I heartily recommended listening to Charles Aznavour if you want to improve your French. And given they’ve just named a part of the Luxembourg Gardens after the man himself, what better time to listen?!
But who was Charles Aznavour?
He was an Armenian/French singer who released 1,200 songs in nine languages. He was one of the best-selling artists of all time, was “discovered” by Edith Piaf, and when Bob Dylan saw him live in London in the sixties, Dylan said “he just blew my brains out”.
When Aznavour died in 2018, he was honoured with a state funeral at Les Invalides in Paris, and President Macron said he was “one of France’s faces”. He added that Aznavour “made our life sweeter, our tears less bitter”.
His coffin was carried away to perhaps my favourite song of all, Emmenez-Moi, sung by the military choir. Watch the clip below but beware: It’s quite a sad and moving moment.
If you want a good Aznavour song to get hooked, I suggest people learn from the Aznavour song For Me Formidable (which is half in English, half in French, and full of wordplay). On an Earful Tower podcast episode in the past, where we offered 13 tricks to speaking better French, this was one of my top tips!
Then someone emailed and asked: What are some other good Aznavour songs?
Well never fear, I made a Spotify playlist with my favourite ten songs from the great man. All of these songs have a particularly special meaning for me, and you’ve very likely to find them as background music on my Instagram stories. (Hope you’re following)
Take a listen, and let me know what I missed in the comments below.
The List: Ten Great Aznavour Songs
For Earful Tower Patreon members, we’ve just released a special list of our favourite French songs (featuring Aznavour and more). Unlock the playlist, and hundreds of other members-only posts, by signing up here.
Here’s the podcast episode about improving your French too, please hit follow!
PS: While I’m a huge fan of Aznavour, I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person. I would have loved to have interviewed him for the podcast, but the closest I ever got was his wax statue at the Musée Grévin (below)!
