Massive funeral homage for ‘French Elvis’
PARIS: France bid farewell to its biggest rock star Saturday, honoring Johnny Hallyday with an extravagant funeral procession down Paris’ Champs-elysees Avenue, a presidential speech and a televised church ceremony filled with the country’s most famous faces.
Few figures in French history have earned a send-off with as much pomp as the man dubbed the “French Elvis,” who notched more than 110 million in record sales since rising to fame in the 1960s. Hallyday died Wednesday at 74 after fighting lung cancer.
In an honour usually reserved for heads of state or literary giants like 19th-century novelist Victor Hugo, Hallyday’s funeral cortege rode past Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe monument and down the Champs-elysees to the Place de la Concorde plaza on the Seine River.
Adding a rock touch to the event, hundreds of motorcyclists accompanied the procession. It was a nod to the lifelong passion that Hallyday, born Jean-philippe Smet, had for motorcycles. His biker image included signature leather jackets and tattoos.
French President Emmanuel Macron — a Hallyday fan himself, like three generations of others across the French-speaking world — delivered a eulogy on the steps of Paris’ Madeleine Church for the star known to the public affectionately by only one name. Hallyday’s death unleashed a wave of emotion across France, where he had been a symbol of national identity.