The Tragic & Beautiful Life of Edith Piaf
How Edith Piaf inspired me to live my life to the fullest.
It’s the fourth summer in a row that I visited Paris. Every time I returned, I set out on a long walk, plug in my earbuds, and crank up Edith Piaf.
Every romanticized idea and feeling I had about France would flourish within me. In my mind I was jumping around and dancing in the streets, jamming on the accordion, screaming the words to the world. When I listened to Edith, I believed in love, romance, and experiencing life.
As I wandered aimlessly through the streets I found myself outside Père Lachaise Cemetery where many famous artists are buried, including Edith. In a daze I made my way towards her grave. She rests on a spot I had memorized after roaming in its hundred acre maze. At the bottom of the hill where her grave lies, there is a bench. I would sit on that bench, stare up at the hill and listen to her music. I felt a connection between us in this magical place and swear that she was sitting there with me.
You have to understand that I have a very special connection with Edith Piaf.
She was the first French artist I learned about when I started studying French in school. I fell in love with her right away. It was a coup de foudre. We watched La Vie en Rose, a film about Edith’s life and I was transfixed immediately. It was her heartbreaking backstory and powerful and magnificent voice that brought chills down my spine.
A Belle Vie
Edith Giovanna Gassion was born in the streets of Paris in 1915.
Abandoned by her mother, she was passed off to her grandmother who owned a brothel. She was raised by prostitutes.
Singing in the streets as a teenager became her livelihood. She was discovered by Louis Leplée who owned a nightclub near the Champs-Elysées.
This is where her career began. She started singing in different clubs, gained an audience, a mentor, and even a stage name: La Môme Piaf, The Little Sparrow. Later she would be known as Edith Piaf.
She was 4 foot 8 but had a voice as powerful as a freight train.
Her career really launched in the 40’s as she started singing in bigger venues and became one of France’s most successful singers worldwide. She played at Carnegie Hall, Paris Olympia, toured around Europe, and the Americas. She was an international superstar.
She was a legend.
But her life was shadowed by a dark cloud of tragedy and bad luck.
Everyone important in her life died. The love of her life, boxer Marcel Cerdan, died in a plane crash coming to see her. She had drug problems. Her health deteriorated rapidly after getting into multiple car accidents. She collapsed on stage during her last tour.
Edith wanted to sing until the day she died because once she could no longer sing, her life was over. And even through seeing the love of her life die, she continued moving forward.
But she collapsed on stage too many times. It became known as her suicide tour . She could no longer perform. She became bedridden and her liver started to fail as all of the medications and alcohol abuse caught up with her.
Edith died at 47.
One of my favorite songs she ever performed was Hymne à l’amour.
If one day, life tears you away from me
If you die, and you are far from me
Nothing matters if you love me
Because I will die also
And we will have eternity for us
In the blue of all immensity
In the sky no more problems
My love do you think we love each other
God reunites those who love. — Edith Piaf
God reunites those who love.
As I’m sitting at the bottom of this hill, I pray that Edith has been reunited with Marcel. And I think of what she did for me.
She lit a fire within me, a passion for all things French. She told me to have no regrets. To attack life and keep pushing forward no matter what cards life deals you.
She was that little voice in my ear saying, “Go to France, Charlotte! Have that adventure, and don’t look back.”
She became the inspiration for a one-woman show that I created in her life. This show became one of the biggest coping outlets I had for when my dad was dying. I acted out her own tragedy with Marcel, but for me it became my story with my dad.
She helped me through the biggest loss of my life.
She was beautifully flawed. Beautifully human. And completely unashamed about who she was or where she came from.
She taught me that anything is possible, the sky’s the limit, and I need to attack life and give it all I’ve got.
Merci, Edith.
