Charles Aznavour

Charles Aznavour was born on May 22, 1924, in Paris, in the family of Armenian immigrants. His father Mischa (Mamigon) Aznavourian, mother Knar Baghdasaryan together with his sister Aida who was born in Greece during the journey from Western Armenia escaping the Armenian Genocide, happened to be temporarily in France waiting for their visas to the US. In fact, his family did not realize at that time that they would settle there indefinitely. Charles’s parents were artists producing shows that would hardly bring any profit.
His father also owned a small restaurant, Le Caucase, where he often offered free lunches to those in need and where the father and son were singing for the visitors of the restaurant. But they had to close the restaurant because of the low incomes and the fact that they fed people for free and couldn’t continue doing it forever. Charles started his career in show business at a very young age, together with his sister Aida they were making appearances in plays here and there. Aznavour had developed such a passion for singing and dancing, that had to sell newspapers to earn money for his lessons