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 would receive twenty years later).
Her mother, Annetta Giovanna Maillard (1898 – 1945), was a partly-Italian 17-year-old girl, native of Livorno, working as a café singer under the pseudonym Line Marsa; from her, Édith took the middle name of Giovanna. Her father, Louis-Alphonse Gassion (1881 – 1944), was a street acrobat with a theatrical past. The little Édith was soon abandoned and left for a short time to her maternal grandmother, Mena (probably a Kabyle). Shortly after, Édith's father brought the child to his mother, who ran a brothel in Normandy, and then joined the French Army (1916). Thus Édith was in contact with the prostitutes and the various attenders of the brothel since her early years, a circumstance which must have had a deep impact on her personality and vision of life.
From the age of three to seven she was blind. As part of Piaf's legend, she allegedly recovered her sight after her grandmother's prostitutes went on a pilgrimage to Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. In 1929 she joined her father in his acrobatic street performances. Then took a room at Grand Hôtel de Clermont (18 rue Veron, Paris 18ème) and separated from him, going her own way as a street singer in Pigalle, Ménilmontant and Paris suburbs (cf. the song "Elle fréquentait la Rue Pigalle"). She was about 16 years of age when she fell in love with a delivery-boy, Louis Dupont, and shortly after had a child, a little girl named Marcelle. Sadly, Marcelle died in infancy of meningitis.
In 1935, Édith was discovered in the Pigalle area of Paris by the nightclub owner Louis Leplée, whose club was frequented by the upper and lower classes alike. He persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness, which, combined with her height of only 4' 8" (142 cm) inspired him to give her the nickname that would stay with her for the rest of her life and become her stage name: La Môme Piaf (The Little Sparrow). Her first record was produced in the same year. Shortly afterwards, Leplée was murdered and Piaf was accused of being an accessory; she was acquitted.
In 1940, Jean Cocteau wrote the successful play Le Bel Indifférent for her to star in. She began to make friends with famous people, such as the actor Maurice Chevalier and the poet Jacques Borgeat. She wrote the lyrics of many of her songs, and collaborated with composers on the tunes.
Her signature song, "La vie en rose" (which was voted a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998) was written in the middle of the German occupation of Paris in World War II. During this time, she was in great demand and very successful. She befriended many high-ranking Germans and sang for them. It is said that she collaborated with the Nazis, too. After the war, she toured Europe, the United States, and South America, becoming an internationally known figure. Her popularity in the U.S. was such that she appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show eight times. She helped to launch the career of Charles Aznavour, taking him on tour with her in France and the United States.
The great love of Piaf's life, the boxer Marcel Cerdan, died in 1949. Piaf was married twice. Her first husband was Jacques Pills, a singer; they married in 1952 and divorced in 1956. Her second husband, Theophanis Lamboukas (also known as Théo Sarapo), was a hairdresser-turned-singer and actor, and was twenty years younger than Piaf; they married in 1962.
In 1951 she was in a car accident, and thereafter had difficulty breaking a serious morphine habit.
The Paris Olympia is the place where Piaf achieved fame and where, just a few months before her death, she gave one of her most memorable concerts while barely able to stand. In early 1963, Piaf recorded her last song, "L'homme de Berlin".
At the early age of 47, Piaf died of cancer in Plascassier, on the French riviera, on October 10, 1963. Her friend Jean Cocteau, very shocked and afflicted by her death, died a few hours later. Her body was returned to Paris where her death was only announced on October 11, the official date of her death. She was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris. Although she was forbidden a Mass by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris (because of her lifestyle), her funeral procession drew hundreds of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the cemetery was jammed with more than forty thousand fans. Charles Aznavour recalled that Piaf's funeral procession was the only time, since the end of World War II, that Parisian traffic came to a complete stop.
There is a museum dedicated to Piaf, the Musée Édith Piaf at 5, rue Crespin du Gast, 75011, Paris.
Today she is still remembered and revered as one of the greatest singers France has ever produced. Her life was one of sharp contrasts: the range of her fame as opposed to her tragic personal life, and her fragile small figure on stage with the resounding power of her voice.
Une Valse
Édith Piaf Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Une étrange valse
Tient toute la place
Dans ma rêverie
Et dans ma vie,
Elle évoque
Une lointaine époque,
Un décor baroque,
Et ses folies
Et j'invente
Une ville immense
Qui chante et qui danse
Le Saint-Pétersbourg
Des nuits blanches.
Je m'évade,
Roulée dans ces vagues,
Touchée par la grâce.
Je ferme les yeux.
C'est merveilleux
Et ma valse
Tourne dans les glaces
De tout un palace
D'or et de cristal,
Ces soirs de bal.
Robe longue,
Envol de colombe,
La lumière et l'ombre,
Tout tourne à la fois
Autour de moi.
J'ai la fièvre
De sang sur mes lèvres
Le feu de la fête.
Je ne sais plus bien
Si je rêve
Et je danse
Dans ma robe blanche,
Deux doigts sous la manche
D'un jeune aspirant.
J'ai dix-sept ans.
Cette valse,
Ce n'est que la valse
Que l'orchestre en face,
Dans ce cabaret,
Joue sans arrêt.
Mon beau prince
N'est ni grand, ni mince.
Dans le froid qui pince,
Il fait son métier.
C'est le portier
Du ciel pâle.
Une neige sale
Descend en rafales
Et tombe sans bruit
Sur Pigalle
Les enseignes
En lettres qui saignent
S'allument et s'éteignent
Au cœur de Paris
Hôtel de Russie
Hôtel de Russie
Hôtel de Russie
The song Une Valse by Edith Piaf is about the power and effect of music and dance on the singer. It begins with the singer dreaming of a waltz - "A strange waltz holds all the place in my reverie and in my life" - and the imagery of the waltz brings to mind a bygone era, a baroque setting, and the "old Russia" with all its follies. The singer fantasizes about an immense city that sings and dances in the style of Saint-Petersburg, that has a feverish energy and a sense of life and celebration.
As the song continues, the singer is completely submerged in the waltz, and feels like she is being carried away by the waves, touched by grace. The waltz becomes a symbol of the singer's youth, and the memories of past ballroom events come back to her. She feels like a young girl again, wearing a long dress, surrounded by light and shadow, and everything turning around her. The singer has fever on her lips and the fire of the party inside of her, and she is not sure if she is dreaming or not as she dances with a young man.
The last verse of the song brings the singer back to reality, and we realize that she was not at a ball in the palace of St. Petersburg, but in a cabaret on Pigalle. The waltz she was experiencing was just the one being played by the band in front of her, and her dance partner was just the porter of the hotel de Russie. We are left with the contrast between the beauty and fantasy of the waltz, and the grime of the city streets.
Overall, Une Valse is a song about the power of music and dance to transport us to another time and place, and how it can create a sense of nostalgia and longing for the past.
Line by Line Meaning
Une valse,
A waltz,
Une étrange valse
A strange waltz
Tient toute la place
Occupies all the space
Dans ma rêverie
In my daydream
Et dans ma vie,
And in my life,
Elle évoque
It evokes
Une lointaine époque,
A distant era,
Un décor baroque,
A baroque set,
L'ancienne Russie
Old Russia
Et ses folies
And its follies
Et j'invente
And I invent
Une ville immense
A huge city
Qui chante et qui danse
That sings and dances
Le Saint-Pétersbourg
St. Petersburg
Des nuits blanches.
Of white nights.
Je m'évade,
I escape,
Roulée dans ces vagues,
Rolled in these waves,
Touchée par la grâce.
Touched by grace.
Je ferme les yeux.
I close my eyes.
C'est merveilleux
It's wonderful
Et ma valse
And my waltz
Tourne dans les glaces
Turns in the ice
De tout un palace
Of a whole palace
D'or et de cristal,
Of gold and crystal,
Ces soirs de bal.
These ball nights.
Robe longue,
Long dress,
Envol de colombe,
Flight of a dove,
La lumière et l'ombre,
Light and shade,
Tout tourne à la fois
Everything turns at once
Autour de moi.
Around me.
J'ai la fièvre
I have a fever
De sang sur mes lèvres
Of blood on my lips
Le feu de la fête.
The fire of the party.
Je ne sais plus bien
I don't really know
Si je rêve
If I'm dreaming
Et je danse
And I dance
Dans ma robe blanche,
In my white dress,
Deux doigts sous la manche
Two fingers under the sleeve
D'un jeune aspirant.
Of a young aspiring.
J'ai dix-sept ans.
I'm seventeen.
Cette valse,
This waltz,
Ce n'est que la valse
It's just the waltz
Que l'orchestre en face,
That the band across the street,
Dans ce cabaret,
In this cabaret,
Joue sans arrêt.
Plays non-stop.
Mon beau prince
My handsome prince
N'est ni grand, ni mince.
Is neither tall nor slim.
Dans le froid qui pince,
In the biting cold,
Il fait son métier.
He does his job.
C'est le portier
He's the doorman
Du ciel pâle.
Of the pale sky.
Une neige sale
Dirty snow
Descend en rafales
Falls in gusts
Et tombe sans bruit
And falls silently
Sur Pigalle
On Pigalle.
Les enseignes
The signs,
En lettres qui saignent
In bleeding letters
S'allument et s'éteignent
Light up and go out
Au cœur de Paris
In the heart of Paris
Hôtel de Russie
Hotel de Russie
Hôtel de Russie
Hotel de Russie
Hôtel de Russie
Hotel de Russie
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: CHARLES GASTON DUMONT, JACQUES PLANTE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Paulo Ricardo de Sousa Carmo
Plus une magnifique chanson par Edith Piaf! Oui, mais cette est vraiment espécial, éternelle, magnifique, merveilleuse, très jolie!... Mon Dieu! Quelle chanson!
ZETA
el gorrión de paris