Françoise Hardy was one of France’s most popular chanson singers. The Frenchwoman was also well known in Germany. Now the musician and songwriter has died at the age of 80.
France’s chanson icon Françoise Hardy is dead. As the family confirmed, the singer died late Tuesday evening at the age of 80 in a Paris hospital.
She made her career out of sad and melancholic songs. One of her biggest successes was her first song, “Tous les garçons et les filles”. The song about boys and girls her age looking for love sold more than four million copies in just a few days in 1962 – and made her an overnight star at just 18 years old.
Hardy’s tender and fragile voice and her sensitive songs appealed to the romantic side of several generations. The singer was also a household name in Germany, where she became known with “Frag den Abendwind” and “Ich sag’ ja”. The musician also graced the covers of numerous German magazines in the 1970s.
Sad songs and melancholy were trademarks
Loneliness, love, longing and farewell were her recurring themes in which she expressed her disappointments. “In music, I especially like sad songs that hit where it hurts,” she once told the radio station “France Culture”. Melancholy is part of her being.
The tall Frenchwoman was considered a style icon in the 1960s. She wore creations by well-known designers, including a metal dress weighing around 38 kilograms, performed in London studios and counted Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan among her admirers.
The death of the chanson icon sparked numerous reactions. France’s Minister of Culture Rachida Dati paid tribute to her on the X portal as a legend of the chanson, France’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that she would remain anchored in the lives of the French. The Élysée Palace paid tribute to Hardy and her “velvet voice”. President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte described the singer as an idol of the youth who had become an icon of the French chanson.
Source: Stern
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