Fanspot
Apartment of Édith Piaf
“It was like a kind of revelation in me, which is to say that I felt I had to erase everything, start over, renew myself altogether.”
Edith Piaf, during an interview about Non, je ne regrette rien in 1961
Fashionable composer who worked for Dalida, Luis Mariano or Tino Rossi, Charles Dumont dreams of writing a song for Edith Piaf. His first meeting with the artist does not go as planned and he is quickly rejected. He comes back with another song and after listening to it, the singer chases him out of her apartment again. At this time, Edith Piaf is at its lowest. Sick, weakened and sad since the death of Marcel Cerdan a few years earlier, she no longer eats, hardly drinks and hardly sleeps.
Furious at being dismissed, the composer returned home and played frantically on his piano. He composes Non, je ne regrette rien which he does not intend to Édith Piaf. But, pushed by the lyricist of the title, his friend Michel Vaucaire, he agrees to meet her a third time. On October 5, 1960 at 5 pm, the two men go to 67 boulevard Lannes. ” Play me your thing there”, says the singer nonchalantly. Charles Dumont settles down and, excited, plays the piece violently on the piano. A revelation! Édith Piaf is subjugated. This song is made for her and she falls under its charm. A good thing for his friend Bruno Coquatrix, who came to ask him for help to save the Olympia, in great financial difficulty. “If you had come a couple of weeks ago, I would have said, ‘I can’t.’ But here you see, this young man gave me a song that will put me back on stage.”.
On November 10, 1960, Edith Piaf performs Non, je ne regrette rien at the Olympia and it is a triumph. Thus back on her feet, she collaborated again with Charles Dumont until his death in 1963. If the press announced her death in her Parisian apartment, in reality the artist died in Grasse, in the Bouches-du-Rhône and her body was illegally transported boulevard Lannes in an ambulance. Her last husband, Theo Sarapo, allowed fans to come and gather in small groups in front of the body in the library lounge. The funeral convoy leading the singer to Père-Lachaise was accompanied by nearly half a million fans. And if the Catholic Church refused to celebrate a ceremony because of the many sins committed during her life, Edith Piaf would certainly have declared that she had no regrets.
The standing ovation that followed the first performance of Non, je ne regrette rien at the Olympia lasted between 20 and 30 minutes.
67 Boulevard Lannes
The number 67 Lannes Boulevard welcomed Édith Piaf in the last years of her life.
This artery was named after the Marshal of France, Jean Lannes (1769-1809), whose other patronymic, Duke of Montebello, was also attributed to a port and wharf in Paris.
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Cult! music: 100 mythical music places [French Edition]
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By Damien Duarte
Passionné par la culture pop depuis son enfance, ses références vont de Donald Duck à Batman en passant par Marty McFly. Fantripper dans l'âme, voyager sur les traces de Ghostbusters, James Bond ou des héros de romans comme Cotton Malone fait partie d'un séjour idéal et réussi !