French Celebrities Bio | Edith Piaf - the singing sparrow

As anyone who has seen the biopic la Vie en Rose – featuring the quite extraordinary, Oscar-winning portrayal by Marion Cotillard of the down-on-her-luck, diminutive warbler Edith Piaf– the singing sparrow had a less that lucky roll of the dice at most stages of her life.

Though mystery shrouds much of her early autobiographical details, it is widely held – and it certainly does no harm to her enduring legend – that she was born of Italian descent Édith Giovanna Gassion on the pavement in the Belleville district of Paris in 1915.

Before long the stories of a pitiful childhood emerged – living in poverty and temporarily blinded by keratitis, she literally ran away to the circus, joining her father’s street acrobat show with a singing spot.

She soon went her own way, singing in La Pigalle district. She had a child at 17 who dies of meningitis aged just two months, before hooking up with a pimp who took commission form her singing.

Things looked up by 1935 when Louis Leplée, a club owner, gave her regular singing work. It was he who gave her the nickname La Môme Piaf – The Waif Sparrow – that would stay with her.

The misery continued when Leplée was murdered (the singer was questioned in connection but gangsters were responsible), but Piaf got her career back on track with the help of Raymond Asso. In a remarkable turnaround she collaborated with the likes of Maurice Chevalier and Yves Montand and was soon the hot ticket in Paris and off touring Europe, the USA and South America.

The war years brought both controversy – she was often found performing at Nazi social events, though she claimed to be in league with the Resistance – and success (1945 saw her signature tune la Vie en Rose written).

After a couple more marriages and a slow decline in health and bookings, she died of liver cancer aged just 47. Her funeral was attended by 100,000 people and her grave is at Père Lachaise in Paris.

Author: C.Lewis

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