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Full name - The Little Sparrow's full name was Édith Giovanna Gassion.

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Paris born and bred - Édith Piaf was born on December 19, 1915 in the neighborhood of Belleville in Paris' 20th district.

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Destined for greatness - Her mother was an Italian born singer of French origin and her father a circus acrobat from Normandy. Baby Édith was destined for the stage.

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Difficult childhood - However, her childhood wasn't an easy ride by any means. Abandoned by her mother, she went to live with her maternal grandmother. Not long after that, she was moved to live with her paternal grandmother.

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Maman Tine - She was moved because her father enlisted to fight in the war in 1916. Maman Tine, as Piaf's grandmother was known, ran a brothel.

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Singing - At about 15 years of age she began singing and performing in various Parisian bars.

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Le Chat Noir - Le Chat Noir in the 18th district of Paris is said to have been one of the first venues where a young Piaf could be seen performing and finding her voice.

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Discovery - However, it wouldn't be until 1935 that she would be discovered. Nightclub owner Louis Leplée took notice of the petite 19-year-old girl with the big voice as she sang on a street corner.

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The voice - Deeply impressed by the truly unique sound of her voice, he took her under his wing. They became close friends.

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A sparrow - Standing only 4 ft 8 in (1.42 m) tall, the slight Édith reminded him of a young sparrow, which is where her nickname "La môme Piaf" ("The Little Sparrow") comes from.

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Beyond Paris - She wasn't just influencing audiences in Paris. She discovered famed Quebec singer Claude Léveillée, inviting him to collaborate with her in Paris. He later moved back to Canada, and had great success.

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Believer - Édith Piaf was a deeply religious woman. Legend has it that her fervor stemmed from a miraculous healing from blindness at the age of seven. The blindness, supposedly brought on by keratitis, elicited a pilgrimage to the burial site of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Her grandmother rubbed earth from the saint's grave into Édith's eyes, after which she is said to have regained her sight.

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Recurring themes - Piaf sang about passionate love and joy, but also deep sadness.

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Love life - While she was a success professionally, her love life was steeped in tragedy, and would remain so until the end of her life.

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Marcel Cerdan - Boxer Marcel Cerdan is said to have been the love of her life. However, fate dealt her a cruel blow when on his way back to see her in 1949, his plane crashed and he died. Distraught, she reportedly never truly recovered from this loss.

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A string of relationships - After Cerdan's death, Piaf had a number of relationships with famous men. There was the cyclist Louis "Toto" Gérardin, as well as singer Jacques Pills, whom she married in 1952. She also had an affair with famous Egyptian-French singer Georges Moustaki.

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Her last wedding - A year before her death in October of 1962, a very ill 46-year-old Édith married 26-year-old singer Théo Sarapo.

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Launching careers - Piaf didn't just make a name for herself. She's credited with having launched the careers of several revered singers.

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Charles Aznavour - It was under her wing that the careers of some of the true greats of French music were able to ripen. For instance, she launched the career of Charles Aznavour (1924-2018), but also those of Georges Moustaki (1934-2013), and even Yves Montand (1921-1991).

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Addiction - Despite her magnificent career however, she could only find solace in a bottle. She also became dependent on the morphine she took to combat the pain of her polyarthritis.

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Excess - Her last days were unfortunately unpleasant. Suffering from polyarthritis and her severe alcohol and morphine dependencies, she would eventually succumb to a ruptured aneurysm in 1963.

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Gone too soon - She passed away at the tragically young age of 47.

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Death date - Questions still remain on the exact date of her death as well as on her whereabouts.

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October 10 or 11 - Whereas some say she died on October 10 in her residence in the town of Grasse (in the French Alps), others believe she was at her home in Paris and died on the morning of October 11.

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Her passing - Paris was left in a deep state of mourning after her passing. Her final resting place is Père-Lachaise, the cemetery where other cultural icons like Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are also buried.

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Piaf on film - Since her death, a whole host of films, series, and books have been written about her. One of the first people to portray her on screen was British actress Jane Lapotaire (pictured) in a 1984 British TV production.

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Piaf on film - In 2008, Marion Cotillard became the first-ever Frenchwoman to win a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Piaf in Olivier Dahan's biopic 'La Vie en Rose.' Allegedly, the film impacted her so deeply that she had to go into therapy afterwards.

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Covers -

There are an innumerable amount of covers, from French and international artists alike, of Piaf's music. She has undoubtedly made her mark on history, and her influence continues to inspire to this day. 

See also: How to fit in with the French

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