French singer, 60s pop culture icon Françoise Hardy dies at 80
French singer Francoise Hardy, whose crystalline voice and melancholy lyrics shot her to international stardom in the 1960s, has died at the age of 80, according to her son.
Thomas Dutronc, Hardy's son with another French music star, Jacques Dutronc, announced her death on Tuesday.
"Mom is gone," he wrote on Instagram on Tuesday alongside a baby picture of himself with his mother.
Hardy became a pop icon and fashion muse of the 1960s and beyond. Mick Jagger described her as his "ideal woman", Bob Dylan wrote a poem for her, and women around the world imitated her androgynous style and embraced her melancholic melodies.
But Hardy was a reluctant superstar, who dreamed of domestic bliss even as she chalked up chart hits.
It all began in 1962 with the catchy debut single "Tous les garcons et les filles" (All the girls and boys), in which the shy singer-songwriter lamented her loveless status.
"All the boys and girls my age walk hand in hand in the streets two by two... but not me, I walk alone through the streets, my heart aching," she sang wistfully.
The single sold a million copies, making Hardy an instant star of the "Ye-Ye" (after the Beatles "yeah, yeah, yeah") generation of post-war French pop singers.
Soon a parallel career as a cover girl beckoned, with the singer's thick fringe, sculpted cheekbones and bohemian style coming to define a sort of effortless French chic.
She was an early adopter of the mini-skirt and became a model for fashion designers including Yves Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne.
(AFP)
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