French pop superstar Françoise Hardy dies, aged 80

12 June 2024, 09:17 | Updated: 12 June 2024, 09:48

Françoise Hardy was a singer, actress, model and muse.

Singer and actor Françoise Hardy had died at the age of 80.

News of the icon's passing was confirmed on social media by her son Thomas Dutronc.

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"Maman est partie… ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️, he wrote on Instagram, (translated to simply "mum is gone").

He also shared a photograph of himself with his mother when he was a baby.

Hardy was born in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944, and signed her first music deal when she was 17.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Thomas Dutronc (@thomas.dutronc)

Inspired by the wave of British and American pop that was then conquering the world via Radio Luxembourg, Hardy broke through in 1962 with the hit 'Tous les garçons et les filles' (All the Boys and Girls).

Her other best-known songs included 'Comment te dire adieu' (It Hurts to Say Goodbye) and 'Mon amie la rose' ('My Friend the Rose').

Hardy also appeared in a number of films in the 1960s and 1970s, often as a musical performer.

Françoise Hardy memoir tailer

She became a fashion icon, modelling for the likes of Paco Rabanne, André Courrèges and Yves Saint Laurent.

As well as being a muse to these top-level designers, Hardy also influenced the biggest musicians of the age, including the Beatles, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones.

Bob Dylan's Another Side of Bob Dylan sleeve featured an untitled beat poem dedicated to Hardy.

"Earlier this year, two Americans got in touch with me,” Hardy told Uncut in 2018.

"They had inherited some drafts of the poem that Dylan had left in a café. They sent me these drafts, and I was very moved.

"This was a young man, a very romantic artist, who had a fixation on somebody only from a picture. You know how very young people are… I realised it had been very important for him.”

Françoise Hardy "Tous les garçons et les filles" | Archive INA

After an early relationship with photographer Jean-Marie Périer, Hardy began dating singer Jacques Dutronc in 1967.

They had a son, Thomas, in 1973, and eventually married in 1981, supposedly for financial reasons.

They split in 1988 but remained married until her death.