

A few months later, Theo asked Edith if she would agree to marry him. At first, Piaf objected, but then agreed. For the sake of her beloved, Piaf converted to Orthodoxy. Their wedding took place on October 9, 1962 in the Orthodox Church, to which Theo belonged. Soon the happy newlywed gave a concert at the Paris Olympia. The audience, stunned with delight, shouted standing up: "Hip-hip-hurray, Edith!" And only Theo knew that Piaf stayed a maximum of a year. This verdict was revealed to him by the doctors.

In April 1963, the artist's liver failed and she was admitted to the Neuya hospital unconscious. After intensive treatment, the condition temporarily improved, the patient ordered herself to be taken south, to the village of Plaskasje, but it was already clear that she was doomed. Edith could not eat, suffered from pain, her weight melted to 34 kilograms.