Death of Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf died on 10 October 1963 in Grasse, aged 47. A French singer born in a working-class district of Paris, Piaf began by singing on the streets and was discovered by the cabaret owner Louis Leplée in 1935. Nicknamed the Little Sparrow, she became the voice of French chanson, with an intense, tremulous delivery and songs about love and hardship. Her best-known recordings include La Vie en rose, Hymne à l'amour and Non, je ne regrette rien. She performed at the Paris Olympia and toured in the United States, and her life was marked by accidents, illness and addiction. She died at 47, and tens of thousands of mourners gathered at her funeral.

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