1. Milord

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Edith Piaf - from her mouth to your heart. The Essay explores her life and work through five writers on five songs. 1: Milord by Lucy O'Meara. 'That huge voice, the voice of a pauper dreaming.' Piaf rose from utter poverty to international stardom but never truly left the streets behind both in he stage personae & in reality. Her realm was the chanson realiste - songs that evoked the lower depths and delighted the adoring bourgeois audiences. 'A song is a story but the audience must be able to believe it. I'm the lover, my song must be sad, it must be a cry from the heat, it's my life' said Piaf. Milord was composed in 1959 by Marguerite Monnot with lyrics by Piaf's then current lover Georges Moustaki. It dwells in the shadows of the street and a dialogue between high and low. Toff and a girl from the rough side of town. Producer - Mark Burman A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 3