Cabaret was a lot more influential than most people understand. And one of the most memorable cabaret performers of all time was the incomparable, attention-grabbing French artist Edith Piaf.
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If you’ve never heard of Edith Piaf, you’re certainly not alone. Her heyday was in the era of black and white film, after all. But her legacy continues today, and like the modern-day rock stars of our own generation, she was a very complex woman with a lot of good and bad going on in her life.
Edith Piaf’s Life Was… Complicated
Edith Piaf had a rough childhood, like many of the greatest musicians and performers of the last century or so. She was abandoned by her mother at a young age, forced to grow up in a brothel under the care of her grandmother in Normandy. She was, more or less, raised by prostitutes for most of her childhood. Piaf also struggled with bouts of physical blindness as a child as well, which she said inspired her ability to “see” sounds and songs.
“I always thought my days spent in darkness gave me a very special sensitivity,” Piaf once said.
As a teenager, Piaf travelled around France with her father in an acrobatic troup, where she began singing on the streets of Paris. She would soon date a man named Louis Dupont and have her daughter, Marcell.
Piaf struggled with her identity as a mother, considering her own mother abandoned her. As a result, she cared for her daughter with money and no real emotional connection. Piaf would go on to live a life full of smokey clubs, endless streams of liquor, and constant performing. She would go on to say that her promiscuous tendencies would stem from her upbringing.
A nightclub owner named Louis Lepelee would eventually whisk Piaf into the life of a club singer, which would then catapult her into international fame as a recording artist, performer, and cabaret superstar. She would later be accused of collaborating with Germans during their occupation of France, which only adds to the rapid-fire madness that was her admittedly rock-star-adjacent life.
Edith Piaf influenced music in a big way. She influenced French culture with her vulnerable songs, and she’s still seen as representative of France’s spirit today. She was a cultural ambassador of sorts for the country, and she brought French aesthetics outside of Europe. Considering her complicated life, she might have even influenced the rock star lifestyle that still exists today.
Photo by Gaston Paris/Roger Viollet via Getty Images
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