Aznavour has sung for presidents, popes and royalty, as well as at humanitarian events. In response to the 1988 Armenian earthquake, he founded the charitable organization Aznavour for Armenia along with his long-time friend impresario Levon Sayan. In 2009, he was appointed ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland, as well as Armenia's permanent delegate to the United Nations at Geneva. On 24 August 2017, Aznavour was awarded the 2,618th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On 17 September 2018, his last concert took place in NHK Hall, Tokyo.
Charles Aznavour died on 1 October 2018.
Charles Aznavour was perhaps the best-known French music hall entertainer in the world -- renowned the world over for the bittersweet love songs he has written and sung, which seem to embody the essence of French popular song, and also for his appearances on screen in such wildly divergent fare as Shoot the Piano Player, Candy, and The Tin Drum. His status as the quintessential French popular culture icon is something of an irony for a man who identifies himself most closely with his Armenian heritage. His father was a singer and sometime-restaurateur, while his mother was an actress and part-time seamstress. His father's singing, done in a notably impassioned style, heavily influenced Aznavour's approach to singing as a boy. Although he had a voracious appetite for music, he also had a serious impediment growing up, in the form of a paralyzed vocal cord that gave his voice a raspy quality. He channeled some of his energy into theater, making both his stage and screen debuts at age nine, in 1933, in the theater piece Un bon petit diable and in the film La guerre des gosses. As an adolescent, he danced in nightclubs and sold newspapers, as well as touring with theatrical companies, and he wrote a nightclub act in partnership with Pierre Roche -- Aznavour wrote the lyrics to their songs and it was through that material that he began his singing career. Early on, he learned to overcome his fears about his vocal limitations, in part with help from singing legend Édith Piaf, for whom he worked as a chauffeur, among other capacities; with her help, he developed a style that suited his capabilities and played to his strengths and also continued writing songs in earnest, some of which were performed by Piaf.
His success came very slowly, however. Aznavour at first found some difficulty being accepted as a composer in France or anywhere else. His compositions, although considered tame by any modern standard, were regarded as too risqué for French radio and were banned from the airwaves for a decade or more, from the late '40s through the end of the 1950s; American publishers seemed equally reticent about them, as he discovered on a visit to New York in 1948. That trip did yield his first performing engagement in the city, however, at the Cafe Society Downtown in Greenwich Village. For the next decade, Aznavour made his living as a performer in second-tier clubs and middle- or bottom-of-the-bill berths on three continents. His mix of daringly original and frank love songs, coupled with a limited but very expressive singing style, left audiences somewhat bewildered at first.
His breakthrough came in 1956, during a vaudeville engagement in Casablanca, where the audience reaction was so positive that Aznavour was moved to headliner status. After this, it became easier for the singer to find better engagements in France; by 1958 he even had a recording contract. He made his screen debut that same year in a dramatic role, playing an epileptic in George Franju's La tête contre les murs. He also composed music for Alex Joff's Du rififi chez les femmes in 1958; From there, he moved on to bigger roles in better movies, including Jean Cocteau's Testament of Orpheus and Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player. The latter movie turned Aznavour into a screen star in France and opened the way for his breakthrough in America. He sang at Carnegie Hall in the early '60s and followed this up in 1965 with a one-man show, The World of Charles Aznavour, at the Ambassador Hotel in New York, which drew rave notices from audiences and critics alike. By that time, the once-struggling singer had secured his first American LP release with the similarly titled album The World of Charles Aznavour on Reprise Records, the label founded and run by Frank Sinatra.
Aznavour would be the last to compare himself with those whom he regards as truly gifted vocalists, such as Sinatra and Mel Tormé, preferring to think of himself as a composer who also happens to sing. His style of performing has been compared variously to Maurice Chevalier and Sinatra and has remained enduringly popular for four decades. Almost all of Aznavour's songs deal with love and its permutations, running the gamut from upbeat, joyous pieces such as Après l'amour and J'ai perdu la tête to the dark-hued J'en déduis que je t'aime and Bon anniversaire. A teetotaler and a racing car enthusiast, Aznavour has been married three times and has four children.
Je T'attends
Charles Aznavour Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Et pleure le temps
Ma raison sombre et se meurt
Quand meurt le temps
Ce temps mort que je regrette
Tant et tant
Car sans joie ma vie s'arrête
Et je t'attends
J'attends l'air que je respire
Et le printemps
J'attends mes éclats de rire
Et mes vingt ans
Mes mers calmes et mes tempêtes
En même temps
Car sans joie ma vie s'arrête
Et je t'attends
Je t'attends
Viens ne tarde pas
D'où que tu viennes, qui que tu sois
Viens le temps est court
Je t'attends
Mon rêve inconnu
Quel est ton nom, quel est ton but
Le mien c'est l'amour
Pour que mes jours se transforment
Et que vraiment
Ma vie par toi prenne forme
A chaque instant
Parce que le vide me hante
Avec mon sang
Comme un peintre je t'invente
Et je t'attends
Mes doigts par petites touches
Font tes dents
Avant de croquer ta bouche
Éperdument
Mais ces rêves ne me laissent
Que tourments
Car je traîne ma détresse
Et je t'attends
In Charles Aznavour's song Je T'Attends, the singer talks about his days passing and his nights filled with tears due to the loss of time. He believes that his reason is sinking and dying as time dies as well. He regrets the loss of time and realizes that without joy, his life comes to a stop. He waits for the air that he breathes and the coming of spring, waiting for his outpouring of laughter and his youthful days. He awaits peaceful seas and raging storms, together because without joy, his life stops.
He eagerly awaits an unknown dream that he believes will transform him and give his life meaning, even inventing it like a painter. He pictures his dream in his mind through his finger's touches and imagines his future with her. He dreams of passionately biting her lips and sharing an intense love with her. However, he realizes that these dreams bring him torments because he is still waiting for her.
Line by Line Meaning
Mes jours passent, mes nuits pleurent
My days go by, my nights are filled with tears
Et pleure le temps
And time weeps
Ma raison sombre et se meurt
My reason sinks and dies
Quand meurt le temps
As time dies
Ce temps mort que je regrette
This dead time that I regret
Tant et tant
So much so
Car sans joie ma vie s'arrête
Because without joy, my life stops
Et je t'attends
And I wait for you
J'attends l'air que je respire
I wait for the air I breathe
Et le printemps
And for spring
J'attends mes éclats de rire
I wait for my bursts of laughter
Et mes vingt ans
And for my twenties
Mes mers calmes et mes tempêtes
My calm seas and my storms
En même temps
At the same time
Je t'attends
I wait for you
Viens ne tarde pas
Come, do not delay
D'où que tu viennes, qui que tu sois
Wherever you come from, whoever you are
Viens le temps est court
Come, time is short
Je t'attends
I wait for you
Mon rêve inconnu
My unknown dream
Quel est ton nom, quel est ton but
What is your name, what is your purpose
Le mien c'est l'amour
Mine is love
Pour que mes jours se transforment
So that my days are transformed
Et que vraiment
And truly
Ma vie par toi prenne forme
My life takes shape because of you
A chaque instant
At every moment
Parce que le vide me hante
Because emptiness haunts me
Avec mon sang
With my blood
Comme un peintre je t'invente
Like a painter, I invent you
Et je t'attends
And I wait for you
Mes doigts par petites touches
My fingers with small touches
Font tes dents
Make your teeth
Avant de croquer ta bouche
Before biting your mouth
Éperdument
Madly
Mais ces rêves ne me laissent
But these dreams do not let me
Que tourments
Do anything but torment me
Car je traîne ma détresse
Because I drag my sorrow
Et je t'attends
And I wait for you
Lyrics © EDITIONS MUSICALES DJANIK, Universal Music Publishing Group, UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING MGB FRANCE, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: ABRAMO ITALO FERRARIO, CHARLES AZNAOURIAN, GILBERT FRANCOIS LEOPOLD BECAUD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind