France mourns loss of its rock ’n’ roll hero
OBITUARY: JOHNNY HALLYDAY
PARIS — 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 highenergy concerts at the foot of the Paris landmark, died Wednesday. He was 74.
French 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 comment during a visit to Algeria, Macron said: “We were convinced he was invincible. He is a French hero.”
French media reported that Hallyday 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.
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.
Céline 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!”
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.
“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 hero across the French border. The Brussels subway system played his hits over intercoms. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said: “A great artist has left us, transcending generations. ”
The antithesis of a French hero right down to his Elvis-style glitter and unFrench 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 veteran French musicians Eddy Mitchell and Jacques Dutronc.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy, as mayor of the rich enclave of Neuilly-surSeine on the western edge of Paris, presided in 1996 over the entertainer’s marriage to his fourth wife, Laeticia.
The star played several free concerts at the Eiffel Tower, one on Bastille Day in 2009, attended by more than 500,000 people. Hallyday sang some songs in English, including Hot Legs and House of the Rising Sun, the melody of which was also used for one of his most famous songs, Le Penitencier, in 1964.
Hallyday was born in Paris on June 15, 1943, of a Belgian father and French mother during the dark days of the Second World War with a less glamorous name, Jean-Philippe Smet. His parents had separated by the end of the year. The young Smet followed his father’s sisters to London. Hallyday gave his first professional concert in 1960, under the name Johnny, and put out his first album a year later.
By 1962, he had met the woman who would be his wife for years, and remained his friend to the end, singing star Sylvie Vartan. He became a favourite of young people during the Ye-ye period, the golden years of French pop music.
It was Hallyday’s personal life, and his marriage to Laeticia, that gave him a mellow edge. He spoke lovingly of daughters Jade and Joy, who were adopted from Vietnam. “I’m not a star. I’m just a simple man,” he said in a 2006 TV interview.
His widow’s statement announcing the death was a testimonial to Hallyday’s battle with cancer, “giving everyone extraordinary life lessons.”
Hallyday is also survived by two other children — Dave, a singer fathered with Vartan, and Laura Smet, whom he had with actor Nathalie Baye.