The story goes that after her mother died Edith Giovanna Gassion went to live with her grandmother who ran a brothel in Normandy. When she was between the ages of 3 and 7 she was struck blind and it was only through the prayers of the prostitutes working for her grandmother that she regained her sight. It continues with her moving back to Paris to live with her alcoholic father. By the age of fifteen she was living on the streets supporting herself as a singer.
It was there she was discovered by Louis Leplee whose nightclub attracted all of Paris, and it was he who is credited with naming her La Mome Piaf, The Little Sparrow. When he was murdered a year latter, she was charged with being an accessory, but was acquitted. Some facts are verifiable, like that she was born on December 19th 1915 and died on October 11th in 1963, and maybe somewhere in the dusty archives of the Paris police force lies an old arrest report, but Edith Piaf's early life has become the stuff of legend over the years.
If anyone has ever deserved legendary status, perhaps it was this waif from the streets of Paris who captured the hearts of her countrymen, and after World War Two, North America and Hollywood fell at her feet. She stayed in France during the war, and while her public face was that of a willing performer for the occupation troops her assistance to the resistance was so well known that never has there been the faintest hint or suggestion that she was a collaborator. She would have pictures taken of herself with French prisoners of war, who in turn would cut their image out of the photo to use on forged identity papers to help them escape.
While all of this has added to her reputation and her legend, it was her singing that really mattered. It was her voice that saved her from the gutter and carried her up to the stars, and it's her voice that still lives on in the hearts and minds of people all over the world. A tribute album released in 1994, Tribute To Edith Piaf, featuring signers ranging from Donna Summers to Willy DeVille offering up their renditions of her music, showed just how far her influence spread.
Of course Europe has always been where she was first appreciated and where her influence has run the deepest, so it shouldn't be of much surprise that the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival would stage a tribute concert in her honour. Now as part of their Live At Montreux series of DVD presentations Eagle Rock Entertainment has released A Tribute To Edith Piaf that was presented in 2004.
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