North America tour for singer Aznvour

NEW YORK - Agence France-Presse

Charles Aznavour. AFP photo

French singer Charles Aznavour is back for a new North American concert tour, and it’s not to say farewell.
“I just wrote a song saying I will not say goodbye,” says the 87-year-old crooner of his upcoming concerts in Montreal, Quebec City, Los Angeles and New York.

Instead, he thinks of the tour as a kind of homecoming to places that bring back youthful memories.
“I love New York,” he said in an interview as he recalled his debut in a nightclub here along with pianist Pierre Roche.

In their early days, they would sometimes play poker “to pay for a hot dog,” Aznavour said.
“I came here in 1948,” he said. “We had a contract almost immediately... We were hired for a week or two, we stayed for five weeks.”

Each audience will get a different show during the nine performances of Aznavour’s mini-tour, during which he also plans to attend his granddaughter’s wedding April 21 on the eve of his only concert in LA. In Montreal and Quebec City from April 10 to April 14, he plans to mix old and new songs. In New York on April 26, 27 and 28, he intends to stick to the “essentials,” like “La Boheme,” “Take Me Away” and “Die for Love.”