The Pop Corporation

One of France and European pop’s most iconic women has died. Françoise Hardy, who propelled herself to stardom in the ye-ye scene and beyond, passed away after a long battle with a dreadful illness. In her later years, she would campaign for euthanasia in her home country, and her son Thomas Dutronc, left the simple message ‘Maman est partie‘ on his social media.

Born in an air raid, Hardy fell in love with pop music through the radio in a Parisian flat with her family. She auditioned for the legendary French pop label Vogue Disques and at 18 years old, released her first record – self titled, but known as ‘Tou les Garcons et Les Filles’ in 1962. What set Hardy apart from the rest of her peers was an innate weariness and introspection into her slanted views on lust and romance, and rightly, she became a darling of French beat.

She would flirt with acting, but it was always the music for Françoise: “Music and chanson allow you to go deep into yourself and how you feel, while cinema is about playing a part, playing a character who might be miles away from who you are.” She would work with some of the greats of French music, but tended to do things on her own terms.

With the legendary ‘Comment te dire adieu’, she teamed up with Serge Gainsbourg and when he requested they make a full album together, she declined, because she had other plans and was not happy to simply be another creative notch on Serge’s bedpost.

Hardy found herself in a unique position in French music in that she was a genuine crossover star, having hits in the US, UK and other European countries. She was genuinely exportable and she would re-record ‘Tous les garçons et les filles’ in other languages to cement her place as France’s premier pop star.

While the British invasion conquered the world, Hardy wanted in and set about modernising her music and left what she deemed inferior French studios behind and recorded at Pye Records studios in London, working with the mighty Tony Hatch. She recorded some songs in English, but interestingly, English speaking audiences preferred her work that was sung in French.

However, it wouldn’t be long before Hardy moved away from pop and matured as an artist, to match her increasingly mature outlook on life as a person. She would create a new production company and her own publishing arm, and here she would work with some very serious artists and musicians, such as Jean-Claude Vannier and Brazilian artist Tuca (Valeniza Zagni da Silva). In this period, she would release albums like ‘La question’ and the folk-rock masterpiece ‘Entr’acte’ which detailed her melancholy regarding her relationship with Jacques Dutronc and motherhood.

As the ’90s rolled in, she would collaborate with Blur and Iggy Pop and showed no signs of sitting still and was as cool as she ever was. However, by 2012, she survived a life-threatening coma and wrote a memoir called ‘The Despair of Monkeys and Other Trifles’, all the while, campaigning for end-of-life euthanasia treatments in France.

“I am afraid that death will force me to go through even more physical suffering”, and in her last LP, the song ‘Special Train’ featured, to which she said: “At my age, I can really only sing about that one very special train that will take me out of this world. But, of course, I am also hoping that it will send me to the stars and help me discover the mystery of the cosmos.”

Intelligent, stylish and cool throughout her life, a gay icon, muse to fashion designers and more. She’ll be missed.