Piaf’s early repertoire was dominated by the songs of Maryse Damia, an impassioned artist known as La Tragedienne De La Chanson who had recorded an interpretation of Gloomy Sunday to rival Billie Holiday’s, and was also noted for performing dressed entirely in black. Piaf herself adopted this style years before Juliette Greco and the 1950s existentialists emulated the same dress code at Le Tabou. Piaf has been "the" French singer, the Parisian street-bird, the dark cabaret muse "par excellence". She was a wild tormented soul when she sang; a tiny silhouette dressed in black, with bony white hands that looked like wounded doves. An illustrious talent, her voice was unique, moving and incendiary. We almost begrudge 'The Sparrow' for having been so colossal (she was only 1m40 tall). Nobody can measure up to her. She is "the" French singer - for whom we are still searching in vain, for an heiress. But Piaf was more than just Piaf, she came after a period which had engendered Cocteaus, Sartres, Chagalls... And she herself gave birth to Montands, Aznavours, Becauds... Piaf was France. A France without marketing, promotion, a hit parade . . . simply talent and, above all, passion.