Mon légionnaire
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Mon légionnaire is a French song created in 1936 by Marie Dubas, with lyrics by Raymond Asso and music by Marguerite Monnot. Marie Dubas toured the United States with this song in 1939.
Raymond Asso was a veteran of the French Foreign Legion, who also wrote "Le Fanion de la Légion" (The Flag of the Legion), and was taken up by Dubas and afterwards by Piaf - but with less success. The song is now mainly identified with Édith Piaf, who took it up as a central element of her repertoire, and appears in most records of Piaf's songs. The romantic theme of a woman's longing for an embittered Legionnaire with whom she had a brief affair and who refused to tell her his name fits well with Piaf's image. "Mon légionnaire" was reprised by Serge Gainsbourg in the 1980s; the male voice singing the lyrics made famous by Piaf gave the song a strong homoerotic undertone. The new version of "Mon Légionnaire" was a hit on French dance floors, both gay and heterosexual.[citation needed]