Discover the story of the song > Hymne à l’amour – Édith Piaf

- Hymne à l'amour is a song by Edith Piaf released in 1950, whose lyrics were written by Edith Piaf and music by Marguerite Monnot.
- It has become a classic of French song and is among the greatest hits of Édith Piaf.
- Édith Piaf wrote Hymne à l'amour thinking of the man she loved, the boxer Marcel Cerdan, whom she met in 1948 in New York, where she was on tour.
- In early 1949, the couple bought a house in Boulogne-Billancourt: it was in this house that she wrote what would become one of her greatest hits.
- Arranged by Albert Lasry, the song was recorded on July 28, 1949 and approved by the SACEM on August 8. Marguerite Monnot would have been inspired by the lied Frühlingsnacht by Robert Schumann to compose the music.
- Initially, Édith Piaf offered L'Hymne à l'amour to Yvette Giraud, who recorded it only after her death in 1965.
- Finally, Édith Piaf sang this song for the first time on September 14, 1949 at "Versailles", a cabaret in New York. On October 28, 1949, Marcel Cerdan died in the crash of Air France flight 009, and she sang the song that night to pay tribute to him.
- She finally recorded it before May 2, 1950 with the orchestra of Robert Chauvigny.