Zaz: The Modern Edith Piaf?

It is understandable that Zaz is often compared to Edith Piaf. They both began as street singers and they both have amazingly powerful voices. When they sing even if you don’t understand what they are saying you can feel the emotion in their voices. They both dress plainly and don’t have much accompaniment when they sing.

However, there doesn’t seem to be as much controversy surrounding Zaz as there was Piaf, and from what I know about them, it seems that Piaf had a much more tragic life. Something that I noticed while watching them perform is that Zaz seems a lot more comfortable and she is able to dance around while she sings. Piaf, on the other hand, looked a lot less comfortable on stage. In Tempo de Java it says, “The skirt fortunately had pockets, for Edith did not know what to do with her hands.” In a video of her singing “non, je ne regrette rien,” for example, she has her hands by her side for most of the song and then when it gets to a really emotional part of the song she crosses her arms across her chest and later opens them. Aside from her stage presence, when I first saw Edith Piaf perform I had no idea she was so small because her voice made her look so big and powerful, but then she stood next to Ed Sullivan and I could tell she was extremely petite.

Lastly, I found it really interesting that Edith Piaf would wear “her white collar and her cravat, her black dress resembling a schoolgirl’s uniform” because that is very reminiscent of Chanel and her trademark style.