French Singer Charles Aznavour

Charles Aznavour will celebrate his 81st birthday in May. The entertainer's successful singing career started more than sixty years ago.

How would you describe your character?
I'm quiet, I'm a hard worker. I think I'm honest with my friends, with myself, with my public. I'm very warm-hearted to my friends but I often appear cold to other people.

Love songs, socially critical lyrics and his mellow voice became his trademarks. At the end of the 1950s, Charles Aznavour became internationally renowned as a film actor, and gained star status in France. He has written more than 750 songs and works as a UNESCO special ambassador supporting humanitarian causes in Armenia.
His favorite music is Hungarian gypsy music. Because he's very interested in languages, he likes encyclopedias and dictionaries. And Aznavour's favorite food is French and Armenian cuisine

What makes you happy? The fact that I'm alive, that I have a family which is in good shape makes me very very much... And everything's working out well for me. So I have no reason not to be happy." +++

What's your secret passion?
I have no secret passions. I have open passions: my family, my kids, my grandchildren and the last one who just is 18 months now. I'm very very much oriented familywise.

Who is your personal hero?
When I was young, my hero was somebody like James Cagney for example. He had things which I loved very much. He was able to sing, to dance, to act and he was not too tall.

What's important in a friendship?
Honesty. One word is enough for that: Honesty.

Who are you grateful to ? My parents. They have abandoned everything and worked in another kind of work not easy to raise us, my sister and I.

Who do you owe an apology to? I don't have something like that.

Do you have a unfulfilled dream?
When I was young, I was somebody without any ambition. What I wanted was to be an actor who would be able to act all his life even with small parts in a theatre, not even in a movie. And I received much more from life.

What's your most valued possession?
Nothing. Nothing. I can drop everything and leave.