French rock icon Johnny Hallyday dies
Singer and actor known as French Elvis packed stadiums for more than 50 years
Johnny Hallyday, France’s biggest rock star for more than half a century and an icon who packed sports stadiums and all but lit up the Eiffel Tower with his high-energy concerts at the foot of the Paris landmark, died early Wednesday. He was 74.
President Emmanuel Macron, who knew the star offstage, announced his death in a statement, saying “he brought a part of America into our national pantheon.” In a second comment during a visit to Algeria, Macron said that “we were convinced he was invincible ... He is a French hero.”
Macron’s office said the president spoke with Hallyday’s family, but didn’t provide details about where the rocker died.
The French media reported widely that he died at his home west of Paris, which was quickly surrounded by mourning fans and police providing security.
“Hearing about Johnny’s death has hurt us because Johnny is our God and nobody can replace him,” said one fan, Yves Buisson, outside the Hallyday family’s gated home in Marnes-La-Coquette. His arms were covered with tattoos of the star.
Hallyday had lung cancer and repeated health scares in recent years that dominated national news, and recently returned from a hospital stay. But he continued performing as recently as this summer.
Celine Dion was among stars sharing condolences for a rocker with a famously gravelly voice who sold more than 100 million records, filled concert halls and split his time between Los Angeles and Paris. Brigitte Bardot tweeted: “Johnny is a monument. It is France!”
Some of France’s leading political figures on the left and right joined Macron in mourning the loss of “Johnny,” as he was known. Former President Francois Hollande, the Socialist leader replaced by Macron, said Hallyday “is part of our national patrimony.”
Hallyday fashioned his glitzy stage aura, with an open shirt, jewelry and a pumping pelvis, from Elvis Presley, drew musical inspiration from Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, performed with Jimi Hendrix, and made an album in country music’s capital, Nashville, Tennessee.
His stardom largely ended at the French-speaking world, yet in France itself, he was an institution, with a postage stamp in his honour. He was the country’s top rock ‘n’ roll star through more than five decades and eight presidents, and it was no exaggeration when Macron wrote “the whole country is in mourning.”
“We all have something of Johnny Hallyday in us,” Macron said, praising “a sincerity and authenticity that kept alive the flame that he ignited in the public’s heart.”
Hallyday, whose father was Belgian, also was a musical hero across the French border. The Brussels subway system played his hits over intercoms, and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said “a great artist has left us, transcending generations. ”
The antithesis of a French hero right down to his Elvisstyle glitter and un-French name, Hallyday was among the most familiar faces and voices in France, which knew him simply as Johnny, pronounced with a slight French accent and beloved across generations.
He released his last album “Rester Vivant” — or “Staying Alive” — last year, and performed this summer as part of the “Old Crooks” tour with longtime friends and veteran French musicians Eddy Mitchell and Jacques Dutronc.