Françoise Hardy, French pop singer and icon of the sixties, dies at the age of 80

Françoise Hardy, the The French icon and singer, known for romantic existentialism in her music, has died at the age of 80.

Her son, Thomas Dutronc, confirmed her death in a Facebook post. Dutronc shared a photo of her holding him as a baby and simply captioned it: “Maman est party.”

Accordingly Barron’sThe singer had been battling cancer since 2004.

Hardy rose to prominence in the 1960s and became known for her songwriting and haunting lyrics. Her debut album All boys and girlswas released in 1962 and brought her some of her first commercial successes – catapulting her to the top of European yé-yé pop music. When she began recording music in London in 1964, she released My friend, the rose, The friendship, The house I grew up in And My youth fout le campthereby broadening the influence of her sound. In the early 1970s, Hardy collaborated with numerous musicians, including Serge Gainsbourg, Patrick Modiano, Michel Berger and Catherine Lara. Hardy recorded their works in English, German and Italian.

Rolling Stone named her one of the 200 greatest singers of all time and noted that Bob Dylan was so impressed by her art that he wrote her a poem on the back of a Another side of Bob Dylan and when they first met, he unsuccessfully serenaded her with “I Want You.”

In conversation with the Guardian In 2018, Hardy talked about how her album, Other peoplereleased this year, dealt with mortality and her acceptance of it. “I sing about death in a very symbolic and even positive way. There is an acceptance there too,” she said. “For example, there is a song called ‘Special Train’ that I really like, but 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 also hope that it will send me to the stars and help me discover the mystery of the cosmos.”