c'est not c'était?

Question

Couple of queries:-
In the sentence ' As I grew up, it was her melancholy ...' the advice is to use c'est. Why not c'était?
and,
In the sentence 'Barbara, as you used to sing (it) so perfectly, our most beautiful love story will always be you., the 'it' refers to the 'love story' which is feminine so 'comme tu le chantais' should be 'la'?
Thanks

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Barrie,
Here we use Le Présent (c'est) as it helps emphasise the statement as a true fact (in English, the past tense is far more natural in this context).
In the sentence "as you used to sing (it) so perfectly", "le" is the neutral "le" - Take a look here: Using neuter pronouns le or l'
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !