50 Fun Facts About Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf's signature song, whose lyrics she wrote herself in 1945, is which?

It sold a million copies in the United States and entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

What was Édith Piaf's surname at birth?

Her father Louis Gassion was an acrobatic street performer from Normandy.

Piaf's first name was inspired by which British nurse, executed two months before her birth?

Cavell was shot by the Germans in 1915 for helping Allied soldiers escape occupied Belgium.

In French slang, what does 'piaf' mean?

Her first promoter coined the stage name; the fuller nickname 'La Môme Piaf' means 'The Sparrow Kid'.

How tall was Édith Piaf?

Her tiny frame and extreme stage nerves prompted Louis Leplée to nickname her the Sparrow Kid.

In which town was the brothel run by Piaf's grandmother, where prostitutes cared for her as a child?

The house had two floors and seven rooms, and its sub-mistress 'Madam Gaby' later became godmother to Piaf's half-sister.

Piaf claimed she was cured of childhood blindness after a pilgrimage honouring which saint?

The brothel's prostitutes reportedly pooled their money to take her; she had been blind from about age three to seven with keratitis.

At what age did Piaf join her father's acrobatic street act and begin singing in public?

A year later she met Simone 'Mômone' Berteaut, who later falsely claimed in a memoir to be her half-sister.

Piaf's only child, Marcelle, died in 1935 at the age of two from which illness?

Piaf had given birth at seventeen; Marcelle is buried with her at Père Lachaise.

Which nightclub owner discovered Piaf singing on the street in 1935?

He told her to wear a black dress on stage, which became her trademark for life.

Who led the band on the night of Piaf's nightclub debut in 1935?

His pianist that evening was Norbert Glanzberg, who later composed the melody of 'Padam, padam...'.

What happened to the nightclub owner who had discovered Piaf, in April 1936?

Piaf was questioned as an accessory and acquitted, but the scandal nearly ended her career.

After the Leplée scandal, which lyricist and lover rebuilt Piaf's image and renamed her Édith Piaf?

He commissioned Marguerite Monnot to write songs alluding to her old life on the streets.

Which composer, a lifelong Piaf collaborator, wrote one of her first two records in 1935?

She went on to write the music for 'Hymne à l'amour' and 'Milord'.

In 1940 Piaf co-starred in the one-act play Le Bel Indifférent, written by which poet and filmmaker?

Cocteau also wrote the foreword to her autobiography Au bal de la chance.

At the Moulin Rouge in 1944 Piaf worked with, and began an affair with, which singer-actor?

She wrote him the lyrics to 'What Can I Do?' in 1947 and within a year he was one of France's biggest stars.

Which Jewish musician, famous for 'L'Accordéoniste', did Piaf pay to bring into France for safety in the war?

Her Resistance-member secretary Andrée Bigard testified that she also helped prisoners escape from camps in Germany.

Who is credited with composing the music of 'La Vie en rose'?

Piaf wrote the words; the song was broadcast live before it was ever recorded.

Which singer's 1977 bossa nova version of 'La Vie en rose' became her first international hit?

It was the last single from her debut album Portfolio and her first release on Island Records.

How many versions of 'La Vie en rose' reached the Billboard charts in the United States in 1950?

Tony Martin, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Louis Armstrong were among those who recorded it.

Which French boxing champion did Piaf fall in love with during a 1947 tour of America?

He was the reigning middleweight world champion, married with three children, and the affair made headlines worldwide.

Piaf's boxer lover died in 1949 when his flight crashed during a stopover in which islands?

He was flying to see Piaf ahead of a rematch with Jake LaMotta; violinist Ginette Neveu died in the same crash.

Which song did Piaf record in May 1950 and dedicate to her lover killed in the 1949 air crash?

She wrote the words herself to music by Marguerite Monnot; Celine Dion sang it from the Eiffel Tower at the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.

Piaf's lover won the world middleweight title in 1948 by knocking out which champion?

He lost the belt to LaMotta in Detroit in June 1949 after dislocating his shoulder in the first round.

Piaf's 1951 car accident was with which young singer, then her assistant and protégé?

She broke an arm and two ribs, and the morphine prescribed afterwards became a lifelong dependency.

Who acted as matron of honour at Piaf's 1952 wedding to singer Jacques Pills?

Pills got Piaf into a detox clinic three times before they divorced in 1957.

Piaf's second husband, Théo Sarapo, was 20 years her junior and had formerly worked as what?

His stage name is a French rendering of the Greek for 'I love you', chosen by Piaf herself.

Théo Sarapo's stage name, chosen by Piaf, approximates a Greek phrase meaning what?

On her death French law passed her seven million francs of debts straight to him, and he was evicted on Christmas Day 1963.

Piaf and Sarapo had a hit duet in 1962 with which song?

Their last recording together, 'L'Homme de Berlin', was made in April 1963, months before her death.

Who composed 'Non, je ne regrette rien', the song Piaf first sang in her 1961 concerts?

She had rejected his songs for years and kept him waiting an hour that day, then declared it the song she had been waiting for.

Piaf dedicated her recording of 'Non, je ne regrette rien' to which body, which still sings it on parade?

The 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment sang it as they left barracks after the failed 1961 Algiers putsch collapsed.

For which singer was 'Non, je ne regrette rien' originally intended, as 'Non, je ne trouverai rien'?

Dumont changed the title with Piaf in mind, and her 1960 recording topped the French chart for seven weeks.

Who wrote the lyrics of 'Milord' (1959) while living with Piaf, at the age of about 24?

He said Piaf summoned the press to Maxim's to present him as its author; the song went to number one in Germany.

In which country did 'Milord' reach number one in July 1960 and rank among the year's biggest sellers?

It managed only number 16 in the UK and number 88 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which composer, pianist at Piaf's 1935 debut, wrote the melody of 'Padam, padam...' in 1942?

Henri Contet added the words later, and Piaf released it in 1951 as a waltz built around a heartbeat.

How many times did Piaf appear on The Ed Sullivan Show?

American audiences were cool at first until critic Virgil Thomson's glowing 1947 review; she also played Carnegie Hall in 1956 and 1957.

Which Paris music hall did Piaf's 1961 concerts help save from bankruptcy?

Excerpts from five of those concerts were issued on record and have never been out of print.

What was the title of Piaf's last recorded song, made with Théo Sarapo in 1963?

Soon afterwards she slipped into a coma from liver cancer and was nursed at her villa on the Riviera.

How old was Édith Piaf when she died on 10 October 1963?

Sarapo reportedly drove her body secretly from the Riviera to Paris so fans would believe she died in her hometown.

In which Paris cemetery is Piaf buried, in one of its most visited graves?

She shares the tomb with her daughter Marcelle, her father and Théo Sarapo; the inscription translates as 'Love Conquers All'.

Why was Piaf denied a Catholic Requiem Mass in 1963?

Cardinal Feltin's refusal was reversed fifty years later with a Mass in the Belleville parish where she was born.

Per a fellow singer, Piaf's funeral was the only time since the war that what happened in Paris?

More than 100,000 fans attended the ceremony at the cemetery.

Who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Piaf in the 2007 film La Vie en Rose?

It was the first Oscar ever given for a French-language performance; the film's original French title is La Môme.

Who directed the 2007 Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose?

He wrote the script with Cotillard in mind after noticing a likeness between her eyes and Piaf's in a photograph.

Which director made the 1983 film Édith et Marcel about Piaf's romance with Cerdan?

Piaf's life has inspired numerous films, from Guy Casaril's Piaf in 1974 to Monsieur Aznavour in 2024.

Which English playwright's 1978 play Piaf ran for 165 performances in London and New York?

Elaine Paige later played the lead in a 1994 revival and released a Piaf album to match.

In which Paris district, Édith Piaf's birthplace, is there a Place Édith Piaf?

The square was inaugurated in 1978, and a two-room fan-run museum has operated in a Paris apartment since 1977.

Which Argentine folk guitarist-singer did Piaf give a Paris debut alongside her in July 1950?

Around the same time she launched Charles Aznavour's career by taking him on tour and recording his songs.

Piaf died in 1963 at her villa in which French Riviera village?

Théo Sarapo reportedly drove her body secretly to Paris so fans would believe she died in her home city.

Simone Berteaut's 1969 biography of Piaf contained which false claim about the author?

Berteaut, nicknamed Mômone, was a longtime friend who nursed Piaf in her final months.