Françoise Hardy

Françoise Madeleine Hardy (French: 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.

Born and raised in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, Hardy made her musical debut in 1962 on French label Disques Vogue and found immediate success through the song "Tous les garçons et les filles". Drifting away from her early rock and roll influences, she began to record in London in 1964, which allowed her to broaden her sound with albums such as Mon amie la rose, L'amitié, La maison où j'ai grandi and Ma jeunesse fout le camp.... In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she released Comment te dire adieu, La question and Message personnel, to further establish her artistry. In this period, she worked with songwriters such as Serge Gainsbourg, Patrick Modiano, Michel Berger and Catherine Lara. Between 1977 and 1988, she worked with producer Gabriel Yared with the albums Star, Musique saoûle, Gin Tonic and À suivre. Her 1988 record Décalages was widely publicized as Hardy's final album, although she returned eight years later with Le danger, which completely reinvented her sound to a harsher alternative rock. Her following albums of the 2000s—Clair-obscur, Tant de belles choses and (Parenthèses...)—saw a return to her mellow style. In the 2010s, Hardy released her last three albums: La pluie sans parapluie, L'amour fou, and Personne d'autre.

In addition to music, Hardy landed roles as a supporting actress in the films Château en Suède, Une balle au cœur and the American production Grand Prix. She became a muse for fashion designers such as André Courrèges, Yves Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne, and collaborated with photographer Jean-Marie Périer. Hardy also developed a career as an astrologer, having written extensively on the subject from the 1970s onwards. In addition, she worked as a writer of both fiction and non-fiction books from the 2000s. Her autobiography Le désespoir des singes... et autres bagatelles was a best-seller in France. As a public figure, Hardy was known for her shyness, disenchantment with celebrity life and self-deprecatory attitude, attributed to her lifelong struggles with anxiety and insecurity. She was married to fellow French singer-songwriter Jacques Dutronc in 1981 until her death, and their only son, Thomas, is also a musician. In 2021, Hardy announced that her health had worsened and that she would not be able to sing again owing to the effects of cancer therapy.

Hardy remains one of the best-selling singers in French history, and continues to be regarded as an iconic and influential figure in both French pop and fashion. In 2006, she was awarded the Grande médaille de la chanson française, an honorary award given by the Académie française, in recognition of her career in music. Her work has appeared on several critics' lists.

Early life

Françoise Madeleine Hardy was born on 17 January 1944 at the Marie-Louise Clinic in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. At the time of her birth, there was an air raid alert in place, with the windows of the clinic "exploding". She related being born during this violent context with the "abnormally anxious temperament" that she developed as an adult. Her mother Madeleine Hardy, who came from an ordinary background, raised Françoise and her younger sister Michèle—born eighteen months after her—as a single parent.[3] Her father Étienne Dillard—a married man who came from a much wealthier family—did little to help them financially and was largely an absent figure in their upbringing, only visiting the children a couple of times a year. Madeleine Hardy raised her daughters strictly, in a modest apartment on the 9th arrondissement's Rue d'Aumale. Hardy had an unhappy and troubled childhood, and mainly engaged in solitary activities like reading, playing with dolls or listening to the radio. At the insistence of their father, the girls went to a Catholic school called Institution La Bruyère, under the tutelage of Trinitarian nuns. The gap of social origin between Hardy and her classmates was a source of permanent humiliation for her. She recalled in her autobiography: "This is most likely where the feeling of shame that has tormented me non-stop since I was a child took root. Everything fell into place: the social status of my parents who I naively believed were divorced, (...) the good sisters' constant complaints that my father was generally a year behind in his payments, and the various differences with the other girls." Her lifelong insecurities were also fuelled by her regular visits to her maternal grandmother in Aulnay-sous-Bois, who "told [her] repeatedly that [she] was unattractive and a very bad person". Between 1952 and 1960, Hardy and her sister were sent every summer to Austria to learn German, encouraged by her mother's new lover, an Austrian baron. As her father played piano, Hardy was encouraged to receive piano lessons as a very young child, from which she quickly dropped out after experiencing stage fright when she was supposed to display her talents onstage at the Salle Gaveau.

A disciplined student, Hardy skipped two years of secondary education and passed her baccalauréat in 1960 at age sixteen. To mark the occasion, her father asked her what gift she would like and she chose a guitar, with which she began to sing her own melodies. Following her mother's orders, she enrolled in the Paris Institute of Political Studies while still a teenager. Considering it too challenging, she quickly left the institution and joined the Sorbonne to study German. Hardy used the time left from her courses to devote herself to composing songs on her guitar.[9] She began to test her repertoire on the small stage of venue Moka Club, also known as Club des mordus, where she performed every Thursday "in front of an audience of retirees". Around this time, she auditioned for record label Pathé-Marconi after reading an ad in France-Soir. Although she was rejected, Hardy was impressed that she had held the directors' attention for longer than she expected. She also felt encouraged after hearing her recorded voice, which she found "less off-key and tremulous than [she] feared". The aspiring singer then went to Philips Records, where she was recommended to take singing lessons. Following this advice, Hardy joined Le Petit Conservatoire de la chanson in 1961, a school for radio performers—the first of its kind in France—led by singer Mireille Hartuch. Originally launched as a radio program in 1955, the Petit Conservatoire was turned into a popular TV show beginning in June 1960. When a student gave a satisfactory performance, they were given the chance to release it on the radio, or even perform it again for television. Hartuch—who was known to be very selective—accepted Hardy right away, recalling in 1966: "The first time Françoise entered the classroom to audition, I didn't know if she sang, if she played guitar, what she was doing, I just looked and felt like there was a spark, something that lit up." They developed a "mother-daughter relationship" and a long friendship based on mutual esteem.

Family

In mid-1962, Hardy met Salut Les Copains photographer Jean-Marie Périer and they soon developed a romantic and professional relationship. The couple never moved in together and were constantly distanced because of their respective work obligations, which took a toll on the relationship. They broke up in 1966, but remained close friends and collaborators ever afterwards. Hardy began her much publicized relationship with fellow singer Jacques Dutronc in 1967. They had a somewhat distant relationship and did not live together until after the birth of their only child, son Thomas, on 16 June 1973. In the autumn of 1974, Hardy and Dutronc moved in together in a three-story house near Parc Montsouris, with separate bedrooms. Every summer, the family moved to a house owned by Dutronc located in Lumio, on the island of Corsica. As an adult, Thomas Dutronc also developed a career as a musician.

Hardy and Dutronc got married on 30 March 1981 in a private ceremony. According to Hardy, they formalized their relationship for "fiscal reasons", stating in 1989: "I had a little health problem and since I am of a hyperanxious, hypochondriac temperament… I had gone to see a lawyer to find out what would happen if something happened to me. And [I was told that] everyone [would have] an interest in Jacques and I being married… I have always considered marriage as an uninteresting formality." Their relationship become troubled, compounded by infidelities on both parts and Dutronc's alcoholism, and the couple separated in late 1988. They never divorced and their relationship evolved into that of a "special friendship". In 2016, Hardy told Le Parisien that although Dutronc rebuilt his life with a new partner, it is he who does not want to divorce. She said: "One day, a long time ago, regarding another relationship, I told him he had to make a commitment. And that's when he said to me, 'I'll never get a divorce.' What do you want me to say?"

Hardy discussed her family history, including the fate of her father and younger sister. In the early 1980s, she learned that her distant father led a double life as a closeted gay man when one of his young lovers bragged about his financial support to one of Dutronc's friends. She wrote in 2008: "The revelation that someone is a homosexual is not shocking in itself, even if it is your own father, but the fact that at the age of almost eighty he was picking up young guys turned my stomach, despite the loneliness and suffering such degraded behavior implied." He died in hospital on 6 February 1981 after being assaulted, presumably by a young male prostitute, a cause that was not reported by the press at the time. Raised without the affection of their parents, Hardy's sister grew up to be suicidal, and developed paranoid schizophrenic tendencies. In late May 2004, she was found dead at her home in L'Île-Rousse, possibly by suicide.

Politics

As a public figure, Hardy was known for her frankness regarding her sometimes controversial political views, which have been described as right-wing. Raised in a Gaullist family, she told Télérama in 2011: "I kept that sensitivity. I don't like everything that is said or done on the right, and I don't denigrate everything that is done or said on the left. To be honest, basically I'm pretty centrist." In her 2008 autobiography, she wrote: "I only identify with ecology, which I absolutely believe is neither right nor left, but the fact I am not a puppet of the established authority will probably be enough to pigeonhole me."[

In promotion of her album Décalages, Hardy was interviewed by the magazine Rockland in a conversation that branched off into political news, as the 1988 French presidential election had taken place the day before. Believing that the off-the-record discussion would not be included in the final article, Hardy expressed her contempt for people on the left. Although outraged by the publication of the political conversation, Hardy defended her position on 13 May in a televised interview with Thierry Ardisson, in which she recounted an altercation with singer Renaud, claiming he had insulted her for her support of Minister of Culture François Léotard. In the Rockland interview, she also caused controversy with her statements about racism in France, claiming that "we do not talk about anti-French racism, that there are places where you are more likely to enter if you are not French", as well as antisemitism, suggesting that "those who see it everywhere could actually be sowing its seeds." The singer later distanced herself from these remarks, writing in her autobiography: "Since then, I have become more aware of the ethnic, social, and cultural differences that separate individuals. However, I still believe that the affinities of the heart and soul weigh more heavily on the scales and also have the marvelous power of transforming opposites into complementarities."

Hardy was a known opponent of the solidarity tax on wealth (French: impôt de solidarité sur la fortune; ISF). She defended the tax shield put in place by the government of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010 and caused controversy when denouncing François Hollande's tax program amidst the 2012 French presidential election, telling Paris Match: "I believe that most people do not realize the tragedy that the ISF causes to people in my category. I am forced, almost 70 years old and ill, to sell my apartment and move out." This prompted her son Thomas Dutronc to write on Twitter: "But no mom, don't worry I'll invite you over to my place just in case..." Annoyed by the extent of her remarks, the singer later complained: "First, contrary to what has been written, I did not speak of the 'tragedy' of people who pay the ISF. The tragedy is the people who are losing their jobs because of offshoring and the crisis, and about whom we hear about every day in the newspapers. Then I never said I was going to be homeless. It's absurd. And even less that I was going to go into exile!"

Hardy expressed her support for the legality of abortion, while at the same time distancing herself from feminism. She wrote in 2008: "It is better to forgo having a child if you are not able to supply the minimum resources and time required for it to develop into a healthy, balanced adult. ... In contemporary French society, we hear a lot more talk about rights than we do their inseparable duties. This can be seen in how the feminist discourse has advanced the right of women to do as they wish with their own bodies, while passing over in silence — exactly like the puritan position — the fate of the children, although their fate should take precedence over everything else." In 2015, the singer caused controversy for her criticism of feminist activists in her essay "Avis non autorisés ...", in which she wrote: "I find them surly, ugly, that is to say not feminine for two cents. I have never been able to identify in anything with feminists. There are, however, some that I could have idealized..."

Amidst the 2017–2018 protests in France, Hardy expressed her support for President Emmanuel Macron, stating: "We must let him reform France. Part of the French people don't want to see the reality and are stuck in the Marxist ideology. What I like about President Macron is that he is an idealist but not an ideologue and is firmly grounded in reality." During the 2023 French pension reform strikes, Hardy told Le Journal du Dimanche that she was "ashamed of what was happening" in France, fearing that "repeated strikes" would make the country a "tourists repellent", and defended the pension reform bill.

Health and death

Between late 2004 and early 2005, Hardy was diagnosed with MALT lymphoma, which inaugurated a "hellish period" that disrupted her life. The singer then underwent chemotherapy treatment that was initially successful. In March 2015, Hardy's condition worsened and she had to be admitted to the hospital, where she was put into an artificial coma and nearly died. During her hospitalization, the singer also broke her hip and elbow. That month, she told Le Figaro: "I am very isolated, very handicapped by illness. I was diagnosed with lymphoma over ten years ago. But it is especially in the last three years that my symptoms have worsened. I also have a lot of difficulty walking. (...) There are times when I absolutely cannot see anyone and I cannot go out. But I remain positive, I live from day to day, I have no choice, I avoid thinking about it, it does not obsess me." The singer then underwent further chemotherapy and immunotherapy sessions.

Her health worsened and in 2021 she made news as a proponent for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in France, expressing her desire to have recourse to euthanasia. She told RTL's Flavie Flament: "It's absolutely appalling, but for the moment I'm reassured. I manage to cook for myself. As long as I can do that, okay! But if it does become even worse, if I am weakened to the point of not being able to do anything, I would seriously think about euthanasia. I cannot stay like this waiting for death to come, because I cannot live any more. I can't do the things that my life requires." She also disclosed her inability to continue singing as a result of the effects of the treatments.

Hardy died of laryngeal cancer in Paris, on 11 June 2024, at the age of 80. Prior to her death, she had also experienced several falls and bone fractures.