No regrets as Byrne sings Piaf’s songbook

In the run-up to Bastille Day, singer, Jeanette Byrne (inset), will perform from the songbook of the famous French chanteuse Edith Piaf at Triskel Christchurch in Cork on Saturday.

The concert, ‘No Regrets,’ was put together by Byrne who first performed it on the 50th anniversary of Piaf’s death last year at the Sugar Club in Dublin.

Byrne, who grew up between London and Dublin, had a French grandmother on her mother’s side. “That’s where the French influence comes from,” says Byrne. “I stayed with my grandmother every summer in a village near the Loire Valley. I speak French reasonably well and I have always worked at music in one way or another.”

Having been in a band with her sister and her brother, Paul Byrne (a former member of In Tua Nua), Byrne’s career kicked off about 20 years ago when she started singing with Jack L, then known as Jack Lukeman.

At Triskel Christchurch, Byrne will sing everything from ‘La Vie en Rose’ to ‘Non, Je ne regrette rien’, but says she does not impersonate the diminutive Piaf, known as ‘the little sparrow.’ “I’m an interpreter; I’m nothing like Piaf. I’m about a foot taller than her and I have blonde hair.”

For Byrne, much of Piaf’s appeal lies in her passion. “She sang of heartache, love and the everyday lives of the people from the streets of Paris. Even if you don’t understand French, audiences get the songs. There’s something quite different about her music; the composition of the songs, their structure and content.”

Piaf, who died of liver cancer at the age of 47, had in many ways a tragic life. Her mother abandoned her when she was born and Piaf was raised for a few years by prostitutes in her paternal grandmother’s brothel in Normandy. Her father, a street performer, took her away from the brothel thinking she could add to his act.

“That’s how she started singing. In the show, I don’t dwell on all the tragedy in her life.”

But Byrne says that the cabaret singer overcame adversity to become a mega star. She also points to Piaf’s generosity in encouraging new talent. “She discovered Charles Aznavour and Yves Montand. There’s a section of the show called ‘The Legacy’. It’s the music we have nowadays from the likes of Whitney Houston and Adele who were inspired by Piaf.”

During the Second World War Piaf performed at the social gatherings of German forces in occupied France. She was thought of by many as a traitor. But after the war, she stated she had been working for the French Resistance.

Piaf’s second husband was 20 years her junior. “I think she was an incurable romantic,” says Byrne. Certainly, Edith Piaf communicated the emotional rollercoaster of love and loss in her unique way.

No Regrets is at Triskel, Saturday