No stopping for Aznavour as the 92 year old legend set to perform live in Moscow April 5

YEREVAN, APRIL 3, ARMENPRESS. Everyone gets surprised when I speak about my age, but it is due to my audience that I stay young and go forward, the legendary French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour, 92, told reporters in Moscow.

Aznavour has a concert scheduled for April 5 in the Russian capital.

“I love my job and my audience. These two are the most important for an artist. Even if I am a little tired it doesn’t mean that it can stop me, I have to move forward in my work, I have to go meet my audience, and I do so. I have to go up the stage”, he said.

Aznavour stressed in order for the audience to love the artist, the artist has to first of all love the audience.

“During all these years my audience remains grateful and loyal. It is the audience that makes us go forward and do better than the previous time. We stay young thanks to the audience”, he said.

Asked about all the awards he has received during the many years of his singing career, Aznavour noted that he has always gladly accepted awards.

“There are people who refuse all awards. I always accept what I am being granted, because in my opinion it is the response to what I have done during my life and career. For instance, I have received the highest award of France for three times”, he said.

The singer said learning the languages which he used for work has been a priority for him during his life, for instance Italian, Spanish and others.

Although Russian has been left out of this list of priorities, he is trying to learn this language as well.

“Aida and I were unable to learn Russian, unfortunately, however Russian has always been close to us. For example, my father would always put his signature with Russian letters, he was able to write in Georgian and Armenian, but he always signed in Russian”, he said.

Aznavour also underscored that although his native language was Armenian from birth, his working language is French. He also mentioned he has his way of learning languages – when he visits a foreign country, he likes to read the advertisements in that country’s language.

“Education wasn’t free in France, I couldn’t afford to go to colleges or universities, therefore the streets became my school”, he said.

Aznavour also commented on his song dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, saying: “I wrote a song dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, which is entitled “They fell”. My Turkish friends would say – you could have written a song about the Holocaust, to which I responded that the most important is to find the right term. And that term was – What a man does to a man, an animal won’t do to an animal”.

Aznavour also said he has no intentions to end his musical career.