Désolé si je ne fais pas traduire en anglais, mais je suis très excité car je viens de découvrir une chose étrange.
Je viens de voir un film dont le titre est "La Môme", consacré à Edith Giovanna GASSION, la plus célèbre chanteuse française, connue sous le nom d'Edith PIAF.
Cette chanteuse est née le 19 décembre 1915 (année du chat). Sa mère se prénommait Anita.
Elle ne s'est jamais mariée, a eu de nombreux amants, dont celui qu'elle aimait le plus est mort dans un accident d'avion. Elle a cessé de se nourrir pendant longtemps avant de s'en remettre, mais a pris ensuite de la drogue (morphine) pour continuer à chanter.
Après de très nombreuses chansons mondialement connues, dont une au moins (la vie en rose) a été reprise par MUI YIM FONG lors d'un concert en 1995, je crois, elle est décédée le...10 octobre 1963.
N'est-ce pas étonnant?

I don't know French, but used the "toy" that FB gave us to translate what Ikkyu posted. I hope the trnaslation makes sense.....Ikkyu: It's astonishing.

"Afflicted if I do not make translate into English, but I am very excited because I have just discovered a strange thing. I have just seen a film whose title is "the Kid", devoted to Edith Giovanna GASSION, the most famous French singer, known under the name of Edith SPARROW. This singer was born on December 19, 1915 (year of the rabbit). His/her mother prénommait Anita. She never married, had many lovers, of which that which she liked more died in an air crash. She ceased nourishing herself for a long time before going back some, but took then drug (morphine) to continue to sing. Afterwards of very many universally known songs, of which at least one (life pink) was taken again by MUI YIM FONG at the time of a concert in 1995, I believe, she died ... October 10, 1963.

Isn't this astonishing?"

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89dith_Piaf

"At the early age of forty-seven, Piaf died of cancer at Plascassier, on the French Riviera, on October 10, 1963, one day before her friend Jean Cocteau died. Her body was returned to Paris where her death was not announced until October 11, and it was given as the official date of her death. She was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris. Although she was forbidden a funeral mass by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris (because of her lifestyle), her funeral procession drew hundreds of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the cemetery was attended by more than forty thousand fans. Charles Aznavour recalled that Piaf's funeral procession was the only time since the end of World War II, that he saw Parisian traffic come to a complete stop."

More:

http://www.little-sparrow.co.uk/
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=edith+piaf&btnG=Google+Search

FB: Thank you for more information about Edith Piaf. In fact, Cheung Man Yee (the former chief of HK Radio, a very good friend of Anita. One of a few who gave an eulogy at Anita' funeral)) always compared Anita to Edith

Hi everybody,

Before everything, many thanks to Woodstock for his translation of my text.

Also many thanks to FB for his informations about Edith Piaf.

So I discovered :

- that she was married twice,

- I might sleep during the film....

Anita sings "la vie en rose" (for just a minute) during her concert in 1995, tittle 14 on the DVD and tittle 2 on the second record in VCD version.

So many thanks for your entire interest.

(Translation made by my wife)

Ikkyu: Thanks again!

I just like to add a little information about the song. "A life in Pink 粉紅的一生" Those never bought the VCD/ DVD of 1995 concert as they have never been officially released in HK, can find this song in the CD of this concert. After Anita performed this song, she said: "I have just sung my good friend, Danny Chan's song , 'A Life in Pink'..." Apparently this song was first converted to Chinese and sung by Danny Chan in HK. So really wonder if Anita knew that the very origin singer of this song is Edith Piaf.

I like Edith Piaf too

OK, so I have been listening to the one Edith Piaf record I have (a live concert in Paris about a year before she died), and to me there is no way these could be the same person. The personalites are too different. The first time through right away I decided that she sounded terrible. We all know music in a general sense and have a feeling of what the notes should be in the context of where the song is going. She's not always getting to those notes, she makes the phrase like an 8-iron shot or slow pitch softball arc that sails up to the target pitch, then over and back down the other side without worrying about the detail of rhythm or pitch within the phrase. And she 'leans forward' and bears down at you in each phrase just like people talk loudly 'AT' you when they are drunk. This gets tiresome real fast. Then, it seemed to me that the pitch of her throat and chest resonance was not matched to the pitch of the note her vocal cords were singing. This makes the tone ugly in various ways. Finally she has a style of vibrato that seems intended to conceal the troubles mentioned above rather than as an ornamental device in the singer's tool box, to enhance the melody. To compare Anita's singing with Edith Piaf's is like comparing Anita's precise dance movements in the George Michael song in Final Concert to a Piaf version done "drunken boxing" style. The audience loves it though.

The next day I listened again, and I found she wasn't as bad as I thought the first day. The songs are very different, from another era, and have the flavor of the German cabaret style of the 'decadent' period between world war I and II. (Mui's "Beautiful Stage" routine sort of refers to this style). There is a lot of marching style snare drum and lyrics that might be half sung, half spoken, possibly with political or historical content that resonates with the audience. (I don't understand French at all). In this context, the drunken bravado style delivery is probably just what the song needs. Remember that she is physiclly very tiny. The conditions in France when she was an orphan child were horrendous. Her energy and spirit of defiance of a small woman pitted against the conditions of the time no doubt won her the sympathy and love of the audience for many years, and this is what her performance is about. Then I read the liner notes and saw that she was nick-named, besides "Little Sparrow" the "High Priestess of Agony".

So the thing Mui and Edith Piaf have most in common is that they are both icons of their respective time and place. Edith Piaf is an entertainer. Her main attraction is her personality and how she expresses her attitude using singing as a vehicle. Mui is however first and foremost a master musician, and being an entertainer flows from that. I think that if Anita played a violin or flute or trumpet, it would still sound like Anita singing; I mean you would be able to tell it was her.

What are the differences between musician, entertainer, singer, and idol? You can be an entertainer by telling jokes; some of the jokes might involve you singing badly. You can most certainly be a musician or a singer and never entertain one person, but still perform. You can entertain yourself and never perform. You can be an idol without performing, entertaining, or singing or playing, given enough correct marketing strategy. The He's-she's/man-woman films deal with these matters. Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, and Tony Bennet are musicians. Elvis is an idol, and a singer. Dean Martin is an entertainer. Madonna is an entertainer, singer and idol in that order. Michael Jackson is an idol, and entertainer only. When I was growing up white people tended to be first musicians, then singers, then performers, and lastly entertainers (no idols, lol!). Black people were just the opposite, entertainers first, then performers, singers and musicians. An unfortgettable moment for me was at the Fillmore auditorium, when two local hippie bands were followed by the Ike and Tina Turner Revue!! It never occurred to the self absorbed noodling hippie musicians that you were supposed to ENTERTAIN the audience. With hot babes wearing next to nothing dancing around, flashy costumes, a snappy tight and organized show. Unforgettable shock! Nowadays everyone wants to be the idol. Look at the TV show. Most amateur people who get up to sing karaoke are doing it to be entertainers. The actual study of music is rare.

These are my opinions only, bla bla bla. I'm glad this topic came up however. The idea of stepping from one life, to another, as an artist, as if you were getting off the north bound bus, crossing the street and boarding the east bound bus, is appealing, and sort of liberating to think about. I sure would like to see Anita performing at age four.

Did anyone consider that when it's October 10 in France it's already October 11 in China?

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Hey FB,

Great points - and oy! Don't even get me started on American Idol. They keep on churning out people who want to sound like the next Mariah Carey - they want volume, not finesse; they want vocal acrobatics, even though they break up the melodic line to the point where you can't even tell what the true melody is anymore. That's the problem you get when you have the same people using the same evaluation criteria year after year. Don't get me wrong - I think those kids are HUGELY talented -- it's just too bad that nobody is telling them that they are killing their voices as they try to fit into that same mold.

FB: Thanks for your additional information on Edith Piaf.

-----------------------------------------------------
As for Cheung Man Yee’s comparison of Anita to Edith, I think she meant their persistence and stubbornness in pursuit of true love life, their courage to go after new love life one after the other even suffered repeated failure, and they both were true and honest to their own passion and feeling for true love. To those who have a happy love and family life, both of them are symbolic of grief and sadness. Then there was similarity of their unfortunate childhood and death at a young age

Besides, I don’t see any other similarities, at least I can’t think of any at this very moment. Also, I'm confident that no one will rebut when I say that Anita lived a very positive life till the last minute of her life in this world.

FB:

I like the way you differentiate among singers, performers, idols, entertainers, and musicians. A very neat analysis.