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.
Mourir d'aimer
Charles Aznavour Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Je m'y accroche mais je glisse
Lentement vers ma destinée
Mourir d'aimer
Tandis que le monde me juge
Je ne vois pour moi qu'un refuge
Toute issue m'étant condamnée
Mourir d'aimer
De plein gré s'enfoncer dans la nuit
Payer l'amour au prix de sa vie
Pécher contre le corps mais non contre l'esprit
Laissons le monde à ses problèmes
Les gens haineux face à eux-mêmes
Avec leurs petites idées
Mourir d'aimer
Puisque notre amour ne peut vivre
Mieux vaut en refermer le livre
Et plutôt que de le brûler
Mourir d'aimer
Partir en redressant la tête
Sortir vainqueur d'une défaite
Renverser toutes les données
Mourir d'aimer
Mourir d'aimer
Comme on le peut de n'importe quoi
Abandonner tout derrière soi
Pour n'emporter que ce qui fut nous, qui fut toi
Tu es le printemps, moi l'automne
Ton cœur se prend, le mien se donne
Et ma route est déjà tracée
Mourir d'aimer
Mourir d'aimer
Mourir d'aimer
The lyrics of Charles Aznavour's "Mourir d'aimer" (To Die of Love) deal with a theme that has often been explored in literature and the arts; the paradox of love and the risks it entails. The singer of the song confesses that despite his best efforts, he is still slipping, inevitably, towards his fate, or rather, towards the fate that love, or the lack of it, seems to have designed for him. The metaphor he uses, of the smooth walls of his life, suggests a suffocating emptiness, or at least, a lack of challenge, and purpose. He sees no other refuge, but to be judged, and to judge himself, and to commit the ultimate sacrifice, death, for love.
The song is a contemplation of the different ways in which someone can "die of love," from the quiet acceptance of one's fate, to the final rejection of life. It's an ode to the melodramatic, or how love, in its most extreme, can make us feel alive, or rather, give us a reason to live or die. The singer dismisses the small-minded, the haters, and those who would seek to judge him with their "petites idées" and instead prefers to embrace death and renounce the physical world, for the sake of preserving a pure and meaningful love that can only exist beyond the flesh.
Line by Line Meaning
Les parois de ma vie sont lisses
My life is smooth and stable, but I am losing my grip and slowly sliding towards my inevitable fate
Je m'y accroche mais je glisse
Although I try to hold on, I'm still slipping away
Lentement vers ma destinée
Slowly towards my destiny
Mourir d'aimer
To die from love
Tandis que le monde me juge
While the world judges me
Je ne vois pour moi qu'un refuge
I only see one refuge for myself
Toute issue m'étant condamnée
With every way out condemned for me
Mourir d'aimer
To die from love
De plein gré s'enfoncer dans la nuit
To willingly sink into the night
Payer l'amour au prix de sa vie
To pay for love with one's life
Pécher contre le corps mais non contre l'esprit
To sin against the body but not the soul
Laissons le monde à ses problèmes
Let's leave the world to its problems
Les gens haineux face à eux-mêmes
Hateful people facing themselves
Avec leurs petites idées
With their small-minded ideas
Mourir d'aimer
To die from love
Puisque notre amour ne peut vivre
Since our love cannot live
Mieux vaut en refermer le livre
It's better to close the book on it
Et plutôt que de le brûler
And instead of burning it
Mourir d'aimer
To die from love
Partir en redressant la tête
To leave with my head held high
Sortir vainqueur d'une défaite
To be victorious in defeat
Renverser toutes les données
To reverse all the odds
Mourir d'aimer
To die from love
Comme on le peut de n'importe quoi
As one could from anything else
Abandonner tout derrière soi
To leave everything behind
Pour n'emporter que ce qui fut nous, qui fut toi
To only take what was us, what was you
Tu es le printemps, moi l'automne
You are spring, I am autumn
Ton cœur se prend, le mien se donne
Your heart takes, mine gives
Et ma route est déjà tracée
And my path is already set
Mourir d'aimer
To die from love
Mourir d'aimer
To die from love
Mourir d'aimer
To die from love
Lyrics © EDITIONS MUSICALES DJANIK
Written by: Charles Aznavour
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@arthurmathieu7644
Je ne suis qu'un adolescent, mais cette chanson me bouleverse. Il est évident que nous ne connaissons pas de tels talents de nos jours. Quelle mélodie, quelle magie qui imprègne chacun de ces mots ... j'ignore si nous sommes nombreux dans notre génération à écouter cette perle, mais je ferai tout pour la faire résonner encore et encore
@ysatisjosycl1111
Je vous admire. C’est rare de voir un jeune, de nos jours, s'intéresser aux textes ; à cette mélodie datant de plusieurs décennies, aussi belle que mélancolique. Cela démontre que vous êtes sensible aux mots, à la poésie et aux auteurs à textes. La véritable histoire qui a inspiré cette chanson à Aznavour était un drame, relayé par les journaux français dans les années 1970, mais qui a ému le monde entier.
@sandrofabbri2036
bravo a toi jeune homme j' ai pris une claque quand je l'ai entendue la première fois aussi
@marioargentieri1778
BRAVISSIMO!!!!!!! Sei un
ragazzo intelligente e ricco
di sensibilità,Complimenti!!!
@vieuxcoeur4669
Connaissez-vous le film "Mourir d'aimer", inspiré d'une histoire vraie et pour lequel cette chanson fut écrite?
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourir_d%27aimer_(film,_1971)
@helenesurry6188
Il me semble qu'elle accompagne le magnifique film avec Annie Girardot qui interprète une enseignante vivant une histoire d'amour avec un de ses élèves. Evidemment largement condamné par le public à l'époque (et encore de nos jours) Je vous conseille vivement de le voir
@annaservant543
Toujours autant de frissons lorsque j'écoute cette magnifique chanson 😢
@fabricewilson8814
Moi aussi j'ai des frissons c'était un grand monsieur ❤
@nadabritel2096
Il a su faire emerger nos emotions et faire vibrer nos coeurs.
Paix à son âme !
Repose en paix ! Tu continues à vivre en chacune de tes chansons.
@alexandrelejeune446
Absolument , quel bonheur de l'écouter.