French music legend Françoise Hardy dies at age of 80

Singer Françoise Hardy, known as a music legend of the 1960s in France, has died at the age of 80.

She had been fighting lymphatic cancer since 2004. Her son, the musician Thomas Dutronc - who she had with former partner Jacques Dutronc - confirmed her death with a post on Instagram.

In 2023, Hardy told Paris Match: “I want to go soon and quickly, without too much suffering, such as not being able to breathe.”

The singer was considered to be part of the ‘Yé-yé’ movement (from the phrase ‘yeah yeah’ in English). Born in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944 and raised by her strict mother, Hardy burst onto the French music scene at the age of 18 in 1962, with her debut single Tous les garçons et les filles, which she had written herself. It was an immediate success.

She stood out for her melancholy style and then-fashionable androgynous appearance, and became known abroad.

Some of her later best-known songs included Comment te dire adieu and Mon amie la rose. Her biggest success in the UK was an English-language version of her song Dans le monde entier (All Over The World). The track reached number 16 in the UK charts in June 1965.

Speaking of her music, she said: “All my life, I've been on the lookout for beautiful melodies. Listening to them puts me in seventh heaven. The most beautiful melodic themes are always melancholy or romantic.”

A sixties smash hit

Soon after her initial success, Ms Hardy quickly began to appear on the front cover of magazines, and was photographed by international photographer William Klein, as well as her then-partner Jean-Marie Périer. 

Hardy and Dutronc (who had also had recent musical success with Et moi, et moi, et moi in 1966) met later. The two would go on to have a complex relationship that had a considerable influence on her music. Their son Thomas was born in 1973.

Dutronc is said to have heavily influenced her 1973 record Message personnel.

Her most recent album was called Personne d’autre, which came out in 2018.

Hardy is best known for the impact she had on French music, but also for becoming a kind of ‘ambassador’ for French elegance. She was praised for her style by international stars including Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie.

In 2023, she was named as one of the best 200 singers of all-time by the US magazine Rolling Stone, and was the only Frenchwoman on the list.