Edith Piaf

Edith Piaf is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Still revered as an icon decades after her death, "the Sparrow" served as a touchstone for virtually every chansonnier, male or female, who followed her. Her greatest strength wasn't so much her technique, or the purity of her voice, but the raw, passionate power of her singing. (Given her extraordinarily petite size, audiences marveled all the more at the force of her vocals.) Her style epitomized that of the classic French chanson: highly emotional, even melodramatic, with a wide, rapid vibrato that wrung every last drop of sentiment from a lyric. She preferred melancholy, mournful material, singing about heartache, tragedy, poverty, and the harsh reality of life on the streets; much of it was based to some degree on her real-life experiences, written specifically for her by an ever-shifting cast of songwriters.

Edith Piaf is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Still revered as an icon decades after her death, "the Sparrow" served as a touchstone for virtually every chansonnier, male or female, who followed her. Her greatest strength wasn't so much her technique, or the purity of her voice, but the raw, passionate power of her singing…

Edith Piaf, performing her greatest songs 60 years after her passing, accompanied in London by a symphonic orchestra of 60 musicians… What could be considered science fiction has become a reality thanks to renowned musicians, arrangers, and sound engineers. They took on the challenge of creating new orchestrations capable of resonating with today's ears without compromising the nostalgia of their predecessors. By technically isolating her voice, they have allowed the refrains of yesteryears to prove that they remain as immortal as their interpreter. Edith Piaf's iconic voice was meticulously extracted from the original masters by a team of sound engineers working at the legendary Abbey Road studio in London.

Une centaine de lettres échangées par Edith Piaf et Jacques Bourgeat, l'auteur de sa première chanson, devenu son ami et confident. Dans cette correspondance, qui s'étend sur plus de vingt ans, la chanteuse évoque sa recherche du bonheur, les hommes, ses amours déçues, avec, en arrière-fond, quelques allusions aux événements politiques. …