France mourns its Elvis
FRANCE paid an emotional farewell on Saturday to Johnny Hallyday – the singer who taught the country how to rock – in a highly theatrical “people’s tribute” that brought Paris to a standstill.
Hundreds of thousands of people lined the Champs Elysees to watch his white coffin, escorted by some 700 bikers, descend the great ceremonial avenue in what was a state funeral in all but name.
Diehard fans of the leatherclad “French Elvis” began to gather overnight in the centre of the French capital for an outpouring of emotion for a singer not seen since the death of Edith Piaf.
As the huge cortege paused in front of the grand Madeleine church where French President Emmanuel Macron waited on the steps with the singer’s family, the throng – many in tears – began chanting over and over, “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny Hallyday”.
“Because he loved France he would have loved this,” Mr Macron declared as the coffin was laid on the steps of the church before the crowd. “Johnny was ours.. He was a lot more than a singer, he was life.”
Hallyday, 74, once condemned as the rock ‘ n’ roll “corrupter of youth” who went on to become a very French cultural icon, died of lung cancer on Wednesday.
With an untipped Gitanes cigarette often at his lip, he held France entranced for five decades with his spectacular stage shows and equally colourful private life.
Fans spent the night in the surrounding streets, singing his songs and doing the Twist to keep warm on a bright but freezing cold morning. Television stations cleared their schedules to broadcast the “people’s tribute” live, ensuring that the “beast of the stage”, who sold more than 110 million records, went out with one last big show.
Hollywood actor Marion Cotillard wept amid the prayers and tributes by a galaxy of French stars, including his friends Jean Reno and Carole Bouquet.
But the four hours of ceremonial ended almost joyously with mourners inside and outside the Madeleine clapping along to blues and gospel musicians.
“He was someone who really counted in French people’s lives,” said former president Nicolas Sarkozy, a huge fan.
For some in Hallyday’s white working- class fan base, the fact that he will be buried in the French Caribbean island of Saint Barts – where he had a home – added to the heartache.
Veteran French pop star Michel Polnareff, an old friend of the star, said he found it “strange that his fans should be deprived of Johnny” in this way.
Philosopher Raphael Enthoven said it was difficult to overplay the effect of Hallyday’s passing.