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Emma Saïd Ben Mohamed (10 December 1876 – 18 July 1930) was a French singer and circus performer. She was the maternal grandmother of Edith Piaf, France's national chanteuse. she worked as a singer and circus performer.

Emma Saïd Ben Mohamed
Emma as depicted in La danse mauresque by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Born	10 December 1876 Soissons, France
Died	July 18, 1930(1930-07-18) (aged 53) Paris, France
Nationality	French Moroccan
Other names	Aïcha Emma Maillard Emma Cornu
Occupation	Circus performer, singer
Known for	Maternal grandmother of Édith Piaf
Spouse(s)	Auguste Eugène Maillard ​ ​ (m. 1894; died 1912)​ Adolphe Cornu ​ (m. 1923)​
Children	Line Marsa
Relatives	Édith Piaf (granddaughter)

Early life

Emma was born on 10 December 1876 in her parents' car, which was stationed on the rue de la Paix in Soissons, France.[1] Her father, Saïd Ben Mohamed, a Kabyle acrobat, was born in 1827 in Mogador.[2][3][4][5] Her mother, Margherita (alternatively Marguerite; née Bracco), also an acrobat, was born in 1830 in Murazzano, Italy. Saïd and Margherita were married on 4 February 1853 in Poitiers. Two of Margherita's sisters, Anna and Maria Elisabetta, also married Moroccan circus performers.

Career

In 1894, Emma married fellow circus performer Auguste Eugène Maillard, whom she met whilst they were touring together with the circus. Her stage name at this time was "Aïcha". In 1895, their daughter, Annetta Giovanna was born in Livorno. Annetta went on to become a cabaret singer, under the stage name of Line Marsa. In 1915, Annetta gave birth to a daughter, who would later become the legendary French singer Édith Piaf.

According to the actress Arletty, it is Emma who appears behind and to the right of her friend La Goulue in Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's painting La danse mauresque (The Moorish Dance).

Emma's husband, Eugène, died in 1912. Emma became the primary caregiver of her granddaughter, Édith, from 1915 to 1918. However Édith was a neglected child, and subsequently was sent to her paternal grandmother in Normandy. Emma remarried in 1923 to Adolphe Louis Cornu, a hairdresser. At the beginning of the 1920s, she lost her ability to sing, so she became a cleaner.

Death

A smoker and an alcoholic, Emma died in July, 1930 of tuberculosis.

In popular culture

Emma was portrayed by Farida Amrouche in Olivier Dahan's 2007 Piaf biopic, La vie en rose.

References

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