johnny-hallyday

French superstar Johnny Hallyday, RIP

Johnny Hallyday, who was often called the “French Elvis,” has died at age 74. The singer had been battling cancer. “We all have a piece of Johnny Hallyday inside every one of us,” read a statement from President Emmanuel Macron’s office. “The public today is in tears, and the whole country mourns.” From The New York Times:

Although he was little known outside the French-speaking world, Mr. Hallyday sold more than 100 million records, acted in more than 30 films and appeared on the cover of the magazine Paris Match dozens of times. His career endured so long that when he released an album in 2008 called “Ça Ne Finira Jamais” (“It Will Never End”), the title sounded like a simple statement of fact.

That album and its title song both reached No. 1 on the French charts.

Mr. Hallyday gave his fans more than recycled Elvis. His hard drinking, car crashes, wild partying and tempestuous love life made him a permanent headline in the French popular press. Readers breathlessly followed his on-again, off-again marriage to the glamorous singer and actress Sylvie Vartan, a roller-coaster relationship that led Mr. Hallyday to attempt suicide twice.

Critics scoffed at Mr. Hallyday as derivative, but his countless fans did not care. His outdoor concert at the Eiffel Tower in 2000 drew more than half a million fans, and another 9.5 million watched it on television — about one-sixth of the population of France.

Rest in peace, Johnny. Check out a few of his hits below:

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