Singer, born in Paris. Abandoned by her mother at birth and raised by her grandmother, she was blinded for four years by meningitis, and it was her father, an acrobat, who encouraged her to sing. She started her career by singing in the streets, graduating to cabaret, and becoming known as Piaf, from the Parisian slang for "sparrow'. She appeared in plays and films, but it was for her songs, with their undercurrent of sadness and nostalgia, that she became legendary, travelling widely in Europe and America. Despite her phenomenal success, her life was marred by unhappiness and illness. Among her best-remembered songs are "La vie en rose', and "Non, je ne regrette rien'. .