(Paris) “Enormous sadness”, “singular voice”, “legend of French song”: France mourns on Wednesday the disappearance of Françoise Hardy, one of its last icons of sixties.
“Mom is gone”: it was with these simple words on his social networks, with a photo of him as a child with his mother, that his son Thomas Dutronc made the news official, late Tuesday evening.
This disappearance, at the age of 80, after having fought against cancer which appeared in 2004, comes almost a year after that of Jane Birkin (July 2023), another emblematic figure of sixties.
How to say goodbye to youhis 1968 standard, returns on Wednesday in the press headlines and in the tributes.
“How do I say goodbye to him? », Questions Emmanuel Macron in a press release. “The President of the Republic and his wife salute her as an idol of young people who has become an icon of French song. »
“French icon, singular voice with fierce tranquility, Françoise Hardy will have rocked generations of French people,” adds Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
Étienne Daho, a relative, accompanied her in her last moments: “The silent TV broadcast retrospective images of your incredible journey while you were lying in the room. Surreal situation. You who loved to laugh so much, this would have amused you.”
“Upset”, Brigitte Bardot, 89 years old, the great French icon, gives thanks for her “nobility”, her “beauty”, her “luminous talent” and “this elegance which she diffused throughout her life”.
“The elegance” of its “harmonious whispers will resonate forever in the hearts of boys and girls of all ages,” writes musician Jean-Michel Jarre.
A nod to his instant success in 1962, the year he turned 18: more than two million copies sold for All the boys and girlswhich Françoise Hardy had written and composed, a rare occurrence at the time.
Jagger, Bowie, Dylan
The death of the artist shakes France, but resonates well beyond. If Jane Birkin was the French’s favorite Englishwoman, Françoise Hardy was the Anglo-Saxon’s favorite Frenchwoman.
In the American magazine’s ranking of the 200 best singers of all time Rolling Stone in 2023, she was the sole French representative.
Written by Serge Gainsbourg, How to say goodbye to you will be resumed, on a rhythm dancingby Jimmy Somerville, the former leader of Bronski Beat, twenty years later.
In 1994, the group Blur invited her on their title To the end (The comedy).
It’s the time for love, the time for friends, and adventure…a song from 1962, also appears in the film’s soundtrack Moonrise Kingdom (2012) by Wes Anderson.
No surprise, then, to see American rap legend Chuck D (Public Enemy) pay tribute to the woman whose records have brought joy to “rhythm scouts in the United States”.
PHOTO OF VOGUE RECORDS, ARCHIVES PROVIDED AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Françoise Hardy in 1970
Françoise Hardy was not simply a delicate voice or half of the couple she formed with Jacques Dutronc.
She was also the ambassador of French and pop elegance internationally, a “feminine ideal” for Mick Jagger, a fantasy figure for Bob Dylan or David Bowie.
In the sixties, his melancholy was clear. Her androgynous physique and her restraint moved away from the shapes and exuberance of Brigitte Bardot. She prefigured the era of slender models.
Paco Rabanne
A fashion muse without ever wanting to be, the singer perfectly wears futuristic slatted dresses by Paco Rabanne.
Her bangs (later a boyish cut) made the front pages of magazines. The artist was first photographed in France by her boyfriend at the time, Jean-Marie Périer, and internationally by the famous William Klein.
His great love story is then called Jacques Dutronc (81 years old), who has also just shaken up the charts with And me and me and me (1966). They will have a child, Thomas, himself a singer.
PHOTO OLIVIER SANCHEZ, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc, in 1991.
But their relationship is a source of disillusionment because of the distance that the dandy of French song puts.
This bittersweet married life will permeate his work, Personal messagea huge success from 1973, composed with Michel Berger, Nobody elsetitle of the last eponymous album in 2018.
Despite their separation, without divorce, a real bond still united them.
Françoise Hardy, for whom singing was not natural, quickly abandoned the stage.
This astrology enthusiast, born under the sign of Capricorn, spoke frankly about her cancer. And the end.
“Death is only that of the body, which is of a material essence. When dying, the body releases the soul which is of spiritual essence. But the fact remains that the death of the body is a considerable ordeal and I dread it as much as everyone else,” she confided to AFP.