Famous name of French pop music: Who is Françoise Hardy?

Hardy, who also models and acts as well as sings, worked with famous designers such as Yves Saint Laurent throughout her career and starred in the films of directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Roger Vadim.

In 2015, as her health condition worsened, Hardy fell into a coma and then experienced speech, swallowing, and breathing problems.

The famous singer, who has been struggling with cancer for many years, described France's refusal to allow euthanasia in 2021 as "inhumane".

Françoise Madeleine Hardy (17 January 1944 – 11 June 2024) was a French singer-songwriter and actress. Mainly known for singing melancholic sentimental ballads, Hardy rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a leading figure of the yé-yé wave. In addition to her native French, she also sang in English, Italian and German. Her career spanned more than fifty years with over thirty studio albums released.

Hardy, who died in June 2024 at the age of 80, had battled various types of cancer since she was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2004.

Who is Françoise Hardy?

Born in Paris in 1944, Françoise Hardy spent her childhood with her mother and grandmother because her father was married to another woman. She states that during those years, she was constantly humiliated, especially by her grandmother, and that this was the basis for her lack of self-confidence and shyness, which would reflect on her entire life. After studying at Mireille's famous Le Petit Conservatoire for a short time, Hardy released her first album in 1962 and immediately attracted all the attention with the song Tous les garçons et les filles. In this song, the video clip of which was signed by the famous director Claude Lelouch, the young woman was saying: "All girls and boys my age have a lover, when will I find someone, when will my face smile?" Her photographs, reflected through the lens of her boyfriend at the time, photographer Jean-Marie Périer, adorned the covers of many issues of the newly published magazine Salut les copains, making Hardy one of the idols of the period.

The artist, who participated in Eurovision in 1963 with the song L'amour s'en va and came in fifth, also produced songs such as Those Competing with Death (Grand Prix -1966), Une balle au Cœur (1966), Male, Female (Masculin Féminin - 1966). She also touched the big screen with large and small roles in films. Years later, the songs performed by Hardy were used in François Ozon's 8 Femmes (2002), Bertolucci's Dreamers, Crimes (2003), and Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom (2012). It would appear on the soundtrack.

Hardy's relationship with cinema was not limited to this. Claude Lelouch's 1966 film Un homme et une femme (A Woman and a Man) was remembered especially for its composition by Francis Lai, also sung by Nicole Croisille and Pierre Barouh. Lelouch did not change this cast in the movie Vivre pour vivre (To Live), which she shot the following year. This time, Nicole Croisille sang the song Des ronds dans l'eau, whose lyrics were written by Pierre Barouh, together with Annie Girardot, one of the leading actors in the movie. This song would again be met with great interest, and in the same year, the great star of the period, Françoise Hardy, would cover this song in her new album.

Despite the concerts she gave in different countries, Françoise Hardy said goodbye to the stage in 1968, after the concerts she gave in Africa, due to her shyness from her childhood and her excitement in front of the audience. On the other hand, the artist had a significant impact on the world of fashion as well as the world of music and cinema in the sixties. Although she was someone who did not pay much attention to her clothing or rather adopted a simple style, the owners of famous brands at that time were so impressed by her that they almost competed with each other to produce special designs for him to wear. Hardy, who pioneered the meeting of fashion and music thanks to the television programs in which she appeared in Paco Rabanne brand metal dresses or Courrèges label trousers, wore different models of trousers in the first years of her career, but she was one of the first to follow the miniskirt fashion and even wore Jacques Dutronc's Mini Mini Mini in 1966. She appeared in her miniskirt in the music video for her song.

Hardy, who sang her songs in German, Italian, and English, thus taking her fame to an international level, met Jacques Dutronc in 1967. They got married in 1981. Thomas, who was born into this union in 1973, still works in her parents' profession.

In the seventies, the albums released by Françoise Hardy began to not attract as much attention as before. The artist, who stopped giving concerts, appeared less in the media. The song that stopped this trend was Message Personnel, released in 1973. Françoise Hardy was fascinated by Véronique Sanson's debut album from 1972. Thereupon, she met Sanson's boyfriend at the time, Michel Berger, who composed the compositions on this album, and the song Message Personnel, which Berger wrote for her, became a turning point in Françoise Hardy's career.

Continuing her career in the late 70s with three albums containing songs by the duo Gabriel Yared & Michel Jonasz, Hardy tried different styles such as bossa nova, funk, and jazz with these albums. In 1983, she received full marks from her fans again with her Moi vouloir toi 45 by Louis Chédid. Françoise Hardy, who became interested in astrology in the mid-sixties, wrote many books on the subject in the seventies and prepared a weekly program for Radio Monte-Carlo in addition to her daily comments from the early 80s. The artist, who decided to quit music after the album "Décalages", which she released in 1988, maintained her connection with the music world only with the songs she wrote for her favorite names. Fais-moi une place, which she wrote for Julien Clerc in 1990, was chosen as the "Song of the Year" at the Victoires de la Musique ceremony held the following year.

In 1996, unable to withstand the pressure from her close circle, she returned to music with "Le Danger", which is considered one of the best albums of her career. In the following years, Hardy released the album "Clair Obscur" with Jacques Dutronc.

Interesting notes from Françoise Hardy's life story

Hardy was born in Paris and raised with her younger sister Michèle in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Her parents lived apart when she was young; Her father contributed little financially to the family and had little involvement with her daughters. However, the girls' mother bought Françoise a guitar for her birthday, and from that day on she developed an interest in music.