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.

She, which topped the UK Singles Chart in 1974 and was covered by Elvis Costello for the soundtrack of the romantic comedy Notting Hill, was one of the songs Aznavour performed at the Shanghai charity ball.