Singer, songwriter and composer Charles Dumont died after a long illness at the age of 95. He is best known for composing the legendary “Non, je ne regrette rien” by Edith Piaf. 
Charles Dumont is no more. Singer-songwriter and performer, the composer of Non, je ne regrette rien by Edith Piaf died on the night of Sunday 17th Monday, November 18, 2024, in Paris, at the age of 95, following a long illness. Information revealed by his partner to AFP. “My mother gave birth to me, but Edith Piaf gave birth to me,” said the trained trumpeter born in Cahors, March 26, 1929. “Without her, I would never have done everything I did, neither as a composer nor as a singer,” he explained in 2015
Charles Dumont, awarded a prize in 1974
Charles Dumont's career took on a new dimension in the 1960s when he managed to convince “La Môme” to perform his legendary composition, after having been refused several times. As Le Figaro recalls, “On October 5, 1960 the big day finally arrives. Piaf is ill but still deigns to receive Dumont and Vaucaire (lyricist, editor's note). The shy Charles sits down at the piano. He presses hard on the keyboard. He hums “Non, je ne regrette rien". The rest, everyone knows it, and this title is now known throughout the world.
During a career spanning sixty years, Charles Dumont also collaborated with other great names in song such as Dalida and Tino Rossi. At the end of the 1960s, he had become a “crooner”. He even won the Charles-Cros Academy Prize with the album “Une femme” in 1973. His last appearance on stage was in 2019 at the Théâtre de la Tour-Eiffel. “When you come back in front of an audience that comes to see you as they did 20, 30 or 40 years ago and gives you the same welcome, then they give you back your 20s,” he declared.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“I was in serious financial difficulties. I wrote this song in anger”
The first interpretation of No, I don't regret anything, by Edith Piaf dates back to December 2, 1960, on the television show Cinq colonnes. “When I sing, I'm no longer there (…) it's a “second state”, she declared. A song recorded on November 10, 1960 after a “revelation” according to the artist. In reality, the title could never have seen the light of day: “I was in serious financial difficulties. I wrote this song in anger,” Dumont conceded in 2013. It was the lyricist Michel Vaucaire who then insisted to Piaf to make her listen to it, after numerous refusals of La Môme to Charles Dumont.
On October 20, 1960, Piaf met Dumont and Vaucaire in unusual circumstances to say the least. Just before, the icon's secretary had called to “cancel” because the singer was not feeling well, but the two men did not receive the message and showed up at 5 p.m. Piaf's address, 67 boulevard Lannes in Paris. The secretary is about to show them out when they hear Piaf's voice shout: “Let them in since they're here”, recalls France Info.
Edith Piaf then greets the two men in her dressing gown. Charles Dumont starts the melody on the piano, and after the third time, she interrupts him: “she said to me: “Listen young man, don't worry, don't worry anymore. This song will follow you all your life, it will be a worldwide success and thanks to it, I will make my comeback at the Olympia”, she had said, Dumont recalls. The title will remain at the top of the charts for 48 weeks.