Overview

From the beginning of her career in 1935 to her death in 1963 and right up to the present, Édith Piaf has been recognized as unique and iconic. She is France’s most celebrated and mythified singing star across the world. Récital 1961 explores her most important album: the live recording of her comeback concert at the Paris Olympia on 29 December 1960, which unveiled her keynote song, ‘Non je ne regrette rien’ (No Regrets). It examines the content, context and significance of the concert in relation to Piaf’s career, her life and her celebrity. What was so special about the performance and why did the ecstatic audiences, that night and at the subsequent performances in 1961, find it so powerful and moving? The book dissects the live show, the album and the songs that feature on it, and at a deeper level their place in the invention of the public Piaf we know today – asking why, more than a century after her birth and 60 years after her death, we still remember her, listen to her and commemorate her around the world.

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9781501362101

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Reviews

A jewel of a little book, elegantly written and limpidly setting out how and why Piaf’s artistry counted in 1961 and is still of interest to lovers of French chanson and to the academic study of popular music alike even sixty years after her death. * French Studies *

A jewel of a little book, elegantly written and limpidly setting out how and why Piaf’s artistry counted in 1961 and is still of interest to lovers of French chanson and to the academic study of popular music alike even sixty years after her death. * French Studies * Looseley’s account condenses a rich body of material and reflection and is written with a grace and erudition that will appeal to amateurs and specialists alike. * Modern & Contemporary France * Hugely engaging and informative ... There is much to like in the book, and the way Looseley pulls together the various cultural, political, historical and biographical strands makes for a quick, entertaining and informative read. * Popular Music *

Author Information

David Looseley is Emeritus Professor of Contemporary French Culture at the University of Leeds, UK. He writes on the popular music, culture and cultural policy of France, including Édith Piaf: A Cultural History (2015), joint winner of the Franco-British Society Literary Prize, and Popular Music in Contemporary France: Authenticity, Politics, Debate (2003). He was contributing editor (with Diana Holmes) of Imagining the Popular in Contemporary French Culture (2013). He is Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

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