Charles Aznavour

Charles Aznavour, born Shahnur Vaghinak Aznavourian on 22 May 1924 at the clinic Tarnier in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district of Paris, was a French-Armenian singer-songwriter, actor, diplomat, and Broadway performer whose career spanned more than seven decades. He died on 1 October 2018. His parents, Michael Aznavourian, originally from present-day Akhaltsikhe, Georgia, and Knar Baghdasarian, from Adapazarı in present-day Turkey, were Armenian immigrants who ran a small restaurant on the rue de la Huchette in Paris, a gathering place for actors and musicians. Aznavour had one older sister, Aida, born in January 1923 in Thessaloniki, Greece. At the age of nine, he left school, adopted the stage name Aznavour, and took on roles in a play called Un Petit Diable à Paris and a film entitled La Guerre des Gosses.

His parents introduced him to performing from an early age, and he subsequently worked as a professional dancer in several nightclubs. In 1944, he formed a partnership with actor Pierre Roche, through which he began writing and performing songs in earnest. That same year he wrote his first song, J'ai Bu. The partnership achieved its first notable successes in Canada between 1948 and 1950. During the early stages of his career, Aznavour opened for Édith Piaf, who advised him to focus on singing and helped him develop his distinctive vocal style. Over the course of his career he recorded more than 1,200 songs across multiple languages, including French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Armenian, Neapolitan, and Kabyle, and wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs for himself and other artists. He released ninety-one studio albums in total.

Aznavour's voice occupied the tenor range while also carrying the lower coloration more typical of a baritone, producing a sound characterized by a clear, ringing upper register and gravelly low notes. His 1972 studio album Idiote je t'aime included two songs that became classics: "Les plaisirs démodés" and "Comme ils disent," the latter addressing homosexuality. In 1974, his song "She" reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, where it remained for four weeks during a fourteen-week chart run. His 1973 recording "The Old Fashioned Way" spent fifteen weeks on UK charts. Between 1974 and 2016, he received approximately sixty gold and platinum records worldwide, and his record company reported total sales exceeding 180 million units.

Artists who recorded his compositions or collaborated with him include Édith Piaf, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Andrea Bocelli, Bing Crosby, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Dusty Springfield, Liza Minnelli, Elton John, Dalida, Serge Gainsbourg, Josh Groban, Petula Clark, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, José Carreras, Nana Mouskouri, Peggy Lee, Julio Iglesias, Mireille Mathieu, and Luciano Pavarotti, with whom Aznavour sang Gounod's "Ave Maria." Sinatra was among the rare occasions on which a European singer was invited to duet with him. In 1974, Jack Jones recorded an album of Aznavour compositions entitled Write Me A Love Song, Charlie. Dutch singer Liesbeth List released Charles Aznavour Presents Liesbeth List in 1976, featuring his compositions with English lyrics. English singer Marc Almond, whom Aznavour named as his favorite interpreter of his songs, covered "What Makes a Man a Man" in the 1990s.

On Broadway, Aznavour performed from 1965 to 1998, appearing in four productions: Aznavour, Charles Aznavour, The World of Charles Aznavour, and Charles Aznavour on Broadway. He also contributed as a book writer to Broadway productions.

During the German occupation of France in World War II, Aznavour, his sister Aida, and their family sheltered Jews and others being persecuted by the occupying forces, activities connected to the Missak Manouchian Resistance Group. In 2017, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin issued a statement recognizing their wartime work, and that same year Aznavour and Aida received the Raoul Wallenberg Award for those activities.

Following Armenia's 1988 earthquake, Aznavour founded the charitable organization Aznavour for Armenia together with impresario Lévon Sayan. In 1994, he was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Armenia to UNESCO, a position he held until his death. Armenia granted him citizenship in 2008, and the following year he was appointed Armenia's ambassador to Switzerland and its permanent delegate to the United Nations office in Geneva. In 2017, Aznavour received the 2,618th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He began his final world tour in 2014, and his last performance took place at the NHK Hall in Osaka in September 2018.