She rose every day at dusk and rehearsed, performed, ate and drank until dawn.  Then slept all day, woke up and began to create and unravel again as the sun went down.  Nearly every song Edith Piaf sang came from a moment of her life on the streets of Paris.  She would tell her composer and musician lovers a story, or describe a feeling or show them a gesture and they would put music and words to her pain and passion, giving her back her own musical autobiography.  Charles Aznavour, Francis Lai, Georges Moustaki, Henri Contet, some of France’s great musicians and writers recall their nights with Edith Piaf.   

Fugitive Waves is one of 10 podcasts in the Radiotopia Collective, some of the best story-driven podcasts on earth.  99% Invisible, The Truth, Love & Radio,Theory of Everything, Strangers, Radio Diaries, and us, The Kitchen Sisters. Come January you’ll also be hearing Criminals, Mortified, The Illusionist and Heart.   Love Funding for this episode comes from Mothlight Creative and Audible.com.  Funding for Radiotopia comes from Mailchimp and The Knight Foundation and from all of you who backed the Kickstarter campaign that kicked some serious support.

The Nights of Edith Piaf — Produced by The Kitchen Sisters in collaboration with Raquel Bitton, who hosts and translates the program