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Charles Aznavour

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Charles Aznavour was born in Paris in 1924 as Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, in a family of Armenian immigrants. His parents had a small Armenian restaurant in the rue de la Huchette, a meeting place for actors and musicians. He became a French-Armenian singer, songwriter, actor and diplomat. In a career of more than seventy years he recorded more than twelve hundred songs, in many languages, and wrote more than a thousand songs for himself and others. His first albums, Charles Aznavour chante Charles Aznavour, appeared from 1953. In 1965 La bohème was released.

Music and breakthrough

His voice was a tenor with a distinctive vibrato: clear in the high register, raw and deep in the low notes. He was called the French Frank Sinatra, and the critic Stephen Holden called him a French pop god. Jean Cocteau, who gave him a role in Le Testament d'Orphée in 1960, said that despair was not popular for Aznavour. After the earthquake in Armenia in 1988 he founded, with Lévon Sayan, the organisation Aznavour for Armenia, and from 1994 he was Armenia's ambassador to UNESCO.

Influence

Aznavour was regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time. His chansons tell small stories full of longing, loss and love, with a cinematic eye. In 2017 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he performed until shortly before his death in 2018.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to La bohème. Notice how the song begins as a quiet story about a painter in Montmartre and how the voice and the accompaniment gradually grow larger.

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsChanson