Died of pancreatic cancer on April 23, 2022 at the age of 72, singer Arno – sometimes compared to Alain Bashung or Tom Waits – announced in February 2020 that he was suffering from illness, detected at the end of 2019. Considered “a legend” in Belgium and more particularly in Ostend, his hometown, the interpreter of the title God Save The Kiss ensured “have no borders in mind“. According to his last wishes, his ashes will be scattered in the North Sea off his hometown after his funeral.
“Music still saves me by preserving my state of mind“, he added, assuring that he was preparing to interpret a title with Mireille Mathieu, reorchestration of a song of this one, Farewell Paloma. Mireille Mathieu was recording her part on Saturday, the day of her death, in a studio in the south of France. “I heard the terrible news at the end of the session, his departure touches me deeply“, she told AFP. “His almost testamentary desire was to record a duet with me. Two weeks ago in Brussels, he recorded his voice with great courage. Arno was a real poet, with a very particular way of telling his story through his songs.“, she continued.
Born on May 21, 1949 in Ostend, a Flemish coastal town to which he remained very attached and which he evokes in his songs, Arno Hintjens had started with the group TC Matic in the 80s, with the song Damn, damn (“That’s really good, we’re still all Europeans“), recently taken up in duet with another Belgian, Stromae.
“Damn, damn it was really good. He will be missed by all of us, but he will always be there thanks to the music that kept him going until the end“, wrote his Belgian agent Filip De Groote.
Arno had announced his illness in full promotion of the album Healthboutique released in September 2019. He had to interrupt his tour to undergo an operation. The pandemic then thwarted the resumption of shows, even if he was able to record a new album Livewith French pianist Sofiane Pamart, released at the end of May 2021. He finally returned to the stage in February 2022, scheduling half a dozen dates in Brussels and Ostend for a tour called Livethese five letters illuminating in red a scene plunged into darkness.