"I always thought my days spent in darkness gave me a very special sensitivity. Much later, when I really wanted to hear, really 'see' a song, I'd close my eyes, and when I wanted to bring it out of the very depths of myself, out of my guts, out of my belly, when the song had to come from far away, I'd close my eyes." -- iconic French chanteuse Édith Piaf, in her posthumously published autobiography "Ma Vie" (1964). As a small child, Piaf suffered from blindness caused by complications from meningitis for a few years.
Born on December 19, 1915 as Édith Gassion and abandoned by her mother, Piaf was raised by her grandmother in a brothel. As a child, she began by singing in the streets of Paris and later in small cafés where she was discovered and began her singing career in clubs and music halls. A club owner nicknamed the diminutive singer "la môme piaf", French slang for "little sparrow," and the name stuck professionally. Her trademark ballads sung in her powerful, rich voice are known internationally today, and represent the best in modern French popular songs: “Non, je ne regrette rien” (“No, I Don’t Regret Anything”), “La Vie en rose” (“Life in Pink”), and "Milord."
