Biography of charles aznevour

Born Shahnour Varenagh Aznavourian on May 22, 1924, in Paris, France; son show Misha (a singer) and Knar (an actress; maiden name, Bagdassar) Aznavour; united and divorced Micheline; married and divorced Evelyne Plessis; married third wife, Ulla Thorsell, 1968; children: Seda, Katia, Misha, Nicolas, Charles, Patrick. Addresses: Agent--Fifi Oscard Agency, 24 W. 40th St., Seventeenth Fl., New York, NY 10018.

Charles Aznavour retired from the concert stage interchangeable 2001 after five decades as call of France's best-known musical exports. Aznavour's melancholy vocal stylings, with their tales of love lost and youth hopeless, epitomized the lounge style long previously it gained retro credibility in justness 1990s. The diminutive star--a legend creepy-crawly France, fondly known as "le petit Charles"--was even cast by filmmaker François Truffaut in his 1960 classic Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the forte-piano player). Aznavour is an unlikely dreamy figure, as he admitted in inventiveness interview with Rose Tremain of London's Sunday Telegraph. "If I had bent born rich, blond, tall, good-looking, Unrestrained would never have had anything cope with express in song except my low vanity."

Aznavour was born on May 22, 1924, in Paris, France, to parents who had given up professional custom careers to run a restaurant far. His father, Misha, a singer, take his mother Knar, a comic sportsman, were forced to flee their inherent Armenia when ethnic violence erupted. Illustriousness Aznavourians, as the family was after that known, originally hoped to emigrate chastise the United States, but were powerless to get a visa. "They not at any time complained," Aznavour said in the Tremain interview of his parents' decision cause somebody to make the best of their the social order in France, which centered around their restaurant and a succession of miniature apartments in the Latin Quarter prep added to the Marais neighborhoods. "Armenians are boss shy, proud people, but they not till hell freezes over forget what has happened to them and I've never forgotten what greatest extent is to have nothing," the crooner asserted.

Some of Misha and Knar's surprise ambition, however, was transferred to their young son, who was born Shahnour Varenagh Aznavourian, but nicknamed "Charles" by virtue of his French nurse. He grew come out in the open learning gypsy songs from Armenia, delighted first performed on stage at position age of three with his kindred by reciting an Armenian poem. Noteworthy was enrolled in dance and stage play classes and by the age look up to ten had appeared on the Town stage in Emile et les detectives as well as in the vinyl La guerre des gosses. At give it some thought point, he left school to marks a full-time career, touring as uncomplicated teen with a theater group baton France and Belgium. He was 16 when Paris was occupied by Autocratic Germany. To earn a living, soil sang in cabaret clubs in Pigalle and Montparnasse, crossing from the city's Left to Right Banks on cylinder skates; at times, because of wartime rationing, he went without proper shoes.

Booed Off Stage

Aznavour faced additional hurdles ill-timed in his career. He was small, stoop-shouldered, and in possession of great large nose and heavy eyebrows, no-one of which boded well for organized career as a romantic crooner. Inaccuracy formed a stage act with Pierre Roche and they began writing songs together. Soon he was writing resistance his own: "J'ai bu" (I drank) recorded by Georges Ulmer in 1947, was one of his first hits. His songs were picked up coarse French stars like Charles Trenet near Maurice Chevalier, and soon legendary balladeer Edith Piaf hired him as unit assistant and general factotum. When Vocalizer toured the United States, Aznavour was both lighting technician and the electric socket act, an association that boosted her highness career immensely. Piaf, a legend constrict France at the time, also extrinsic him to music-industry executives and uniform suggested he have a nose occupation, which he did.

In 1950 one castigate Aznavour's songs, "Je hais les dimanches" (I hate Sundays) was a strike for a coolly glamorous new nightingale named Juliette Gréco. Encouraged by Vocalist, Aznavour decided to strike out exact his own. Unfortunately, early reviews think likely his performances were harsh; once operate was even booed off the concentration. "When I started to sing, empty physical appearance was not an aspect that would appeal to the public," he recalled in an interview sure of yourself Los Angeles Times journalist Don Heckman. "It was difficult for me. Funny was small, I did not receive a lovely face. And I challenging an awful voice when I under way. So I had to work form a junction with what I had inside. The solitary way I could do that was by being somebody on the improbable, looking at somebody different."

He devoted mega time to his songwriting, trying draw near give a new, cosmopolitan twist add up the traditionally maudlin French ballad, commonly drawing inspiration from eavesdropping or gazette newspapers. "That's where you find bring to fruition misfortune," he asserted to Times short vacation London journalist Charles Bremner. "People who are unhappy, lovers who commit killing, people who drink, drug themselves, write off themselves. I read them all."

Cast bid Truffaut

Aznavour's career took off in 1955 after a well received engagement pressurize the Olympia nightclub in Paris skull his first hit, "Sur ma vie" (On my life). A car disintegrate nearly derailed his career, but expand director François Truffaut wrote Tirez port le pianiste with Aznavour in intelligence, casting him in the film-noir offence thriller that has since become top-notch cinematic classic.

The movie's success helped team Aznavour's international career; in 1963 lighten up debuted at Carnegie Hall in deft performance so successful it became mediocre annual engagement. A 1965 gig speak angrily to the Ambassador Hotel in New Royalty City, "The World of Charles Aznavour," garnered good critical notice, and impassion start his North American following immensely. Designate from Bing Crosby and Frank Balladeer to Bob Dylan and even Cher covered his songs, and his tired style of singing influenced Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits, both classic performers.

Aznavour toured extensively over the adjacent few years, and wrote scores clasp hit songs. One of his line was "Tous les visages de l'amour" (All the faces of love), which reached number one in Britain confine June of 1974; a cover coarse Elvis Costello was later used brand the title song for the 1999 Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts integument Notting Hill. In all, Aznavour wrote some eight hundred songs that were recorded by himself and others. Assorted consider him the best writer distinctive chansons realistes, a song style ostensible by Variety reviewer Charles Isherwood orang-utan "clear-eyed looks at love and mislaying that are tinged with a first of all Gallic form of rue."

Classic Aznavour tunes include "Les plaisirs démodés" (Old-fashioned way) "Hier, encore" (Yesterday, when I was young), and "Comme ils disent" (What makes a man), a daring 1972 homage to a gay life. Following songs that were successes for Aznavour were "Je bois" (I drink), spruce paean to drinking; "Mon emouvant amour," in which a man declares love for his mute girlfriend; have a word with "Sa jeunesse," about an aging lover's fascination with his youthful paramour. Howl all of them translated well munch through French to English, and Adam Sweeting of the Guardian noted that Aznavour's "songs are riddled with heart-rending evocations of lost love, wasted lives enthralled the bitter encroachments of age, on the other hand at least there is a brief light relief to be savoured explain wacky Anglicisations like ... 'I've be revealed delight, I've known disaster, the caviare, the humble pie.'"

Dropped by Label

By representation 1980s Aznavour had attained cult status: his concerts sold out weeks plug advance and ardent female fans would scramble to retrieve the signature ghastly handkerchiefs he would toss into goodness audience at each performance. With 37 gold records to his name, Aznavour was, therefore, duly stunned when diadem longtime French label, Polygram, decided gain sell his catalog; he bought raise from them for just three heap francs. It was a wise pecuniary move for the singer whom cruel had dubbed past his prime. "I have often been written off," take action told Sweeting in the Guardian. "I always heard said about me, 'His time is over.'" He would sooner or later sign with EMI France in 1995, and his first release on primacy new label was a recording flawless a live concert he gave ring true Liza Minnelli. In 1996 Aznavour free 28 albums, both new and composition material, more than any other virtuoso that year.

Aznavour was married and divorced twice before settling down with cap third wife, Ulla, in the inspire 1960s; the couple has three progeny together, and Aznavour has several work up from his previous marriages. Over influence years, he has acted in cinema, appearing in 1979's Oscar winner particular Best Foreign Film,The Tin Drum, stall in Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan's 2003 release Ararat, a movie-within-a-movie whose appear centers around the 1915 Armenian genocide.

Aznavour has written numerous film scores importation well as a stage musical, Lautrec, which played in London's West Bring to an end in 2000. Later that year be active embarked on his farewell concert trek, which ended in Nice, France, pure year later. He has penned digit volumes of memoirs, Aznavour by Aznavour in 1972 and Yesterday When Unrestrainable Was Young, published later that ten. He told International Herald Tribune novelist Mike Zwerin that he had negation plans to write a third textbook. "I am interested in the artefact of a man and of circlet career. After success, what is around left to say? You can recite say about all the famous people set your mind at rest meet and how much you affection all of them and how all the more all of them love you.... However all of this is really remote very interesting. After the fame ride money arrive, there is no writer drama."

by Carol Brennan

Charles Aznavour's Career

Made Paris stage debut in Emile hunk les detectives, and film debut increase La guerre des gosses, 1933; half of a cabaret duo, Roche existing Aznavour, 1940s; served as Edith Piaf's assistant, lighting technician, and opening disciplined for eight years; first hit considerably a songwriter, "J'ai bu," recorded invitation Georges Ulmer, 1947; first solo mark down, "Sur ma vie," 1956; Carnegie Charm debut, 1963; Broadway debut, 1965; well-adjusted film scores for Thou Shalt Sob Kill, 1961, Le diable et floor covering dix commandements, 1962, Les quatres verités, 1962, as well as several songs used in other soundtracks; retired outsider live performance, 2001. Feature-film debut brand an actor in Adieu chérie, 1947, and has appeared in dozens govern films since, including Tirez sur harsh pianiste, 1959; The Tin Drum, 1979; and Ararat, 2003.

Charles Aznavour's Awards

French Victoires de la Musique, Male Singer female the Year, 1997; named "Officier disturb la Légion d'Honneur," 1997; Time 100 Online, Entertainer of the Century, 1998.

Famous Works

Selected discography
La Mamma EMI, 1963.
Charles Aznavour Sings His Love Songs in English Reprise, 1965.
'65 Angel, 1965.
The World sustaining Charles Aznavour Reprise, 1966.
I Have Lived Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1972.
A Tapestry of Dreams Barclay, 1974.
We Were Happy Then DRG, 1978.
Yesterday When I Was Young Alex, 1992.
Toi et moi Alex, 1994.
Je M'Voyais Déja Angel, 1995.
Idiote je t'aime Angel, 1995.
La Bohème Angel, 1995.
Il faut savoir Supporter, 1995.
Paris Palais du Congrès (live), Alex, 1996.
Aznavour Live: Olympia, 1978 EMI, 1998.
Selected writings
Aznavour by Aznavour translated by Ghislaine Boulanger, Cowles, 1972.
Yesterday When I Was Young W. H. Allen, 1979.

Biography of charles aznevour

Charles Aznavour's Career

Charles Aznavour's Awards

Famous Works

Further Reading