Françoise Hardy

Françoise Hardy, 1969

Françoise Madeleine Hardy [ fʁɑ̃swaːz aʁdi ] (born January 17, 1944 in Paris ) is a French chanson singer , lyricist , composer and film actress .

Life

Françoise Hardy, 1992

Françoise Hardy, 2012

In November 1961, Françoise Hardy signed her first contract with the record company Vogue and in April 1962, shortly after graduating from high school, her first record was released, Oh oh chéri , a track specially written for her by Johnny Hallyday's lyricist duo. However, the B-side Tous les garçons et les filles - a delicate chanson about boys and girls of their age who are looking for love - brought great success. In 1962, she made her debut in France's most popular youth program, Salut les copains, on the radio station Europe 1 , and it sold over two million times in a very short time after this performance.

A number of hits followed, most of which were written and composed by herself. She also recorded her songs in English, Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese. In 1963, Françoise Hardy competed in the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson with L'amour s'en va for Monaco and came in fifth. In 1968 she received the Grand Prix du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy .

The long-haired French woman, often dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, also received a lot of attention in Germany. In 1965 she appeared on German television in a show called Portrait in Musik produced by Truck Branss , which was also released on LP by Vogue . The chanson Ask den Abendwind touched the romantic side of German teenagers . The readers of the youth magazine Bravo voted Françoise Hardy as the second most popular singer in 1966 (Silver Bravo-Otto ) . A tour through Germany was the result.

According to a fashion of the time, three of her records were published as a double bill with Udo Jürgens (one side he, the other she). But although they met several times, there was no musical collaboration.

Later, however, Hardy found these early years so bad from an artistic point of view that she tried to prevent the chansons from being republished for years. In 2001, however, 50 songs from that time were released as a compilation .

Aesthetically, Hardy was considered a style icon in the 1960s . "Of course it helped that Hardy was tall and beautiful and also had a sense of style. Fashion designers like Paco Rabanne soon showered her with clothes," wrote Der Spiegel .

Hardy went on concert tours through England and Austria. A film clip was released for the long-playing record Träume , which was released in 1970 . In it she mimes Marlene Dietrich as a femme fatale in a black costume with fishnet stockings and a long cigarette holder . She explained that it was a homage to the great diva and that she wanted to express her appreciation for the German language, which she spoke well at the time.

Her great popularity persisted in France well into the 1970s and 1980s, although after 1968 she rarely performed in front of large audiences because of her stage fright. In 1981 Françoise Hardy married her long-time friend and artist colleague Jacques Dutronc , with whom she has had a son (Thomas Dutronc) since 1973. Increasingly she composed her albums herself, often playing the lyrics with the French language in a humorous way; her hits in the 1970s and 1980s include Message personnel , J'écoute de la musique saoule and La sieste . She has long since abandoned the image of the gentle pop singer who swam against the rock 'n' roll current with thoughtful romantic songs and is one of the most renowned singer-songwriters in her country. In May 2000 she made another comeback with the album Clair Obscur , which achieved six-figure sales in France just a few weeks after its release . On the album she is accompanied by her son on guitar; it also contains a duet each with Dutronc - the Puisque vous partez en voyage , which is also a successful single - as well as with Iggy Pop (I'll Be Seeing You) and Étienne Daho . In March 2005 another album was released with the title Tant de belles choses and in November 2006 the album Parenthèses… . In spring 2010 the album La pluie sans parapluie was finally released .

Françoise Hardy lives near Paris. Because of cancer, she gave up music and concentrated on writing books. She is often present in discussion groups on French television and radio, especially to present her books.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		FR	BE W	DE	CH
1962	Tous les garçons et les filles	-	-	DE40 (4 weeks) DE	-	Chart entry in DE only in 1964
1963	Françoise Hardy (1963)	-	-	DE23 (8 weeks) DE	-
1964	Françoise Hardy (1964)	-	-	DE23 (6 weeks) DE	-
1965	Portrait in music	-	-	DE4 (30 weeks) DE	-	with Udo Jürgens
1966	L'amitié	-	-	DE24 (6 weeks) DE	-
	Françoise Hardy in Germany	-	-	DE21 (10 weeks) DE	-
1969	Voilà	-	-	DE22 (4 weeks) DE	-
	En anglais	FR173 (1 week) FR	-	-	-	Chart entry in FR only in 2016
1973	Message personnel	FR105 (5 weeks) FR	BE W129 (4 weeks) BE W	-	-	Chart entry in FR and BEW only in 2013
1996	Le danger	-	BE W40 (2 weeks) BE W	-	-
2000	Clair-obscur	FR2 gold (25 weeks)FR	BE W15 (22 weeks) BE W	-	CH89 (1 week) CH
2005	Tant de belles choses	FR7th gold (36 weeks)FR	BE W17 (29 weeks) BE W	DE67 (3 weeks) DE	CH62 (2 weeks) CH
	Parenthèses ...	FR7th platinum (48 weeks)FR	BE W7 (33 weeks) BE W	-	CH56 (8 weeks) CH
2010	La pluie sans parapluie	FR5 gold (31 weeks)FR	BE W4 (27 weeks) BE W	-	CH30 (7 weeks) CH
2012	L'amour fou	FR5 gold (24 weeks)FR	BE W8 (34 weeks) BE W	-	CH57 (3 weeks) CH
2018	Personne d'autre	FR4th gold (23 weeks)FR	BE W2 (25 weeks) BE W	-	CH11 (7 weeks) CH

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More studio albums

• Le premier bonheur du jour (1963)
• Mon amie la rose (1964)
• Françoise Hardy Sings in English (1966)
• La maison où j'ai grandi (1966)
• Ma jeunesse fout le camp ... (1967)
• Comment te dire adieu? (1968)
• Dreams (1970)
• Françoise (1970)
• Soleil (1970)
• La question (1971)
• Et si je m'en vais avant toi (1972)
• If You Listen (1972)
• Entr'acte (1974)
• Star (1977)
• Musique saoule (1978)
• Gin Tonic (1980)
• A Suivre (1981)
• Quelqu'un qui s'en va (1982)
• Decalages (1988)
• Ask the Evening Wind (2001)

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		FR	BE W	DE	CH
1995	Le meilleur de	-	BE W46 (1 week) BE W	-	-
2002	Messages personnels	-	BE W28 (4 weeks) BE W	-	-
2005	Le temps des souvenirs	-	BE W54 (14 weeks) BE W	-	-
2012	Best Of - 3CD	-	BE W111 (8 weeks) BE W	-	-

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		FR	BE W	DE	AT
1963	Peter and Lou	-	-	DE20 (20 weeks) DE	-	German version of Tous les garçons et les filles
	Tous les garçons et les filles Tous les garçons et les filles	-	-	DE20 (16 weeks) DE	-
1964	Who are you	-	-	DE32 (6 weeks) DE	-
	Mon amie la rose Françoise Hardy (1964)	FR178 (1 week) FR	-	-	-	Chart entry in FR only in 2015
1965	Ask the evening wind	-	-	DE7 (22 weeks) DE	AT9 (16 weeks) AT
1966	I'm a girl now	-	-	DE24 (12 weeks) DE	-
	Then you are in love	-	-	DE39 (2 weeks) DE	-
1969	First love souvenirs	-	-	DE31 (4 weeks) DE	-
1973	Message personnel Message personnel	FR183 (2 weeks) FR	-	-	-	Chart entry in FR only in 2013
1986	VIP	FR48 (1 week) FR	-	-	-
1988	Partir quand même Décalages	FR33 (8 weeks) FR	-	-	-
2000	Puisque vous partez en voyage Clair-obscur	FR30 (21 weeks) FR	BE W34 (3 weeks) BE W	-	-	with Jacques Dutronc
2004	Tant de belles choses ... Tant de belles choses	FR105 (2 weeks) FR	-	-	-	Chart entry in FR only in 2016
2010	Noir sur blanc La pluie sans parapluie	-	BE W21 (6 weeks) BE W	-	-
2012	Pourquoi vous? L'amour fou	FR120 (2 weeks) FR	-	-	-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More singles

• J'suis d'accord (1962), German version: I say yes (1965)
• Oh oh chérie (1962)
• Le premier bonheur du jour (1963)
• I'll get on your roof (1963)
• L'amour s'en va , German version: Love goes (1963)
• Mon amie la rose (1964)
• Ce petit coeur (1965)
• Rendez-vous d'automne (1966)
• La maison où j'ai grandi (1966), text: Eddy Marnay , music: Adriano Celentano, L. Beretta, M. Delprete (Il ragazzo della via Gluck)
• Je changerais d'avis (1966)
• Comment te dire adieu (1968), French. Text by Serge Gainsbourg , German version: What am I doing without you (1970)
• Listen to the night wind (1970)
• Stranger Shadows (1970)

Filmography (selection)

• 1963: A castle in Sweden (Château en Suède)
• 1965: what's new, pussy? (What's new, pussycat?)
• 1965: Une balle au cœur
• 1966: Grand Prix (Grand Prix)
• 1966: Keep your hands off the doll (Europa canta)

literature

• Gerd Heger, Falk Staub: Françoise Hardy , in: Pop-Archiv International 1/2001 from January 15, 2001, in the Munzinger-Archiv ( beginning of article freely available)
• Françoise Hardy , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 4/2006 of January 28, 2006, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

Commons : Françoise Hardy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (French and English)
• Françoise Hardy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Fansite with biography (German)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christoph Dallach: The shy beauty. In: Spiegel Online . April 8, 2016, accessed June 9, 2018 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: FR BEW DE AT CH
3. ↑ Awards for music sales: FR FR2