Charles Aznavour

At 94 years old, Charles Aznavour has this physical status:

Charles Aznavour (AZ-n-VOOR, French) a.k.a. Originally Shahnour Valiantian, Armenian, (died May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor, and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his distinctive vibrato tenor voice in the upper reaches, with gravelly and deep low notes. He performed more than 1,200 songs in nine languages during his 70 years as a composer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition, he wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs for himself and others. Aznavour is regarded as one of the best songwriters in the history of music and a pillar of twentieth-century pop culture.

Frank Sinatra, France's Frank Sinatra, was dubbed "French pop deity" by music critic Stephen Holden, who referred to Aznavour as a "French pop deity" in his biography. He was also one of the more popular Armenian of his day, according to historians. CNN and Time Online users from around the world named Aznavour as the Entertainer of the Century in 1998. He was named as the century's greatest performer, earning nearly 18% of the total vote, edging out Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. "Before Aznavour apprehension was unpopular," Jean Cocteau said.

Aznavour performed for presidents, popes, and royalty, as well as at humanitarian functions. He founded the charitable group Aznavour for Armenia alongside his long-time friend Levon Sayan in response to the 1988 Armenian earthquake. He was granted Armenian citizenship in 2008 and was named Ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland the following year, as well as Armenia's permanent delegate to the United Nations assembly in Geneva.

In 2014, he began his last world tour. Aznavour was named the 2,618th celebrity on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 24, 2017. During World War II, he and his sister were awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Award for shielding Jews. On September 19, 2018, he will perform at NHK Hall in Osaka, his last appearance.

Charles Aznavour set six gold and platinum records around the world between 1974 and 2016, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars in 2016. He is the only French singer to hold a license from the Recording Industry Association of America, and he is one of the few French artists to have a certificate. According to his record company, the artist's albums' sales total number exceeded 180 million units (which means that the titles were distributed in all the countries released, both in his work and in those of other artists and multi-performer records).

Early life and family

At the age of 89, rue d'Assas in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris's 6th arrondissement, was transformed into a family of artists living on rue Monsieur-le-Prince. Shahnour (or Chahnour) Vahnagian (Armenian: ) was named Shahnour (Vaghnour) Vahnavourian (Armenian: ) by his parents, Armenian immigrants Michael (Misha) Aznavourian, an Armenian genocide survivor from Adapazar (in present-day Sakarya, Turkey). He had one older sister, Ada, who was born in January 1923 in Thessaloniki, Greece, before his family immigrated to France. His father, the son of a cook of Tsar Nicholas II, worked in France before establishing Le Caucase, a restaurant specialising in Caucasus cuisine. Charles' parents introduced him to performing at an early age, but he dropped out of school at age nine and adopted the stage name "Aznavour."

Aznavour and his family hid "a number of people who were persecuted by the Nazis," during World War II in Germany, though Charles and his sister Aida were involved in rescue operations. In a statement released by Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel, in 2017, their work was acknowledged. Aznavour and Aida were awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Award for their wartime services last year. "The Aznavours were closely connected to the Missak Manouchian Resistance Group, and in this sense, they gave Armenians, Jews, and others in their own Paris flat, risking their own lives."

Personal life

Aznavour was married three times: to Micheline Rugel (in 1946), Evelyn Plessis (in 1956) and his widow, Ulla Thorsell (in 1967). Five children were born from these marriages: Seda, Patrick, Katia, Mischa, and Nicolas. Charles Jr., the Aznavour's first official biographer but also a heroin user, was a sixth child, according to Yves Salgues, who was born in 1952.

Aznavour joked about his physique, the most talked about part of which was his height; he stood 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) tall. Over the years, he maintained this as a point of self-deprecating humour.

Aznavour was admitted to hospital in Saint Petersburg shortly before his 94th birthday in April 2018. He was strained his back during a rehearsal prior to a performance. The concert was postponed until the following season, but it was ultimately cancelled six months later. He appeared on BBC Radio 2's Graham Norton on May 5th, 2018.

He broke his arm in two places in a fall at his home in Mouriès a week earlier, resulting in the cancellation of all shows until the end of June. Due to a longer healing process, the 18 shows scheduled for August were eventually expanded to include the 18 shows. He mentioned that he was still feeling the pain in a French television show on September 28th, just three days before his death.

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Career

By the time Aznavour began his career as a performer, he was already familiar with performing on stage. He appeared in Un Petit Diable à Paris and La Guerre des Gosses at the age of nine. Aznavour then transitioned to professional dancing and appeared in many nightclubs. He and actor Pierre Roche began a partnership in 1944 and appeared in several nightclubs together as part of a joint venture. Aznavour began to write songs and sing as a result of this friendship. In addition, Aznavour recorded J'ai Bu, his first song. In 1948–1950, the partnership's first successes were in Canada.

Aznavour opened for Edith Piaf at the Moulin Rouge in the early stages of his career. Piaf's son was later encouraged to pursue a career in singing. Piaf aided Aznavour in establishing a distinctive voice that sparked the best of his abilities.

Aznavour performed often about love, often referred to as "France's Frank Sinatra." More than a thousand songs, he wrote or co-wrote, and released ninety-one studio albums. Aznavour's voice was muted toward the tenor range, but his voice was more recognizable of a baritone, contributing to his distinctive sound. Aznavour performed in many languages (French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Armenian, Neapolitan, and Kabyle), which later inspired him to perform at Carnegie Hall, in the United States, and other major venues around the world. He also recorded at least one song from Sayat-Nova, an Armenian-French song with Bratsch (in 2008), and Im Yare (in 2009), a popular Armenian song. The mid 1960s, "Que C'est Triste Venise" sung in French, Italian ("Com'è Triste Venezia"), Spanish ("Vivene Sin Ti"), English ("How Sad Venice Can Be"), and German ("Venedig in Grau") was a hit.

Idiote je t'aime, the latter's 23rd studio album, contained among others, two of his masterpieces, "Les plaisirs démodés" (Old-Fashioned Pleasures) and "Comme ils disent), the latter, which was revolutionary at the time.

Aznavour's song "She" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart for four weeks during a fourteen-week run in 1974. The 1973 "The Old Fashioned Way" was his most well-known song in the United Kingdom, and it was on UK charts for 15 weeks.

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Aznavour began his farewell tour in the United States and Canada at the start of fall 2006, receiving raves. Aznavour debuted in 2007 with shows all over Japan and Asia. Aznavour performed in Paris for more than 20 shows in the second half of 2007, as well as more touring in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the rest of France. Aznavour had consistently stated that this farewell tour, health permitting, will most likely last through 2010; after that, Charles Aznavour kept touring around the year. "A little hard of hearing" at 84, 60 years on stage. In his final years, he will perform in several languages and without constant use of teleprompters, but most concerts will stick to just two or three languages (French and English being the top two, with Spanish or Italian being the third). Aznavour held a major concert in Yerevan, Armenia's capital, on September 30, 2006, to kick off the cultural season "Arménie mon amie." At the time when on a formal visit to Armenia, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac were in front-row seats.

Aznavour's album Colore ma vie in Cuba with Chucho Valdés was released in 2006. Aznavour, a regular guest vocalist on Star Academy, performed with Cyril Cinélu the same year. During a Moscow concert in 2007, he performed part of "Une vie d'amour" in Russian. Aznavour was invited to appear at the Vieilles Charrues Festival in July 2007.

Aznavour appears on Capitol/EMI's "Anybody Loves Somebody Sometime" as a performer.

In February 2008, Aznavour completed a tour of Portugal. Aznavour toured South America in the spring of 2008, performing a number of concerts in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay.

He helped support Québécoise singer-lyricist Lynda Lemay's career in France and owned a house in Montreal, and was an admirer of Quebec, where he appeared in Montreal cabarets before becoming popular. He was appointed an honourary officer of the Order of Canada on July 5, 2008. On the Plains of Abraham as part of the 400th anniversary of the city's founding.

In 2008, an album of duets, Duos, was released. It's a joint effort starring Aznavour and his closest friends and acquaintances from his long career in the music industry, including Céline Dion, Sting, Laura Pausini, Josh Groban, Paul Anka, Plácido Domingo, and many others. It was first released in December 2008 around the world at various times. Charles Aznavour and The Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (previously known as Jazznavour 2) is a sequel to his hit song Jazznavour, which featured new arrangements for his classic jazz artists. On November 27, 2009, it was published.

Youssou N'Dour, a Senegalese singer and guitarist, shot and performed a music video with Band Aid in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, titled 1 geste pour Hati chérie.

Aznavour also toured through America in 2009. Aznavour en liberté, a tour that began in late April 2009 with a series of concerts in the United States and Canada, took him around Latin America in the fall, as well as the United States once more. Aznavour Toujours, 11, 2011, 11 new songs, and Elle, a French re-working of his greatest international hit, "She" released in August 2011. Following the unveiling of Aznavour Toujours, the 87-year-old Aznavour began a tour around France and Europe, ending with 21 concerts in the Olympia Theatre in Paris. On December 12, 2011, he held a concert in Moscow State Kremlin Palace that attracted a large audience. The concert was followed by a standing ovation that lasted for about fifteen minutes.

Aznavour embarked on a new North American leg of his En toute intimité tour in 2012, visiting Quebec and the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, the third-largest venue in California for multiple shows. However, the shows in New York were cancelled due to a labour squabble. Aznavour performed in his father's birthplace, Akhaltsikhe, in Georgia, in a special concert on August 16, 2012, as part of the opening ceremony of the newly restored Rabati castle.

Aznavour performed in London on October 25th for the first time in 25 years; the first concert at the Royal Albert Hall was scheduled in June 2014. In November 2013, Aznavour appeared with Achinoam Nini (Noa) in a concert dedicated to peace at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. The audience, which included Israeli President Shimon Peres (Perees and Aznavours, had a meeting prior to the performance), erupted. Aznavour performed two concerts in the Netherlands in December 2013 and again in January 2016 at Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, but the latter was postponed due to his bout of stomach flu in November).

Aznavour continued his international tour in 2014, Berlin, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Madrid, Warsaw, Prague, Moscow, Warsaw, Prague, Mosmir, Bucharest, Prague, Moscow, Bucharest, Bucharest, London, Johannesburg, Monaco, Tokyo, Berlin, and Paris.

His tour in 2017 and 2018 was continued in Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Perth, Perth, Melbourne, Melbourne, and Haiti, Tokyo, Osaka, Osaka, Madrid, London, and Monaco. In the NHK Hall of Osaka on September 19, what was supposed to be his last concert.

Filmography Aznavour had a long and varied career as an actor, appearing in over 80 films and TV series. Aznavour appeared in François Truffaut's Tirez sur le pianiste in 1960, playing a character named Édouard Saroyan, a café pianist. In 1974's film And Then There Were None, he gave a critically acclaimed appearance. Aznavour was instrumental in 1979's The Tin Drum, the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He appeared in Les Fantômes du chapelier, Claude Chabrol's 1982-1984 film. He appears and appears as one of Prince Orlovsky's guests in Die Fledermaus' 1984 version. Kiri Te Kanawa is the principal of this version of Covent Garden, and Plácido Domingo directs it. In the 2002 film Ararat, Aznavour played Edward (Édouard) Saroyan, reprising his role.

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