Johnny Hallyday

A monument to chanson and rock, Jean-Philippe Smet aka Johnny Hallyday (Paris, June 15, 1943 - Marnes-La-Coquette, December 6, 2017) has been a part of French popular music history for over half a century. From his rock'n'roll beginnings in 1960 to his stature as a veteran to whom young first-timers flock to craft tailor-made songs, the singer has enjoyed a career in perpetual motion. No fashion has escaped him: yé-yé with "L'idole des jeunes" (1962), hippie with "La Génération perdue" (1968), romantic with "Que je t'aime" (1969), Mad Max with "Ma gueule" (1980), right up to the disillusioned crooner's costume, for which this veritable stage beast knows all the twists and turns in "Allumer le feu" (1998). In 2009, he released his forty-sixth album, Ça Ne Finira Jamais, before a farewell tour that ended in the emergency room. After Jamais Seul (2011), the national rocker returns to basics on L'Attente (2012). After working with Michel Berger, Jean-Jacques Goldman and Matthieu Chedid, he collaborated with Miossec, then Don Was on Rester Vivant (2014) and Yodelice on his fiftieth studio album, De l'Amour (2015) and its posthumous successor, Mon Pays C'est L'Amour (2018), his last recording, enjoying unprecedented media and commercial coverage. After battling lung cancer for several months, the national idol died at home at the age of 74. His funeral at the Madeleine church in Paris was a major event. Numerous compilations keep his memory alive, as do the orchestral albums Johnny (2019) and L'Histoire Continue... Acte II (2021). A statue is erected in his memory in front of the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy.