Edith Piaf. Love is what it is.

Edith Piaf is perhaps the most important phenomenon of the French stage. Her tiny physique became unimportant when she began to sing in her enchanting voice and the drama in her eyes enhanced the feeling that she was actually a very big person and a great woman.

At 15, after discovering her wonderful voice, she left home and began to sing and play the accordion, on the streets of Paris.It was there that Edith Giovanna Gassion was nicknamed Piaf, which means sparrow in Parisian slang. She adopted this name, under which she crossed all the borders of Europe, and created an image of love. Synonymous with free passion.
The great Frenchwoman sang about love, sadness, hatred and joy, and through her songs revealed the emotions that dominated her life. Songs such as "Through the Rose-Glasses" and "The Crowd" launched her popularity. Inevitably, she became the most popular singer in France.

The legendary song "No, I regret nothing" sounds like a "mantra" in her interpersonal relationships. She decided to live her life unconditionally and define her path only by her emotions, which in turn made her prone to self-injury.
She lived for love, and people loved Edith for her voice...

In the early 1960s her beloved man, Marcel Cerdan, who was flying to her from the USA, was killed in a plane crash. Edith became depressed, taking morphine and alcohol, which led to white hot flashes and mental breakdowns, and she even tried to throw herself out of her flat window. Back on the streets, she started singing for ordinary people, disappearing into bars and taking strange men to her house in the evenings. The inevitable outcome was a hospital ward.

Edith Piaf, a great singer, is an unhappy person.

At the hospital she met her latest love in the person of Theofanis Lampoukas. Theo came to visit the singer and brought her a doll that supposedly brings good luck. From that moment on he often visited his new friend and every time he brought her something small, which made Edith happy like a little child.

A hairdresser and a singer, an amazing union, but what shocked everyone else was that she was twenty years older than him. Later Lampoukas got the stage name Theo Sarapo, from the Greek phrase 'I love you'.

The news of their wedding was like a thunderbolt from out of the blue, because the age difference was quite big. But their answer to the criticism, was given in the song "What's the meaning of love?"

Edith Piaf was already at the end of her career and life. Suffering from liver cancer and addiction to morphine. Nevertheless, the couple married in October 1962. All of France exploded, accusing Theo of self-interest. After all, Edith was ill. No hair, no teeth and almost no voice. No one could imagine that anyone in their right mind could love... BUT... Theo looked after Piaf, spoon-fed her and took her out into the garden for some fresh air.

The woman in love tried to launch a career for her lover, but France met Theo rather coolly. Gossip and gossip didn't stop for a minute. But what do words mean when people are happy.

- I don't deserve Theo, but I got him," the singer once said.

A year later Edith Piaf died, leaving her husband, her name and multi-million dollar debts. Which he paid for the rest of his life.
The Archbishop of Paris refused to give a funeral to this "great woman" because of her intransigence and sinful life. Nevertheless, half a million French people took to the streets to pay their last respects to the "little sparrow". She was buried in Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery. In the mass grave, waiting for her were her 2 year old daughter, whom she had lost after meningitis, and Edith's father. Eight years later they were joined by Theo Sarapo, who died in a car accident at the age of 35. accident.

The inscription on their mass grave reads - Love conquers all.