PARIS: The legendary French singer Charles Aznavour — who said last week he wanted to breathe his last on stage — died on Monday. He was 94.

The songwriter, who had just returned from a concert tour of Japan, passed away at his home in Alpilles in southeastern France.

The veteran French actor Alain Delon said his old friend had “died in his sleep”. “I loved that man. I am in bits.”

Aznavour had to cancel several shows after breaking his arm in a fall earlier this year.

But as late as Friday the diminutive singer told French television that though his Swedish-born wife wanted him to stop, he would happily die on stage.

“I always go forwards.

I have no reverse gear,” he said.

“All I can do is live, and I live on stage. I am happy up there.”

His doctor Jean Abitbol said his voice had “practically never aged. He knew how to look after it and lived a rigorously healthy life, which was rare for his time.

“He wanted to die on stage like (the playwright) Moliere, and that is kind of what he did,” he told French TV.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2018