He was one of the most important and globally recognized voices ié-ié, the French version, introduced in the early 1960s, of English-language rock and pop music (often translating the biggest Anglo-Saxon hits, but not only). She was also one of the most visible and perhaps representative faces of France at the time: her collaborations with fashion innovators such as Yves Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne, who found her inspiring, were what led to the birth of the girl. In January 1944 in France, which was still under occupation Nazi International fashion icon. But this was just the beginning of her story: soon, she would try to escape the image of the “beautiful, sad doll” that had stuck to her (words from the newspaper). Release) and embark on a path full of artistic challenges, with a surprising degree of independence.
Françoise Hardy, voice of French and international pop classics such as Tous garçons and les filles or Comment will say goodbye to youHe died on Tuesday at the age of 80. It was the news She revealed on social media to his son with musician and actor Jacques Dutronc, as well as musician Thomas Dutronc.
His health had been precarious for a long time. 20 years ago, he was diagnosed with lymphoma, which would change the course of his life forever. The treatments she initially underwent produced positive effects, but in 2015, a worsening of the disease led to her being hospitalized and placed in an artificial coma. Later, he also battled throat cancer. Courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy deprived her of her saliva, causing additional breathing difficulties, and part of her hearing.
Françoise Hardy’s ordeal made her a Strong supporter of legalizing euthanasia. At the end of last year, the newspaper published La Tribune Dimanche She published an open letter in which the singer addressed French President Emmanuel Macron, asking him for “sympathy.” He wrote: “Most people want to legalize euthanasia.”
Escape from the theater
Françoise Hardy was 16 years old when she got her first guitar and started composing her own songs. A year later, while still a teenager, he signed with publisher Disques Vogue. The following year, he released his first album of the same name.
The album begins with one of his most famous songs, Tous garçons and les filles. Spring Guitar opens with a song that is as romantic as it is lonely, in which she sings of the immense sadness of witnessing the happiness of young couples experiencing everything in front of them on the street – but what a beautiful and wonderful thing it is and something she will never experience in her own skin. With the support of Roger Sammin, the musician responsible for the album’s arrangements, I wrote this song and nine of the remaining 11 songs.
something “unusual” Critic Alexis Petridis writes for the newspaper Watchman: “The following year, The Beatles (the band often credited with establishing the idea that artists could write their own material rather than being left to their own devices) Covers) will release their debut album, for which John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote just over half of the songs. He goes on to say that Hardy was “a different kind of young girl,” who was generally expected to be “pretty,” but “a malleable vessel for older male composers.” Could it be if it wasn’t so green when it was released? Tous garçons and les fillesDid the video that Claude Lellouch posted of her in an amusement park with two other women whose skirts were always raised by the wind raise questions?
Petridis also reflects that, unlike her peers in the ie-ié wave, “sorrow seems to flow” from Françoise Hardy. A voice of eternal sadness, she decided to leave the stage in 1969. Only on specific, very specific occasions did this unconventional icon return to a place where she did not feel very comfortable: she was afraid of forgetting the words to her songs, and she was frightened by the adoration of the most ardent fans. There had been a time before that to see her in Portugal: on January 13, 1964, just four days before her twentieth birthday, It was performed before Porto Coliseum tickets were sold out.
Before her decision to stop performing, she recorded several albums and songs that made her one of the most famous and symbolic figures in music. Chanson French. Noteworthy, for example, is the album Comment will say goodbye to you (1968), where we can find not only the catchy and danceable title song (a pop pearl that is actually an adaptation of the song It hurts to say goodbye doing it Serge Gainsbourg) as a subtle, delicate and unmissable French version SusanWritten by Leonard Cohen.
The resignation from the stage will take place following a contractual dispute with Disques Vogue that ended with the artist and publisher ending their relationship. Perhaps in order to have more control over his work – Hardy later expressed dissatisfaction with the way his early songs were recorded – in 1970 he created his own record label, Hypopotam (having managed to sign an agreement with Sonopresse to distribute his released material). .
A period of experimentation would follow in which he embraced the sounds of country pop (And this is the case M‘On Go ahead Tui1972) and explored the territories between funk and jazz (Sawell music, 1978) for example. Of these bolder, and perhaps not always entirely brilliant, gestures, the most memorable were the ones that resulted in the album the question (1971), a collaboration with the Brazilian Toca and a sad exchange between them Chanson And bossa nova. It is one of the centerpieces of Françoise Hardy’s extensive discography.
After many years of inactivity, she will be surprised again in 1996 with If it is dangerous Influenced by the alternative rock music of the time. A year ago, he had already registered with Blur alternative version of to the end (Which originally also featured a French singer opposite Damon Albarn: Laetitia Sadier, from Stereolab).
Dividing between her own songs and those of others, Françoise Hardy sang in French, English, Italian and German. He released his latest album, another person, in 2018. After that, due to her poor health, she was forced to retire permanently. Write the Le Monde That photographer Jean-Marie Perrier, who extensively documented the ié-ié explosion, visited her almost daily at her home, where she was not advised to leave.
“Proud coffee junkie. Gamer. Hardcore introvert. Social media trailblazer.”
