Remembering French cultural icon and singer Françoise Hardy • FRANCE 24 English

Remembering French cultural icon and singer Françoise Hardy • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] [Applause] spe [Music] spee speee [Music] one of France’s Best Loved singer songwriters she was a leading cultural icon of The Swinging 60s and one of the biggest stars of the yayay boom that swept across Europe at the time osas hardi has died at the age of 80 after a battle with cancer renowned for her Hits come on to toar a and Lon deore Hardy enjoyed a career that spanned more than six decades last year she was named one of the 200 best singers of all time by Rolling Stone magazine the only French performer on the list Oliver farry looks back at her life before becoming an icon of French pop who would Mark Generations fris Rd thought of becoming a nun Rd born in Paris in 1944 changed her mind when she discovered Elvis Presley and rock and roll as a teenager at the age of 17 she signed to the Vogue record label meeting Johnny holiday and releasing her first single in 1962 she had her first big hit jul gas only feel making her a national [Music] star she took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 19 63 representing Monaco and sales of our early hits such as Lon deur and Kon diu rivaled The Beatles in France a massive star at the age of 20 Rd with her signature Fringe high boots and miniskirt embodied the look of an era she moved into acting and formed a celebrity couple with another French pop icon jaak D Tron they would have a son Tom in 1973 the year of Hardy’s H Massage personnel [Music] warn out by touring France Ward put her career on hold in the late 1980s she wrote songs for other artists and also astrology books her final decades were marked by health problems in 2004 she was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer after coming close to dying she recovered and released a somber album Peron do in 2018 in her final years she publicly advocated for a change to French law to allow assisted suicide well I’m joined in the studio by our music critic Jenny Ben Brahim and a film critic Lisa neston thank you for being here both of you now Jenny franois hardi was the epitome of the French Yaya girl tell us more about that now Yaya was actually kind of France’s response to this rock and roll movement that was sweeping across the US and UK with the likes of The Beetles and the Rolling Stones it was actually derived from English for yeah yeah uh now usually it was pretty kind of teenage girls uh who’ sing French adaptations of these like rock and roll songs are usually about the Wes of being a teenage girl the hardship of of 60s now other singers of the movement included France gal and Sy Von now the hits of FR Ari and these fellow artists were actually showcased on the week radio show called uh s uh Hey friends you could say now her music was quite different from the likes of say France G and so on um because it was quite melancholic and I think it was really referenced to her quite challenging childhood um what also made her different from other artists is that she wrote her own material which was extremely rare uh for that era H usually it was these older French men writing about the woes of teenage girls and then they would sing those songs uh now her rock and roll contemporaries uh really noticed her talents but I think also her beauty we have to say uh we have likes of David bwii who said um but he had been passionately in love with her as were you know all men around the world and certain women and Bob Dylan uh you know followed suit by writing love poems for her and Mick Jagger declared that she was his ideal woman wow okay talk us through some of her big hits then now she had many many hits you know the career at span more than 50 years and over 30 Studio albums now her breakout was the album to all the boys and the girls in 1962 that was such a Smash Hit that it sold 2 Mill copies and that’s more of kind of a g Dam of French music egpf sold in 18 years of career now included a titular track which is very kind of wispy uh ballad as well as other hits like lon l of a time for love and I agree now she actually had a top 20 hit in the UK uh with a 1965 song all over the world which is you know quite rare when you think of FR Aldi really kind of known for singing in French um so this is the only English language song she made let’s take a [Music] [Applause] listen missing having me around now other hits include and voila but 1971’s um has really been seen by many of her fans as her Masterpiece and it was a collaboration with Brazilian artist Tuka and it stay In This Very melancholic kind of uh theme now music was also deeply ingrained in her personal life she was married to French singer songwriter and actor Jac duton and they in turn had a son who is also very musical uh called T juton now although they remained married for you know the whole of her life they had a very complicated relationship and were separated from the late 1980s but they still actually had this musical collaboration um such as on the track we’re about to hear it’s called presol onage um from 2000 [Music] listen be more French now singing along with a cigar in your hand um Lisa you were a big fan of her work weren’t you well absolutely because the material tends to be very very good if it’s been popular for decades it’s because it deserves to be uh and as Jenny pointed out it was unusual for a woman to write her own lyrics here in France and uh for example uh uh T Lei was inspired by The Poetry of Alfred de Muse we didn’t have even Joanie Mitchell wasn’t perhaps doing that sort of thing well she actually worked with some of the greats like the French filmmaker Claude she directed her first music video to let’s take a look at that [Music] we go to directed by Claude Louch now Lisa she also had a film career in the 1960s and 70s appearing in movies by directors including Jean luk Goda Roger Vadim and John frankenheimer indeed she did but I just like to point out that that’s this is a terrific song to but perhaps one of the things that boosted it uh into the sky was that uh it was showing for the first time on French television on an evening in 1962 when the entire country was waiting for the results of a referendum on whether the French President should be elected by direct vote from the people or not so there was a built-in audience and that worked well as for the she didn’t make a lot of movies but uh people who sang tended to also act at least a little bit in that era uh it was just the French notion that Talent is it just infuses you in all Fields so her first film was shat oned a castle in Sweden uh directed by uh um Vadim Ro Vadim wasn’t a terribly good director he made Barbarella but he was apparently an extremely Charming Man because he even got to write a book about his relationships with Kathleen denu Jane Fonda and bridg Bardo one at a time uh in that movie there is dissipated youth with generational machinations uh he she co-starred so this is probably her biggest part with the outstanding Samy Frey in bullet in the head and Balo curl a location heavy psychological Thriller that’s been called a Greco Sicilian Western don’t see a lot of those and of course uh she had a cameo in godard’s masculine feminine in 1966 a goodard film always looks good on one’s resume and she also had a cameo in what’s new pussycat which was kind of good for Tom Jones’s career and uh that movie was written by Woody Allen okay well as well as her cameos her songs appeared in French films such as FR ozen’s eight women where actress Isabelle huper sang A rendition of message person foree [Music] so as well as the movies fris Ali also authored several fiction and nonfiction books and she had a side career in astrology um but she was a big fashion icon as well yeah when you think of you know uh like French fashion like the cool girl aesthetic you really think of FR Ari she really championed you know the mini skirts or go go boots but um that you know many of her other kind of yayay contemporaries but she was quite um different as well because she really um uh loved wearing very tailored androgynous suits and had a real masculine Edge to her fashion H she was also amused to the likes of Pac raban and and she frequently was photographed by the likes of the iconic Richard avidan and David Bailey her fans also included the designer Ray C kawakubo uh who even named her avangard label come to G after line from s oh well that’s interesting to know Lisa final word then from you how should be remembered uh I think kindly and with admiration and uh she accomplished a lot in a in a life devoted to uh uh giving us the essence of melancholy but with a jaunty sort of undercurrent okay thank you so much Lisa and Jenny for joining me for this special program looking back at the life and career of French singer franois zi who’s died at the age of 80 we’re going to leave you now with one of her most recent songs this is Lage which was released in 2018 thanks for watching see you next time [Music]

One of France’s best-loved singer-songwriters, Françoise Hardy was a leading cultural icon of the Swinging Sixties and one of the biggest stars of the “yé-yé” boom that swept across Europe at the time. Hardy has died at the age of 80 after a battle with cancer. Renowned for her hits “Comment te dire adieu” and “Le Temps de l’amour”, she enjoyed a career that spanned more than six decades. Last year she was named one of the 200 best singers of all time by Rolling Stone magazine – the only French performer on the list. Music critic Jenny Ben Brahim and film critic Lisa Nesselson speak to Eve Jackson about her life and career.
#FrançoiseHardy #Death #FrenchIcon

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