The Sparrow Has Soul

To me, Edith Piaf’s raw emotion is what characterizes her as a vocalist and what has drawn audiences worldwide to her music. Even without visually watching her performances, one gets the sense that she is singing not to try and sound good, but to share her life’s pain with others. Edith Piaf does not hold a traditionally beautiful voice that is easy for a listener to drift in and out between notes—rather, her first words capture the listener’s attention and demands the listener to feel what Piaf feels herself. Piaf’s voice draws a response, whether good or bad, from the listener, even if the listener did not intend to respond in the first place. See her perform live and, all of a sudden, one is blown away once more by the sheer contrast of her powerful voice and petite body.

As an outsider looking in, it is easy to criticize Edith Piaf for the many poor decisions she made in the early part of her life before her rise to fame. And while I myself probably would not have made some of the decisions she did, her rough path of loss, love, and immorality were all necessary components to shaping the Edith Piaf that France knows and loves today. Furthermore, much of Piaf’s early misfortune stemmed from, what I believe to be, structural inequalities of Parisian society in the early twentieth century. From birth, Piaf was doomed to know only poverty and need throughout her youth—her parents cared little about her wellbeing and education was not deemed to be important for a child born into dregs of society. As a young woman in a lively and rambunctious city, Edith Piaf lived in a world marked by patriarchy; pleasing men was the only way for social mobility. Much like Coco Chanel, Piaf did what few women could do during this time, thrive in a male-dominated arena. And perhaps this is what made Chanel and Piaf French icons—success despite insurmountable odds via a persona of confidence and plain disregard for the opinions of others.

Artists like Zaz can attempt to muster a great performance with Edith Piaf’s songs, but they cannot exemplify the kind of hurt and emotion that comes across with Piaf’s voice. Edith Piaf takes inspiration from her tragic life, but what makes her undeniably special, is the fact that she connects with her listeners and forces them to feel. It is a rare moment when one becomes acutely aware of what it means to live—Edith Piaf takes this moment of epiphany and stretches it out with her voice to take up the length of her song.