CE Noticias Financieras English October 1, 2018 Monday Charles Aznavour: 10 topics to not say goodbye Charles Aznavour, the last giant of the French song of the twentieth century, died at dawn on Monday, October 1, at 94 in the south of France. The most well-known French singer abroad sold more than 100 million records, in 80 countries, over eight decades of an exceptional career that he had not put an end to. Of Armenian origin, Aznavour had just returned from a tour of Japan, having been forced to cancel several concerts this summer (boreal) due to a broken arm, caused by a fall. He planned to perform on October 26 in Brussels. Nicknamed Frank Sinatra of France, he achieved world fame despite a voice and a physicist, for many, atypical. "La Boheme", "La Mamma" and "Emmenez-moi" are among his most outstanding songs of a repertoire of marked nostalgic tone. It was part of his nature, that constant artistic restlessness, as he declared in an interview in EL PAÍS. "Everything inspires me: television, radio, books ... As I have no imagination, I take what I see, there are people who have it and, nevertheless, they are not able to write a song". An artist, he said, is equally inspired by the sorrows that joys. "Although it is true that there are not as many happy songs as sad," said the ambassador of the French song. He also composed for artists such as Edith Piaf and as an actor, he participated in some 80 films and he usually lived in Geneva (Switzerland), where he worked as an ambassador of Armenia. "My work is my life, I love what I do and as long as I have the health and strength to do it, I will do it", he comments for ABC in 2016. Here, 10 themes to live nostalgia with dignity: 01. La Bohème. 02. La Mamma . 03. Emmenez-moi. 04. Et pourtant. 05 Qui 06. Il faut savoir. 07. Mourir d'aimer. 08. Eteins La Lumière. 09. Avec. 10. Subtract.
Category: 2018
Charles Aznavour, the unmistakable voice of nostalgia
CE Noticias Financieras English
October 1, 2018 Monday
Charles Aznavour, the unmistakable voice of nostalgia
Singer Charles Aznavour , who passed away at dawn on Monday at the age
of 94 , rose to world fame despite an atypical voice and physique that
did not prevent him from devoting himself with his nostalgic melodies
as the last giant of the 20th century French song .
They told him that he was too ugly, too short and that he could not
sing. But this 165-centimeter giant nicknamed "Aznovoice" by his
critics - in a word game in English for "has no voice", has no voice -
sold more than 180 million records in eight decades of a marathon race
that never abandonment.
The French Frank Sinatra of Armenian origin boasted of having recorded
in the heavy discs of 78 revolutions up to the CDs, going through the
LP of vinyl, which immortalized more than 800 songs composed by
himself, including some 70 in Spanish.
"If something of me or my work should last, my albums will be broad
enough," Aznavour wrote in his autobiographical book "From one door to
the other," published in 2011.
From "La Bohême" to "Que c'est triste Venise" ("Venice without you",
in Spanish), his recitals throughout the world continued to summon
thousands of unconditional fans who applauded his great melodic
successes over love or the passage of weather.
Like that of Charles Trenet (1913-2001), the popularity of Aznavour
transcended ages and social classes , although without actually
entering the literary firmament of singer-songwriters like George
Brassens, Leo Ferré or Jacques Brel.
But Aznavour was first and foremost the ambassador of the French song
in the world , and in that role he agreed to sing in any language:
Spanish, Italian, German, English, Russian ... He sang for popes,
kings or presidents.
In 1998, CNN and Time magazine crowned him "artist of the century".
When age began to set limits, Aznavour did not take notice. He used a
high stool on the stage and backed up his memory with an electronic
pointer.
Shortly before his death, he had been on tour in Japan and planned to
perform this month in Brussels.
UNDER THE WING OF EDITH PIAF Born on May 22, 1924 in Paris to a family
of Armenian immigrants who fled Turkish persecution , Aznavour resided
for many years in Geneva, where he found a tax shelter and became an
ambassador of Armenia, a country he also represented at the European
headquarters. from the ONU.
At the birth of the midwife, the legend could not pronounce the name
his parents wanted him to give - Shahnourh - and immediately converted
him to a more French Charles.
"Paris is the city of my childhood, Yerevan the one of my roots" ,
assured Aznavour, who always proudly claimed his Armenian roots that
flavored with a touch of melancholy to the most joyful of his songs.
His childhood was immersed in the bohemian of musicians and actors in
Paris. At age 9, he practiced alone in front of a mirror and decided
to change the paternal surname Aznavourian to the patronymicartistic
Aznavour.
The fortune was late and he smiled for the first time in 1946 when he
caught the attention of the singer Edith Piaf, who together with the
pianist Pierre Roche embarked the following year on a tour of the
United States .
In the 1950s he wrote songs for Gilbert Bécaud , but along with the
success came the first criticisms. "What were my disadvantages? My
voice, my stature, my gestures, my lack of culture and instruction " ,
admitted the singer.
But Aznavour persisted in his determination, stronger than that "veil
of fog" that covered the timbre of his voice. And that finally ended
up being his unmistakable stamp and one of the keys to success.
ON THE BIG SCREENWorld glory came in the 1960s , with some of its
greatest hits: "Les comédiens" , "Hier encore" , "Il faut savoir" ...
At that time it stormed the Carnegie Hall in New York, before a world
tour that catapulted him to fame with songs like "La Mamma" , which
other greats on stage such as Ray Charles , Liza Minnelli or Fred
Astaire.
Aznavour also appeared on the big screen , in "Disparen al pianista"
by François Truffaut, and then in "And then there were none" (1974),
inspired by the Agatha Christie novel "Diez negritos".
In the following decade, he delved into more novel and sensitive
topics for the time, such as that of homosexuality in "Comme ils
disent" (1972).
In 1998 he led humanitarian efforts to help the hundreds of thousands
of victims of the earthquake that devastated Armenia , and for years
he campaigned for the recognition of the Armenian genocide by the
Turks.
France and Armenia mourn loss of ‘unique’ singing great Aznavour
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany October 1, 2018 France and Armenia mourn loss of 'unique' singing great Aznavour by Christian Boehmer, Sabine Glaubitz and Sebastien Kuenigkeit in Paris and Robin Powell in Berlin Paris (dpa) - One of France's most beloved singers and songwriters, Charles Aznavour, has died at the age of 94. The French-Armenian musician composed some 1,300 songs during his seven-decade career, and played roles in about 70 films. Aznavour's heartfelt, often raw delivery, and songs of love, family, life on the margins and his parents' native Armenia, won fans worldwide. He sold more than 180 million albums. President Emmanuel Macron described Aznavour as "profoundly French, attached viscerally to his Armenian roots and celebrated around the world." "His masterpieces, his voice, his unique brilliance will endure long after his death," Macron wrote on Twitter. His music had "accompanied three generations of joy and grief." "The French people will join the Armenian people in mourning," Macron said. "This is truly a painful day for the history of our people and our country," said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. "Aznavour is a man who created not only national, but universal values, which for many years will accompany mankind towards love and solidarity, and will guide people for the righteous," Pashinyan said, according to state news agency Armenpress. A candle-lighting ceremony was being organized for 8 pm (1600 GMT) at Charles Aznavour Square in the Armenian capital Yerevan to remember the late singer. Aznavour's death brought an outpouring of grief on social media as soon as it was first reported, and was later confirmed by the mayor of the southern French commune of Mouries, where he had a residence. Born on May 22, 1924, he first started singing at his parents' Armenian restaurant in Paris at the age of 9. Performing was in his blood, following his singer father and his mother, an actress, who both arrived in Paris after fleeing violence in Armenia. A critical turning point for the singer, dubbed the "French Frank Sinatra," came in 1946, when he met one of the most famous songstresses at the time, Edith Piaf, who invited him on tour through France and the United States. Able to sing in eight languages, the diminutive Aznavour was regarded as the last great singer of "chansons" - poetic lyric-driven songs delivered in a half-sung, half-spoken style. Among his most well-known songs were "La Boheme," "Du laesst dich geh'n," and "She" - which was covered by Elvis Costello for the hit Hollywood film "Notting Hill." His own acting breakthrough came in the French New Wave, with "Don't Shoot the Pianist," directed by Francois Truffaut in 1960. Dozens more movie roles followed. Aznavour received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in August last year. Organizers described him as "an international recording artist and singing sensation."
Charles Aznavour obituary; Singer, songwriter and actor, best known for She, who personified French culture to the world
The Guardian(London)
October 1, 2018 Monday 4:24 PM GMT
Charles Aznavour obituary; Singer, songwriter and actor, best known for She, who personified French culture to the world
Aznavour’s 10 best songs
by Michael Freedland
The singer, songwriter and actor Charles Aznavour, who has died aged 94, was one of France’s best-loved entertainers and its most potent show-business export since Maurice Chevalier. Edith Piaf was one of those who encouraged his early career, and in many ways Aznavour could be seen as the male Piaf; his slight frame disguised a similarly huge talent. He was as important a composer and songwriter as he was a singer – and he could be a great actor even without singing a note on screen.
There were times in Aznavour’s career when he was as popular outside France as he was in his own country. His recording of She, a sweet, soulful number composed by Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer, topped the British charts for several weeks in 1974. Aznavour’s songs were in the great dramatic tradition of the chanson, storytelling to music, rather than mere verse sung in the way of the conventional pop song. Even when he performed in English, his songs sounded as though they had first been minted in Montmartre. He was often called the French Frank Sinatra and the comparison was apt. When he sang The Old Fashioned Way or Yesterday When I Was Young, listeners somehow caught his nostalgia kick and remembered those days, too.
In films, he was a character actor who was always the most interesting figure on the screen. His lead role as a musician clashing with criminals in François Truffaut ‘s 1960 drama Tirez sur le Pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player) established him internationally.
Aznavour, however, was always self-deprecating. He would refer people to a crumpled piece of paper on which, as a very young man, he had written his weaknesses. They were, he said: “My voice, my height, my gestures, my lack of culture and education, my frankness and my lack of personality.”
No one doubted his frankness, but his personality was one of his greatest characteristics, and he seemed to personify French culture to the English-speaking world. His height (5ft 3in) was the only thing that he could do nothing about, but it was one of those great trademarks that help to mark out a show-business personality – that and his gravelly voice, and the facial features that got craggier as he got older. Aznavour recalled: “They used to say, ‘When you are as ugly as that and when you have a voice like that, you do not sing.’ But Piaf used to tell me, ‘You will be the greatest.'”
Aznavour’s family were Armenian and went to France in the wake of the Turkish massacres of their people. His parents, Mischa and Knar Aznavourian, were living in Paris at the time of their son’s birth, in a poor part of the Latin quarter, where his father worked as a cook and his mother as a seamstress. His father was also a part-time singer and his mother a sometime actor, but neither made a living at what they wanted to do most.
Encouraged by them, he danced, played the violin, sang and aspired to act. He got work as a film extra from the 1930s onwards and in 1941 joined the Jean Dasté dramatic troupe. During the second world war, having adopted Charles Aznavour as his stage name, he joined the singer-composer Pierre Roche in a nightclub act and gained experience writing lyrics and in cabaret. In the postwar years they went on tour with Piaf around France and in the US, but split up when Roche married.
Aznavour wrote songs for artists including Piaf, Gilbert Bécaud and Juliette Gréco, and in the 1950s began to have some success in his own right, first in France and then internationally. By the early 1960s he was able to sell out Carnegie Hall in New York. He appeared in films such as Les Dragueurs (Young Have No Morals, 1959) and La Tête Contre les Murs (The Keepers, 1959). By the time he made Le Testament d’Orphée (Testament of Orpheus, 1960), he was enough of a star to be featured in a cameo role as himself. After his acclaimed performance in Shoot the Piano Player, he starred in US and British films including Candy (1968) and And Then There Were None (1974), an Agatha Christie adaptation, and in the Oscar-winning German drama The Tin Drum (1979).
In 2002 he appeared in Atom Egoyan’s drama about the Armenian genocide, Ararat. Aznavour retained close ties to his family’s homeland. When an earthquake hit Armenia in 1988, killing more than 20,000 people, he formed the charity Aznavour for Armenia and wrote Pour Toi Arménie, which he recorded with a lineup of well-known French singers, to help support those affected by the disaster. In 2004 he was made a National Hero of Armenia, and a few years later an Aznavour museum was opened in the capital, Yerevan. He was appointed Armenia’s ambassador to Unesco and in 2009 Armenian ambassador to Switzerland.
Across his eight-decade career, he wrote more than 1,000 songs and was said to have sold more than 180m records. He continued to record popular albums, including Duos (2008), a collection of duets with, among others, Elton John, Carole King, Liza Minnelli and Plácido Domingo. In 2011 he held a month-long residency at the Olympia music hall in Paris.
Aznavour was married three times and had six children. “I know my life is a flop,” he said once. “A flop as a father, a flop as a man. You must make a choice: a successful life as a man, or show business. Now it is too late even to make a choice. I belong to the public or to my pride. My only salvation is to become a greater artist.” A legion would say he achieved that salvation.
He is survived by his third wife, Ulla (nee Thorsel), whom he married in 1967, and their children Katia, Mischa and Nicolas; and by Seda and Charles, the children of his first marriage, to Micheline Rugel. A son, Patrick, from his second marriage, to Evelyne Plessis, predeceased him.
· Charles Aznavour (Shahnour Varenagh Aznavourian), singer, songwriter and actor, born 22 May 1924; died 1 October 2018
Iran always seeking friendly ties with neighbours, including Armenia/Stressing development of economic ties
Iranian Government News
October 1, 2018 Monday
Iran always seeking friendly ties with neighbours, including Armenia/Stressing development of economic ties
Tehran: The Presidency office has issued following press release: President in a meeting with Armenian PM: Iran always seeking friendly ties with neighbours, including Armenia/Stressing development of economic ties President met with the Prime Minister of Armenia and stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran is always seeking friendly relations with its neighbours, including Armenia. Speaking with the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday in New York, President Hassan Rouhani said, “Fortunately, there is a good trust between the two governments and nations, but despite the existing potentials and capacities, the pace of development of Tehran-Yerevan relations is not desirable”. Stating that regarding energy swaps, Iran is ready to work with Armenia, the president said, “Extensive capacities in both countries require economic relations to be improved at the same pace with political ones”. Dr Rouhani said, “It is important for us to connect with the Black Sea through Armenia and Georgia, and the South-North corridor is of great importance in this regard, and Tehran is ready to complete this corridor and highway in terms of technical and engineering services”. The president also urged strengthening cooperation between the two countries’ private sectors, adding, “We are ready to encourage the private sector to engage in business in Armenia and facilitate Armenian companies’ investment”. The Armenian PM also expressed condolences on the martyrdom of a number of Iranians in the terrorist attack in Ahwaz, saying, “We are ready to develop relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran and we must use all potentialities in the development of these cooperation and make a leap in relations, especially in economic fields”. Prime Minister Pashinyan went on to stress the need for faster implementation of agreements between the two countries, and added, “We need to design new plans for development of cooperation, and now it’s time to implement the agreements between the two countries, especially in the fields of energy swaps”. “We are also interested in a new corridor that connects us to the Persian Gulf,” he said.
Charles Aznavour, Enduring French Singer of Global Fame, Dies at 94
The New York Times
October 1, 2018 Monday 15:54 EST
Charles Aznavour, Enduring French Singer of Global Fame, Dies at 94
Frank J. Prial
OBITUARIES
With his ballads of love found and love lost, he was said to have sold almost 200 million records and appeared in scores of films.
Charles Aznavour, one of France’s most celebrated singers of popular songs as well as a composer, film star and lifelong champion of the Armenian people, has died at his home in Mouriès, in southeastern France. He was 94.
His death was announced on Monday by the French Culture Ministry. Local authorities said he died overnight.
At an age when most performers have long retired from the footlights and the brutal, peripatetic life of an international star, Mr. Aznavour continued to range the world, singing his songs of love found and love lost to capacity audiences who knew most of his repertoire by heart. In his 60s, even then a veteran of a half century in music, he laughed off talk of retirement.
“We live long, we Armenians,” he said. “I’m going to reach 100, and I’ll be working until I’m 90.”
His accomplishments were prodigious. He wrote, by his own estimate, more than 1,000 songs, for himself and for others, and sang them in French, Armenian, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Yiddish. By some estimates, he sold close to 200 million records. He appeared in more than 60 films, beginning with bit parts as a child. His best-known film role was probably as a pianist with a mysterious past in François Truffaut’s eccentric 1960 crime drama, “Shoot the Piano Player” — a part that Truffaut said he had written specifically for Mr. Aznavour.
[Video: Watch on YouTube.]
Chahnour Varenagh Aznavourian was born in Paris on May 22, 1924. His parents, Mischa and Knar (Baghdasarayan) Aznavourian, had come to France fleeing Turkish oppression. (Some sources give his original surname as Aznaourian.) When the Aznavourians were denied visas to America, they opened a restaurant near the Sorbonne and made the city their home.
Charles’s parents instilled a love of music and theater in him and in 1933, when he was 9, enrolled him in acting school. He was soon part of a troupe of touring child actors. At 11, in Paris, he played the youthful Henry IV in a play starring the celebrated French actress and singer Yvonne Printemps.
But his earliest inspirations were singers, notably the French stars Charles Trenet, Édith Piaf and Maurice Chevalier. “Trenet for his writing, Piaf for her pathos and Chevalier for his professionalism,” he told The New York Times in 1992, “and all three for their tremendous presence on stage.”
Also high in his pantheon were Carlos Gardel, the Argentine tango singer, and Al Jolson. “Gardel and Jolson were far apart,” he said, “but they had the same pathos.” He learned his idiomatic English from Frank Sinatra’s records, but he considered Mel Tormé and Fred Astaire his favorite American singers.
Mr. Aznavour’s career spanned the history of the chanson realiste, the unvarnished tales of unrequited love, loneliness and anomie that found their apotheosis in the anguished voice of Piaf. He wrote songs for her and for Gilbert Bécaud, Léo Ferré, Yves Montand and others. When Piaf rejected one of his songs, “I Hate Sundays,” he gave it to Juliette Gréco, then the darling of the Left Bank philosophers and their acolytes. When Piaf changed her mind, she was enraged to find that she’d lost the song and, according to François Lévy, one of her biographers, confronted Mr. Aznavour, shouting, “What, you gave it to that existentialist?”
He spent nearly eight years in Piaf’s entourage, as a songwriter and secretary but, he insisted, not a lover. (“I never had a love affair with her,” he told an interviewer in 2015. “That’s what saved us.”) He accompanied her to New York in 1948 and stayed for a year. “I lived on West 44th Street, ate in Hector’s Cafeteria and plugged my songs,” he recalled, “with no success.”
Back in Europe, he spent years singing in working-class cafes in France and Belgium, without much success. One critic wrote dismissively of his “odd looks and unappealing voice.”
Then, in 1956, he was an unexpected hit on a tour that took him to Lisbon and North Africa. The director of the Moulin Rouge in Paris heard him at a casino in Marrakesh and immediately signed him. When he was back in Paris, offers poured in.
In “Yesterday When I Was Young,” an autobiography published in 1979 — it shares its title with the English-language version of one of his best-known compositions — Mr. Aznavour recalled a Brussels promoter who had ignored him for years and was now offering him a contract. He offered 4,000 francs. Mr. Aznavour asked for 8,000. The promoter refused.
The next year, he offered 16,000.
“Not enough,” replied Mr. Aznavour, now a major star. “I want more than you pay Piaf.” Piaf was then making 30,000 francs. Again the promoter refused. The next year, he gave in. “How much more than Piaf do you want?” he asked.
“One franc,” Aznavour said. “After that I was able to tell my friends I was better paid than Piaf.”
In 1958, the French government lifted a longstanding ban on allowing some of Mr. Aznavour’s more explicit songs — like “Après l’Amour,” which recounts the aftermath of an episode of lovemaking — on the radio. “I was the first to write about social issues like homosexuality,” Mr. Aznavour told The New York Times in 2006, referring to his 1972 song “What Makes a Man?” “I find real subjects and translate them into song.”
He returned to New York in 1963 and rented Carnegie Hall, where he performed to a packed house. (Among those in the audience was Bob Dylan, who later said it was one of the greatest live performanceshe had ever witnessed.) A triumphant world tour followed.
Thereafter, the United States became a second home. Mr. Aznavour performed all over the country, often with Liza Minnelli. He became a fixture in Las Vegas for a time and there married Ulla Thorsell, a former model, in 1967. She was his third wife.
Mr. Aznavour on the set of “The Heist” in 1969. He appeared in more than 60 films, beginning with bit parts as a child.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images
Mr. Aznavour had six children. Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.
As a child, Mr. Aznavour watched his father go broke feeding penniless Armenian refugees in his restaurant. As his fame grew, he became a spokesman and fund-raiser for the Armenian cause. He organized help worldwide after an earthquake killed 45,000 people in Armenia in 1988. And when the country broke away from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991, it made him an unofficial ambassador. He displayed the Corps Diplomatique plaque on his car as proudly as he wore the French Legion of Honor ribbon in his lapel.
President Emmanuel Macron of France said in a statement on Monday: “Profoundly French, viscerally attached to his Armenian roots, famous in the entire world, Charles Aznavour accompanied the joys and sorrows of three generations. His masterpieces, his timbre, his unique influence will long survive him.”
In 2006, at the age of 82, le Petit Charles, as the French called him (he was 5 feet 3 inches tall), began what some — although not Mr. Aznavour himself — called his farewell tour. After several months in Cuba that year, recording an album of his songs with the pianist Chucho Valdés, he moved on to a 10-city swing through the United States and Canada, beginning at Radio City Music Hall. It was just the English-language part of the tour, he said, with England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to follow.
He continued performing almost to the end. He had broken his arm in May, but at his death he had concert dates booked in France and Switzerland for November and December.
Reviewing a 2009 concert at New York City Center, Stephen Holden of The Times wrote that Mr. Aznavour “displayed the stamina and agility of a man 30 years younger.” A 2014 performance at the Theater at Madison Square Garden was billed as his final New York appearance, but he suggested in an email interview with The Times that he might change his mind.
He continued writing songs as well. “My Paris,” a musical based on the life of Toulouse-Lautrec for which he wrote the score, was staged at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven in 2016.
In recent years, health problems inevitably slowed him down, but he showed no sign of stopping. “We are in no hurry,” he said in 2006. “We are still young. There are some people who grow old and others who just add years. I have added years, but I am not yet old.”
Frank J. Prial, a reporter for The New York Times, died in 2012. Peter Keepnews and Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting.
Charles Aznavour obituary; Last survivor of the golden era of French chanson who sold more than 100 million records in career spanning 70 years
The Times, UK
Oct 1 2018
Charles Aznavour obituary; Last survivor of the golden era of French chanson who sold more than 100 million records in career spanning 70 years
When Charles Aznavour began his singing career in postwar Paris, the French critics dismissed him as too short and too ugly. They also hated his voice.
Far from being discouraged by such unpromising notices, the barbs acted as a spur and he went on to become France’s most celebrated singing star, writing about 1,200 songs and selling more than 100 million records during a 70-year career. He was the last survivor of the golden era of French chanson. Aznavour became known as the French Frank Sinatra and not just for his songs. Both also acted in films, were notorious womanisers and kept coming out of retirement for “one last concert”.
“The critics were very harsh,” he recalled on his 90th birthday. “They said I was short and I agree, I’m not tall. But what they said about my voice was unfair.” Aznavour also recalled that one particularly prejudiced review asked: “Why have they let a cripple on stage?”
“Was it because I was Armenian? The son of an immigrant, who started working on stage in Paris when I was nine? But they helped me; pushing me and kicking me to prove myself.”
If, by his own admission, he lacked the obvious glamour of Sacha Distel, he was able to captivate his audiences by singing with a plaintive, but soulful, intensity about the ordinary joys and sorrows of life. His songs were seemingly hewn from a wide personal experience, and delivered with charismatic intimacy and melancholy. “He sings with his heart,” said Jean Cocteau, the novelist.
Early in his career Aznavour was so sensitive about his height (he was 5ft 3in tall) and his appearance that he had cosmetic surgery on his nose, which he described as “not like a nose, but a long, long can-opener”. The operation, he later claimed, was not his idea but was arranged by Édith Piaf, for whom he wrote songs and who became a close friend after he had opened shows for her at the Moulin Rouge.
“One day, she said, ‘Ah Charles, your nose is terrible, I know a great man.’ I was not rich, so Édith and my publisher split the price and I had the surgery. The day after they took the bandages off, she looked at me and said, ‘I loved it better before.’ “
In later years Aznavour turned his lack of height into a source of self- deprecating humour and exuded a disarming modesty and unassuming nature that those who knew him well insisted was genuine. “I’m not grand,” he said. “I don’t go out and say, ‘Hello, I’m here!’ I don’t want to be that man who looks at himself and says, ‘This is my life.’ I want to be the normal man who goes out with farmers and working people.”
Dubbed “the Love Pixie” by sections of the media, women found Aznavour irresistible. There were rumours of affairs with Audrey Hepburn and Britt Ekland, which he denied, and an acknowledged affair with the teenage Liza Minnelli. “But to have a love affair with so much distance between us, it’s difficult to be faithful,” he said.
He and Piaf were flatmates for several years. “We had many things in common: the street, the songs, the way of life, the love and the drink. We drank everything,” he said. “We really loved each other, but it was not sexual. That’s what saved us.”
His first marriage, in 1946 to Micheline Rugel, produced a daughter, Séda, a singer who occasionally duetted with her father, and a son, Charles. In 1956 he married Evelyne Plessis, with whom he had a son Patrick, who committed suicide in 1981. The marriage ended in a messy and expensive alimony case. In 1967 he married Ulla Thorsell, who was almost 20 years his junior, in a glitzy ceremony in Las Vegas. They had a daughter, Katia, a singer, and two sons Mischa, an actor, and Nicholas, who managed his father’s business affairs.
“You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love is no longer being served,” he once sang, but he remained devoted to his third wife and claimed that they did not have a single argument in almost half a century of married life. “I was not faithful between the wives, which was fun,” he said. “But it became boring. You want a normal life – marriage and children.”
Aznavour’s reputation as a womaniser – deserved or not – was reinforced by his poetic songs about “love and other sorrows”, as he put it. “I’m not an expert on love, but I can write about it because I can get into how a woman feels,” he said.
“She may be the face I can’t forget, / a trace of pleasure or regret, / maybe my treasure / or the price I have to pay,” he sang on She, his most famous English-language composition, which topped the British charts in 1974. He also recorded the song in French, German, Italian and Spanish, all of which he spoke fluently.
Aznavour’s songs also tackled difficult subjects. “It’s a kind of sickness I have, talking about things you’re not supposed to talk about. I wanted to break every taboo,” he said. He wrote about masculinity and libido, depression, sex, prejudice and rape. His 1972 song What Makes a Man(Comme Ils Disent) about a gay transvestite was one of the first to deal openly with homosexual love. The steamy Après L’Amour, about post-coital exhaustion, was one of several of his songs that were banned by French radio in the 1960s.
The realism and candour that were his trademarks were heard nowhere better than on You’ve Let Yourself Go(Tu T’laisses Aller), the plea of a man who still loves his wife even though she has grown fat and unattractive (“I gaze at you in sheer despair and see your mother standing there”). He countered accusations of misogyny by writing another version from a woman’s angle (“You never care the way you dress, you stay unshaven, you look a mess”), which Minnelli recorded.
Others who recorded his songs included Fred Astaire, Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Ray Charles, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Plácido Domingo. Elvis Costello even managed to put She back in the charts in 1999 when he covered it for the soundtrack of Notting Hill, which starred Hugh Grant.
He was born Shahnour Varinag Aznavourian in Paris in 1924. His parents were Armenian and had recently arrived in France as refugees from the Turkish massacres. Aznavour remained proud of his Armenian roots and, after the 1988 earthquake, he set up a charity, Aznavour for Armenia. In 2008 he took up dual citizenship and became Armenian ambassador to Switzerland, splitting his time between his home there and a mansion near Marseilles. The Armenians even established a Charles Aznavour Museum in Yerevan, although he insisted that France defined his identity: “I’ve always felt totally French. That vexes the Armenians, but they’re used to it.”
His father had been a singer, but in Paris he became a restaurateur. He soon went bankrupt, however, because he offered free meals to fellow exiles. The family lived in a single room. Aznavour left school at the age of nine to take small acting roles and sang for loose change on the streets. He survived the German occupation of Paris in the Second World War singing in cabarets, while his parents hid Armenians and Jews in their apartment and his father joined the resistance.
Aznavour started to write songs with Pierre Roche. After the war he met Piaf, who began recording the songs. Yet, as a performer it took years to overcome the prejudice against him and despite Piaf promoting him, it was the mid-1950s before he became established as a singing star in his own right.
A parallel acting career followed when in 1960, he played the haunted piano- player in François Truffaut’s classic “new-wave” film Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le Pianist). He acted in more than 60 films, although none was as distinguished and most were banal.
In 1978 he was charged by the French authorities with tax evasion. Aznavour claimed to have paid backhanders to figures from all sides of the political spectrum to keep the case out of court. If true it didn’t work for he was found guilty and fined 10 million francs, which prompted him to leave France to live just over the border in Switzerland. “But I was never a tax exile because I didn’t have a penny when I left,” he said.
Aznavour continued to write, record and tour into old age, with several Sinatra-style retirements and comebacks along the way. He played at the Albert Hall, London, in November 2015 at the age of 91 when he gave a bravura two-hour performance, albeit with the help of a hearing-aid and autocue.
“Everywhere, all the time, I work and write,” he said shortly before the concert. “I love a clean white page. My wife says, ‘Stop working! You are old enough to stop.’ I say, ‘If I stop, I die.’ “
Aznavour was right. His latest world tour continued into this year.Charles Aznavour, singer, was born on May 22, 1924. He died on October 1, 2018, aged 94
Turkish Press: Turkish VP: No one can defame Turkey over 1915 events
Anadolu Agency (AA), Turkey October 1, 2018 Monday Turkish VP: No one can defame Turkey over 1915 events 'We don't respect decisions of parliaments that bow before Armenian diaspora and ban Turkish views' says Fuat Oktay ANKARA Turkey's vice president on Monday slammed countries which recognize the Armenian allegations on the events of 1915. "We don't respect the decisions of the parliaments that bow before the Armenian diaspora and ban Turkish views," Fuat Oktay told a gathering of historians in the capital Ankara. Underscoring that the efforts to smear Turkey have failed, Oktay said: "Despite all efforts, those who aimed to defame our history by using the events of 1915 did not reach their goals." "The slander campaigns, which intensified particularly before 2015, have been pushed back with our country's stance and the efforts of our official institutions, such as the Turkish Historical Society," he told the 18th Turkish History Congress at the Bestepe National Congress and Culture Center. Saying Turkish history is a "whole," Oktay added: "We do not need to approach our history with a 'disclaimer of inheritance' or take a 'revisionist' perspective." Turkey's position on the events of 1915 is that deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia in 1915 occurred after some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties. Ankara does not accept the alleged "genocide," but acknowledges there were casualties on both sides during World War I. Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide" but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for both sides. Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue. Reporting by Mehet Tosun:Writing by Merve Aydogan Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.
Sports: Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of Arsenal’s tie against Qarabag in Azerbaijan
SkySports
Oct 2 2018
Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of Arsenal’s tie against Qarabag in Azerbaijan
Last Updated: 02/10/18 12:42pm
<img class=”widge-figure__image auto-size__target” src=””https://e1.365dm.com/18/10/768×432/skysports-mkhitaryan-arsenal_4440569.jpg?20181002123110″” alt=”Armenian Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not travel with the Arsenal squad to Azerbaijan” itemprop=”image”>
Armenian Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not travel with the Arsenal squad to Azerbaijan
Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not travel with the Arsenal squad for their match against Qarabag on Thursday due to continuing tensions between Azerbaijan and his native Armenia, Sky Sports News understands.
Armenian citizens are currently banned from travelling to Azerbaijan, although special exceptions have been made in the past for professional athletes.
When the Europa League draw was made last month, Arsenal said: “Safety and security of all our players and staff is always a top priority.”
The Europa League final will take place in the Azerbaijan capital Baku in May, so a decision will have to be made nearer the time should Arsenal reach the tournament’s showpiece event.
<img class=”widge-figure__image auto-size__target” src=””https://e0.365dm.com/18/10/768×432/skysports-baku-stadium_4440567.jpg?20181002123030″” alt=”The Europa League final will take place in the Azerbaijan capital Baku in May” itemprop=”image”>
The Europa League final will take place in the Azerbaijan capital Baku in May
Mkhitataryan did not travel with former club Borussia Dortmund for a Europa League match against Galaba FK three years ago for safety concerns.
Arsenal travel to Azerbaijan for their second European match of the campaign after beating Vorskla Poltava 4-2 in their opener at the Emirates.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice, with Danny Welbeck and Mesut Ozil also scoring in the victory. Mkhitaryan played all 90 minutes of the fixture.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11515221/henrikh-mkhitaryan-out-of-arsenals-tie-against-qarabag-in-azerbaijan
Arsenal travel to Azerbaijan for their second European match of the campaign after beating
Sports: Henrikh Mkhitaryan has withdrawn from Arsenal’s Europa League clash against Qarabag in Azerbaijan
Fox Sports
Oct 2 2018
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has withdrawn from Arsenal’s Europa League clash against Qarabag in Azerbaijan
October 2, 2018 4:03am
Source: FOX SPORTS
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has pulled out of Arsenal’s trip to Azerbaijan.Source: Getty Images
HENRIKH Mkhitaryan has pulled out of Arsenal’s trip to Azerbaijan this week over security fears.
And the issue could mean the star misses out on a possible appearance in the Europa League Final should the Gunners get there.
The midfielder has decided not to play in the Europa League tie against Qarabag in Baku due to the ongoing conflict between the country and his Armenia homeland.
Armenians are banned from entering Azerbaijan, with the Center for political Freddom stating: “Citizens of the Republic of Armenia, as well as citizens of any other country who are of Armenian descent, are forbidden entry to the Republic of Azerbaijan.
“If a person’s passport shows any evidence of travel to Nagorno-Karabakh, barring a diplomatic passport, they are forbidden entry to the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
UEFA did confirm last month the 29-year-old Mkhitaryan would have no issues getting a visa, saying: “It is a standard procedure for UEFA to send letters of support to associations, clubs or embassies in order to obtain visa for players in order to be able to travel to another country and play in UEFA competition matches.”
Arsenal boss Unai Emery was also keen on having the winger available for selection, adding: “I would like that he can [travel] with us. And this problem, if we can together arrange [a solution], it’s better. But I have not yet spoken with him.”
However Mkhitaryan, who played in the Gunners’ 4-2 victory over Vorskla in their group opener, has taken the decision to stay in England.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/henrikh-mkhitaryan-has-withdrawn-from-arsenals-europa-league-clash-against-qarabag-in-azerbaijan/news-story/0aa78f723beef7eb0a56e8a96025a9f6
But with the final of the competition taking place in Baku next May, last season’s semi-finalists could face a huge problem if they go one step further this time around.
Relations continue to be tricky between Armenia and Azerbaijan amid the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Tensions have heightened after further border clashes with reported deaths of Nagorno-Karabakh soldiers from Azerbaijani fire.
Despite the ban, the Azeri government do grant exceptions to the law and did so for Mkhitaryan while he was Dortmund.
Back in 2015 the authorities provided the German club and UEFA a guarantee he would be granted a visa after Dortmund were drawn against Gabala.
But he failed to travel due to concerns from his club.
This story originally appeared in The Sun.