Charles Aznavour has always bathed in the world of show business. When he was born in 1924, his parents, Armenian artists, had just arrived in Paris. His father was a baritone, his mother a comedian, but to make a living, they opened a restaurant Rue Champollion, then a bar Rue du Cardinal-Lemoine. Numerous artists – including Gypsy musicians – regularly attended these venues. Next-door was a children drama school where Charles, pushed by his parents, started auditioning at the age of 9. He quickly became both a dancer and a comedian. As a teenager, he started singing as he was too old to play children parts, and too young to interpret Le Cid. “In this profession, there are no branches. Many comedians sing, and many singers want to be comedians”, he explained, years later. In parallel to this strong training background, he learnt piano watching his sister play every day. This later allowed him to compose songs, most often on the piano, then in the 1970s, on electronic keyboards and rhythm generators.
In 1941, at the age of 17, he met Pierre Roche, a musician with whom he staged duo numbers for a year. They then went on to become a duo themselves: Roche and Aznavour. They started out singing Charles Trénet, before creating their own repertoire little by little. The liberation of France allowed them to perform on a more frequent basis as countless new clubs were opening. In 1948, they set off to conquer Québec. After playing in many of Montreal cabarets, Pierre Roche settled in for good, while Charles Aznavour went back to Paris and started working for Edith Piaf as a handyman. He later explained that he felt too Parisian to live in America long-term. “There is none more Parisian than the son of emigrants”, he added. During the first half of the 1950s, he began writing more and more songs for others (Gilbert Bécaud, Jacqueline François, Edith Piaf…) and for himself. Around 1956 his reputation got a most serious boost (despite many critics about his voice, considered too “husky”) and in 1961, he became a true star with hits such as Je m’voyais déjà and Tu t’laisses aller.
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