Life is a cabaret

Celebrated vocalist and Pāpāmoa local Mandy Meadows is taking her internationally acclaimed cabaret, Piaf: The Legend, around the North Island.

Words Karl Puschmann

Édith Piaf is a true French icon. The singer was one of the country’s biggest stars and one of its few musical acts to have a global impact. Her songs, largely autobiographical ballads about love and loss, were received as instant classics that immediately joined the standards songbook to be covered and reinterpreted forevermore.

But despite all of Édith’s fame, her life remains shrouded in mystery. Even decades after her death the renowned French chanteuse still
keeps many dark secrets. 

“She was a very complex, complicated character,” vocalist Mandy Meadows says. “She was abandoned by her mother and father who were circus performers and grew up in a brothel. Nobody really knew exactly where she was from.”

Mandy has been fascinated by Édith for as long as she can remember. As an international singer, it’s no surprise that she’d be enamoured by the songs, but Édith’s life also captured her imagination. So much so that she created a cabaret style show around it.

Titled Piaf: The Legend, the show tells the story of Édith’s life via her remarkable songs like La Vie En Rose, La Foule and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien. For complete authenticity, Mandy sings them in their original French.

“All the songs are in French but the story is in English, so everybody can understand that because it is a show for everybody,” she says. “Whether you're a fan or not, it's really her incredible story that’s so captivating.”

Édith’s life was full of contradictions but never boring. From her childhood as a street urchin to helping POW’s escape during the war to becoming one of the biggest stars in the world.

“She was a real contrast of flaws and beauty,” Mandy says. “And unapologetically human, which is what I really like about her. She was a phoenix, rising above the ashes. There was nothing pretty about her life. It was really very tragic. But through all of that, she created these absolutely stunning songs and had a big, booming voice out of someone so small.”

Mandy first performed Piaf: The Legend in London’s Piccadilly Circus around seven years ago after funding its development by joining a paid clinical trial.

“I literally gave my blood for this show,” she laughs.

Since then she’s taken it all over the globe, leaving audiences spellbound and earning four and five-star reviews. Now she’s bringing that special French je ne sais quoi to the North Island. 

With dancers, a six-piece band that includes French accordion and clarinet and, of course, Mandy’s acclaimed vocals and performance leading the way the cabaret is all but guaranteed to transport you out of the regions and straight over to Paris. 

“I get quite emotional actually,” Mandy replies when asked how she feels while performing Édith’s passionate and powerful songs. “I really feed off the audience and I always cry. I always have that moment on stage where something really emotional happens and I feel the audience tense up. I do the same. It's a real energy and a beautiful thing. It's a really unique experience.” 

For more info, videos and tickets visit piafthelegend.com