Édith Piaf, the incomparable French singer

Why victim? For many reasons. Because he had no home; Because his father, a circus juggler, was an alcoholic and his mother was a mediocre singer first, also an acrobat and prostitute later. Because Edith Piaf was never in good health. Furthermore, until he was 17, he did not know how to read or write.

Also, because his only daughter died of meningitis at the age of 2. But I don’t want to dwell on this list of misfortunes.

I prefer to enter into his artistic life, in which he found fame, money, honors.

But it is known that when a great pain hurtsa great happiness, does not erase the wound.

At 15 years old he sang in the streets of Paris, as some do on our Florida street in Buenos Aires. A younger sister then passed around a hat collecting some money.

A businessman from a famous Paris cabaret accidentally passed by there. He stopped to listen to her.

-Why do you sing so loud? You will ruin your throat.

-I have to eat, Mr.

-Come see me tomorrow. The businessman told him and gave him a card.

Eight days later, Edith Piaf made her debut before the Parisian public.

Dazzle immediately with his voice pathetic yes, but warm, caressing, different. His artistic career was meteoric. As was his short life.

It was the time when Maurice Chevallier and the Mistinguette were reaching their artistic twilight.

Edith Piaf, on the other hand, was at the top. But his life was irregular. He drank, stayed up late, and his eyes reflected both his childhood and his lack of real affection.

And although suffering almost never they kill, They can prevent life.

That is why perhaps she sought to give warmth, that warmth that she did not receive.

He had 3 marriages; All ephemeral. He later declared:

-“I met men. But I didn’t know love.”

Until the most beautiful of miracles, precisely love, appeared in his life. His name was Marcel Cerdán. He was a world middleweight boxing champion, French like her and also with a very difficult childhood.

And one episode, which completed the tragic fate of Edith Piaf.

October 1949. She was performing in New York, in a very famous nightclub. From his dressing room, he called Paris:

-I want you to come Marcel, I need you with me. And Marcel Cerdán, who really loved her, responded:

-Look, I can’t go. I have to fight in 15 days. But tomorrow I will travel to the US. Of course for 48 hours. nothing else. And just to see you.

The next day Edith Piaf was in the dressing room, preparing to perform. He felt happy. Suddenly, his representative entered, who with a pale face said:

-You have to be strong. The plane that was bringing Marcel Cerdán to the United States had an accident. There are no survivors.

Half an hour later Edith Piaf was on stage, thinner and paler than ever. He was not crying, but wiping away tears is not eliminating pain:

–I ask you not to applaud me today, he began by saying.

I will sing only for Marcel Cerdán, the man who was the reason for my existence…

And one day in October 1963, 14 years after Cerdán’s death and after enduring several surgical interventions, Edith Piaf, the “Sparrow of Paris,” died at the age of 47.

An acute liver cirrhosis complicated by hemorrhages permanently silenced his magnificent voice.

We are left with his beautiful printed records and the memory of his lanky, weak, suffering figure. Because there are wounds that do not go away. Although they are not noticeable. And for her an aphorism

“There are pains for which tears are not enough.”