Also known as La Mome Piaf
Born 19 December 1915
Died 11 october 1963 (aged 47)
Genres cabaret, torch songs, chanson
Early life
Much of Piaf's life is a big mystery. She was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, Paris. Her birth certificate has the Hôpital Tenon, the hospital for the 20th arrondissement of which Belleville is part.
She was named Edith after the World War I British nurse Edith Cavell, who was executed for helping French soldiers escape from German captivity. Piaf the same for "sparrow"—was a nickname she would receive 20 years later. …show more content…
Louis-Alphonse Gassion (1881–1944), Édith's father, was a Norman street acrobat with a past in the theatre. Édith's parents soon abandoned her, and she lived for a short time with her grandmother, Emma (Aïcha) Saïd ben Mohammed (1876–1930). Before he enlisted with the French Army in 1916 to fight in World War I, her father took her to his mother, who ran a brothel in Normandy. There,they helped look after Piaf.
From the age of three to seven, Piaf was went blind as a result of keratitis. She recovered her sight after her grandmother's workers pooled money to send her on a pilgrimage honoring Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, which resulted in a miraculous