French Armenian dual citizen

The event's proceeds will go to three charities: Operation Smile, the Shanghai International Film Festival and the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation Safety for Mothers and Infants Project.

Aznavour, a French-Armenian dual citizen, admits his main reason for agreeing to do the fundraiser was not exactly altruistic. Singing in Shanghai, he says, is a chance to cross off a name from the short list of countries he has not yet visited.

The China he has found in Shanghai, however, turned out to be at least half a century ahead of the China he envisioned.

"Very modern," the grandfather of three says in an exclusive interview at the presidential suite of a boutique hotel along The Bund, Shanghai's famous waterfront of concession architecture that faces 21st-century skyscrapers.

"It's not disappointing. It's only that I had the idea - the very romantic idea - to find out about the old China," he says.

"Through movies and documentaries and expositions, like we had in France in 1937, I had another vision of China."

Though this is Aznavour's first time in the country, his music is no stranger to the Chinese.