Charles Aznavour

Born Shahnur Vaghinak Aznavourian in 1924, he carried Armenian roots into a French career that redrew the borders of chanson. The voice - clear and ringing high, gravelly low - became the instrument for songs he wrote or co-wrote by the hundreds, spanning languages and generations. Cocteau cast him in Le Testament d'Orphée in 1960; by then the trajectory was set. When the 1988 Armenian earthquake hit, he founded Aznavour for Armenia with impresario Lévon Sayan, and later took on diplomatic posts: Armenia's ambassador to UNESCO from 1994, then to Switzerland and the UN. He toured until the end - his last world tour launched in 2014, a Hollywood star followed in 2017, and his final performance came at NHK Hall in Osaka in September 2018, a month before his death. More than 180 million records sold, sixty gold and platinum plaques, and a Raoul Wallenberg Award shared with his sister for sheltering Jews during the war.