My tribute to Françoise Hardy

I got familiar with the name Françoise Hardy at a young age, when her songs already had an impact on me. Listening to her music with my eyes closed, made me dream of Paris on a sunny Saturday morning and it still does, as I am a hopeless romantic…. Later, after seeing some of her pictures, I noticed Françoise looked stunningly beautiful in a very natural way and was incredebly stylish. Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquiere names her as one of his muses. I still often listen to her music and this post is my tribute to Françoise Hardy….

Françoise Hardy Portrets

Françoise Hardy was born january 17, 1944 in Paris. Barely seventeen she answered to an ad in which the record label Vogue was looking for young singers. Françoise got signed. Her first single featured Óh Oh Chéri’ on the a-side, but it was the b-side ‘Tout les garçons et les filles’ a song she wrote herself, that was a huge success and Françoise became one of the youngsters that rode the popular ye-ye pop music wave of the sixties.

She represented Monaco at the Eurovision Song contest in 1963, only nineteen years old. At a photo shoot for the magazine ‘Salut les copains’ she fell in love with photographer Jean-Marie Périer, who changed her into a young trendsetter and made her become a fashion model. Something she actually never wanted, being extremely shy and very serious about her music career.

Françoise Hardy: Fashion model

In the 1970’s Françoise started to reinvent herself again and casted of the image of ‘fashionable young girl about town’, she was no longer under the spell of her boyfriend Périer, although he stayed involved, designing her album covers for a long time. From those days on she only worked on her singing career and collaborated with many famous people in the music business, who just admired her for writing skills and her voice.

She reinvented her music several times over and that makes her known by different generations. She worked with Malcolm Mclaren (‘Revenge of the flowers’ on MCLaren’s ‘Paris’, one of my favorite albums all times), Iggy Pop and some years ago recorded a song with the British band Blur.

‘Revenge of the Frower’ by Malcolm McLaren

 ‘Message Personnel’, one of Françoise Hardy’s most well-known songs.

Françoise Hardy photographed by Jean-Marie Périer

Françoise Hardy video’s

Comment te Dire Adieu

Ce Petit Coeur

Suzanne  (written by Leonard Cohen)

I’ll be Seeing You (duet with Iggy Pop)

Françoise Hardy portret, 2011