French singer Édith Piaf was BOTD in 1915. Born Édith Gassion in Paris, she was abandoned by her circus performer parents, and raised by her grandmother in a brothel. In her teens, she joined her father as a street performer, earning money singing in the streets of Montmartre. After a brief marriage she gave birth to a daughter, who died of meningitis aged two. Spotted by gay nightclub manager Louis Leplée in 1935, he persuaded her to sing on stage, nicknaming her “La Môme Piaf” (Little Sparrow). Following Leplée’s Mob-related murder in 1936, Piaf rehabilitated her image by working with lyricist Raymond Asso, removing bawdy songs from her repertoire and co-writing and performing torch song ballads. During World War Two, she controversially performed for German officers and collaborators, though dodged accusations of treason due to her work with the Resistance. She became France’s most popular entertainer, undertaking successful international tours, breaking hearts with her impassioned on-stage persona, crisp diction, and expressive whiskey-and-cigarettes contralto. Her hit songs included Ma vie en rose (My Life in Pink), Milord, L’Accordéoniste (The Accordionist), La Foule (The Crowd), and particularly Non, je ne regrette rien (No, I have no regrets), a rousing ballad that became her signature song. Her personal life, like her music, was turbulent. Married and divorced twice, her lovers included her protégés Yves Montand and Charles Aznavour, film star John Garfield and actress Marlene Dietrich. She fell in love with married boxer Marcel Cerdan, with whom she had a passionate affair until his death in a plane crash in 1949, inspiring one of her greatest songs Hymne à l’amour (Hymn of Love). She struggled throughout her life with poor health, becoming incredibly dependent on alcohol and painkillers. She died in 1963 aged 47. Buried in Père-Lachaise Cemetery, her funeral procession brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets of Paris. Now considered one of the 20th century’s greatest performers, her work sparked a major revival of French chanson, continued by Montand and Asnavour, while her melodramatic, full-throttle delivery was adopted by generations of torch song divas including Mina, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler. Her bisexuality, tormented love life and persistent identification with outsiders made her a beloved gay icon. She has been portrayed many times on stage and screen, notably by Marion Cotillard in the 2007 biopic Ma vie en rose, who won an Oscar for her performance.