Thomas Dutronc pays on stage, to ovations, a poignant tribute to his mother Françoise Hardy

The son of Françoise Hardy covered one of his mother’s titles during a poignant concert at the Jazz Opale Festival, Thursday in Pas-de-Calais.

“Sometimes sadness slips into their eyes“. Thursday June 13, singer Thomas Dutronc paid tribute to his mother Françoise Hardy, icon of the sixties who died on June 11, by covering one of her titles during a poignant concert in Pas-de-Calais. ovation lasting several minutes welcomed Thomas Dutronc, who despite the mourning maintained his presence at the opening of the second edition of the Jazz Opale Festival in Neufchâtel-Hardelot, simply bringing his concert forward by an hour.

“There is a lot of emotion among us” the last days, “I tried to sing two of my mom’s songs, but my throat is tight,” he admitted, leaving it to his musicians, Stochelo Rosenberg, Ricky Gresset and Thomas Bramerie, to interpret Friendshipa success by Françoise Hardy released in 1965. Before overcoming her grief at the end of the concert, and singing her words in turn: “Sometimes sadness slips into their eyes (…) you can go to the depths of the clouds“.

“In England we say ‘elephant in the room’ [l’énorme sujet dont on évite de parler] (…) We cannot translate it into French but for me, my ‘elephant in the room’ is my mother’s departure towards other skies“, he said modestly, in front of an equally moved audience. In a packed house, many tunes sounded like farewells – such as a cover of the version of Sidney Bechet’s hit Little Flower by Henri Salvador, “in my heart you will always bloom“.”This evening takes on a special character for us“, underlines Véronique, a fifty-year-old who came to the concert with two friends, moved to give back in this way”tribute to Françoise Hardy“, and saluting the “courage“of his son”to have honored his presence“.

Françoise Hardy died at the age of 80, after battling cancer that appeared in 2004. Thomas Dutronc, son of the famous couple she formed with singer Jacques Dutronc, announced the news Tuesday evening on social networks, in a sober “Mom left…“Iconic figure of the sixties with an evanescent voice and melancholic airs, Françoise Hardy had conquered the Anglo-Saxon public, which made her the only Frenchwoman in the ranking of the 200 best singers of all time by the American magazine Rolling Stone in 2023.