2024-10-17 09:24:00
One hundred years after his birth and six years after his death, Charles Aznavour is at the center of numerous projects. And this is not to displease his heirs who manage a real empire…
Performances across France, including a concert event broadcast this Friday on France 3, a film dedicated to his life with a breathtaking Tahar Rahim in the lead role, renamed streets and squares in several cities… While Carlo Aznavour he would have turned 100 this year and left the stage just six years ago, in October 2018, he is at the center of numerous projects and tributes in autumn 2024. With a few million euros up for grabs between ticketing, fees, broadcasting rights or advertising.
But it is undoubtedly the copyright that impresses the most when we know that the works of the singing legend, who was both an author and a composer, are still widely broadcast on television and radio. Anecdote among others about this always phenomenal success: Charles Aznavour is today the most sampled French artist in the world, as he recalls Radio France not long ago.
His music and voice have recently been interpreted by DJs who performed at Olympic ceremonies, but also by Bad Bunny, the most streamed Puerto Rican rapper on the planet today. Previously it was artists like Passy or even Dr Dre, in 1999’s “What’s The Difference”, who covered the background music of “Parce que tu Crois” and other monuments of the song. During his lifetime, Aznavour assured him: “rappers and slammers write our language beautifully.” And so they give it back to him…
Rapper Bad Bunny released “Monaco” in October 2023, based on a sample from “Hier encore”. © Alberto E. Tamargo/Sipa USA/SIPA (published on 10/10/2024)
Radio France estimates that at the end of 2023 Bad Bunny will pay 50% of the publishing royalties to Charles Aznavour’s heirs, Mischa Aznavour, his sister Katia, his brother Nicolas and their half-sister Seda, all four of whom manage the enormous legacy left behind from the star. In total, the royalties (amounts paid to rights holders each time a work by Aznavour is broadcast) would amount to more than 10 million euros per year. All in a world heritage estimated last May by the press at 145 million euros.
At Gala, Mischa Aznavour then opened up about this delicate topic, assuring that “everything will be 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 has been well prepared by the legend of the song. “My father had organized everything before he left. He wanted us to have no problems,” explained Mischa Aznavour. Which didn’t prevent some annoyances. “To give you an idea, we had a forest in Montfort-l’Amaury, which I liked very much. I wanted him to leave it to me, but he didn’t want to hear anything. He said: ‘It’s not buildable, I’ll sell it, you won’t know what to do with it…”
The Aznavour family also had to manage the sale of the singer’s property in Mouriès, Provence: “It was almost thirty years of my father’s life, but it was not a place we knew much. At the same time, I would have kept Mouriès making the Aznavour museum because Yerevan is a bit like Johnny’s grave in Saint-Barth: it’s too far away for the fans,” admitted Mischa Aznavour.
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