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Charles Aznavour music biography continued...

in Paris, while his parents awaited a visa to the United States. His legacy was strictly musical. His father was an opera singer, and his mother an operetta "Soubrette," both of them Armenian, who were in France having fled massacres in Turkey. He began to perform when he was nine and soon took the stage name Aznavour. His big break came when the singer Édith Piaf heard him sing and arranged to take him with her on tour in France and to the United States. At age 30, after several fruitful appearances abroad, a performance at the Moulin Rouge in Paris was a turning point in Aznavour's singing career. Following a 1955 appearance at Bruno Coquatrix's famed Olympia in Paris, he scored his very first major song hit, "Sur ma vie," and at last the name Aznavour and his songs became recognizable entities on the radio. Aznavour never looked back.



Mostly, Aznavour has sung about the vagaries of love. The list of his hits is endless and includes such classic tunes as "Yesterday When I Was Young," "It Will Be My Day," "The Wine of Youth," "You've Got To Learn," "And I In My Chair," "You've Let Yourself Go," "Happy Anniversary" and "The Old Fashioned Way." Later, as his popularity began to reach beyond the borders of France, he learned many different languages, firmly believing that foreign audiences would be far more receptive if they could actually understand the lyrics to his songs. In the years since, he has taken his shows successfully to Spain, Portugal, Angola, The West Indies, Morocco, South America and ultimately to Canada and the United States, as well as the United Kingdom. In 1993, he toured with Liza Minnelli throughout Europe and the United States, including a legendary performance at New York's Carnegie Hall, winning over American audiences with his charisma and distinctive voice. He continues to perform internationally to this day, proving that nothing can douse the flame of great talent.