[1] She was classically trained by her father and at the Paris Conservatory (her teachers included Nadia Boulanger, Vincent d’Indy, and Alfred Cortot).

Monnot made the unusual switch to composing popular music after poor health ended her career as a concert pianist at the age of eighteen.

[citation needed] Monnot worked with lyricists such as Raymond Asso, Henri Contet, Georges Moustaki, and collaborated with musicians and writers including Charles Aznavour, Yves Montand, Boris Vian, and Marlene Dietrich, who gathered in Piaf's living room regularly to play and sing.

In 1955, she achieved major success with her setting of Alexandre Breffort's book, Irma la Douce, which was translated into English and had long runs in London and on Broadway under the direction of Peter Brook.

Every evening, pupils and friends gathered in their home to play and sing, and the Monnots sometimes invited well-known musicians to join them.

From twelve to fifteen years of age, she performed in several different cities, including Paris, where Camille Saint-Saëns is said to have remarked of her, "I have just heard the best pianist in the world."

Her concert career was interrupted in 1921, on the eve of a United States tour, by a bout of ill health and what the French call "le trac", or an attack of nerves.

Lyricist Marc Hély then asked her to compose the music for "Viens dans mes bras", sung by Lucienne Boyer and published by Salabert.

The publisher, Maurice Decruck, denied her request, however, because a singer had exclusive rights to a song for a six-month period,[citation needed] Piaf learned it and sang it at Le Gerny's, the nightclub where she was performing at the time.

Some years later, during a trip to Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria, Monnot and Asso were awarded decorations by the Foreign Legion.

Their songs were performed by Piaf, and many famous female singers at the time, including Damia, Mona Goya, and Line Viala.

These include the songs from the film Montmartre-sur-Seine ("Tu es partout", "Un coin tout bleu", "Y’en a un de trop", "Où sont-ils mes petits copains?

This was also the period when Piaf recorded a number of songs which were never released, such as "Je ne veux plus faire la vaisselle" ("I Don’t Want To Wash Dishes Anymore").

During Piaf's tour of the stalags in Germany during the war, one of the famous Monnot-Asso songs, "Le fanion de la Légion", was banned because it had supposedly created a patriotic fervor in Parisian audiences.

In the 1950s, Monnot also collaborated with a few new lyricists, including Michel Emer, Luiguy, Norbert Glanzberg, Philippe-Gérard, Florence Véran, and Hubert Giraud, and with the orchestra of Robert Chauvigny.

She continued to write for Piaf with another songwriter, René Rouzaud, who had already composed for Damia, Georges Guétary, and Lys Gauty.

It played simultaneously in France, the UK, the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil and Argentina.

Shortly after the success of Irma, Disney Studios reportedly asked Monnot to come to Hollywood and compose for American films, but she refused to leave her settled life in France.

From then, she collaborated regularly with Marcel Blistène, including writing some songs for the film Les amants de demain in 1959.

In 1957, Monnot met the lyricist Michel Rivgauche, with whom she was to write "Salle d’attente", "Fais comme si", "Tant qu’il y aura des jours" and "Les blouses blanches", at Piaf's apartment .

It's dreadful, this emptiness inside me.On 12 October 1961, at the age of 58, Marguerite Monnot died in a Paris hospital from a ruptured appendix and the resulting peritonitis.