LA VIE EN ROSE

American Idol? Puh-lease. Mariah Carey has greater range, and Jessica Simpson is MTV-cute and sells more records, but Edith Piaf has soul. Here she performs La Vie En Rose in 1954. It's her most famous song, describing the happiness she had with her lover, the boxer Marcel Cerdon. Cerdon died in a plane crash in 1949 while flying from New York to meet her in Paris. Piaf's life was tragic from the start, and she found solace in music and narcotics. She was discovered by a nightclub owner in the Pigalle area of Paris, in 1935, while busking in the streets.