Charles Aznavour's heirs manage a huge fortune, without drama but with a few hiccups

A hundred years after his birth and six years after his death, Charles Aznavour is at the heart of many projects. And that's not to displease his heirs who manage a real empire…

Shows all over France, including a concert event broadcast on France 3 this Friday, a film dedicated to his life with a breathtaking Tahar Rahim in the lead role, streets and squares renamed in several cities… While Charles Aznavour would have been 100 this year and left the stage exactly six years ago, in October 2018, he is at the heart of many projects and tributes in this fall of 2024. With a few million euros up for grabs in ticketing, fees, broadcasting rights, or advertising.

But it is undoubtedly the copyrights that are most impressive when we know that the works of the legend of the song, who was both author and composer, are still massively broadcast on television as well as in radio. Anecdote among others on this still phenomenal success: Charles Aznavour is today the most sampled French artist in the world, as Radio France recently pointed out.

His music and voice have recently been covered by the DJs on the bill for the Olympic ceremonies, but also by Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper who is now the most streamed on the planet. Before, it was artists such as Passy or even Dr Dre, in “What's The Difference” in 1999, who covered the background sound of “Because You Believe” and other monuments of song. During his lifetime, Aznavour assured us: “Rappers and slam poets write our language wonderfully”. And they return the favor…

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Rapper Bad Bunny released "Monaco" in October 2023, basedé on a sample of "Yesterday Again". © Alberto E. Tamargo/Sipa USA/SIPA (published 10/10/2024)

Radio France estimated that by the end of 2023, Bad Bunny would have to pay 50% of the publishing rights to Charles Aznavour's heirs, Mischa Aznavour, his sister Katia, his brother Nicolas and their half-sister Seda, who all four manage the enormous estate left by the star. In total, the royalties (amounts paid to his beneficiaries each time a song by Aznavour is broadcast) would represent more than 10 million euros per year. All in a global patrimony estimated last May in the press at 145 million euros.

In Gala, Mischa Aznavour confided then on this sensitive subject, assuring that “everything is decided together” with his brothers and sisters and “in good agreement, so that the projects do not interfere with each other”. “It must be said that the legacy was well prepared by the legend of the song. “My father had organized everything before his departure. He wanted us to have no worries”, Mischa Aznavour explained again. Which did not prevent some vexations. “To give you an idea, we had a forest in Montfort-l'Amaury, which I loved. I wanted him to leave it to me, but he wouldn't listen. He said: “It's not buildable, I'm going to sell it, you won't know what to do with it…”

The Aznavour family also had to manage the sale of the property of the singer &à Mouriès, in Provence : "It was nearly thirty years of my father's life, but it's not a place we knew too well. At the same time, I would have kept Mouriès to make the Aznavour museum there. Because, Yerevan, it's a bit like Johnny's grave in Saint-Barth : it's too far for the fans", Mischa Aznavour admitted.