A tribute to Édith Piaf will be held at the Beacon Theater in September, featuring an impressive lineup of female vocalists assembled by French promoters, among them Marianne Faithfull, Duffy, Madeleine Peyroux and Angelique Kidjo.
The concert on Sept. 19 will mark the first time the organizers of the five-day Francofolies festival in France have ventured into the United States market. Started in 1985, the festival in the coastal town of La Rochelle is devoted to contemporary French music and has grown into one of Europe’s biggest concerts, drawing about 100,000 people each year.
“We want to put Francophone music back on the map in the U.S.,†said Gerard Pont, a principal in Morgane Groupe, the production company behind Francofolies New York.
Piaf is perhaps the best-known French singer in modern history, and focusing on her work gives organizers an entree to the New York audience. The concert will be held weeks before the 50th anniversary of her death in October.
Other singers on the bill include Patricia Kaas, Alex Hepburn, Beth Ditto, Julien Clerc, Olivia Ruiz, Charles Dumont and Camélia Jordana.
Besides the concert at the Beacon, which will be filmed for later broadcast on a French television network, the festival will include two performances at the Standard hotel in the East Village as part of its Standard Sounds series.
