the essential
“Sometimes sadness slips into their eyes.” Singer Thomas Dutronc paid tribute to his mother Françoise Hardy, icon of the sixties who died a few days ago, by covering one of her titles during a poignant concert on Thursday June 13 in Pas-de-Calais.
An ovation lasting several minutes welcomed Thomas Dutronc, who despite the mourning maintained his presence at the opening of the second edition of the Jazz Opale Festival in Neufchâtel-Hardelot on Thursday, simply bringing his concert forward by an hour.
“There is a lot of emotion in our house” in recent days, “I tried to sing two of my mother’s songs, but my throat is tight,” he admitted, leaving it to its musicians, Stochelo Rosenberg, Ricky Gresset and Thomas Bramerie, to perform “L’Amitié”, a hit by Françoise Hardy released in 1965.
Read also :
Death of Françoise Hardy at 80: 5 little-known things to know about the singer
“Sometimes sadness slips into their eyes…”
Before overcoming his sorrow at the end of the concert, and singing his words: “Sometimes sadness slips into their eyes […] you can go deep into the clouds.” “In England we say ‘elephant in the room’ (the huge subject we avoid talking about, Editor’s note) […] We can’t translate it into French but for me, my ‘elephant in the room’ is my mother’s departure to other skies,” he said modestly, in front of an equally moved audience.
Read also :
Françoise Hardy: “Goodbye my Great”… the tribute of photographer to the stars Jean-Marie Périer to his former muse and companion
In a packed room, many tunes sounded like farewells – such as a cover of the version of Sidney Bechet’s hit “Petite fleur” by Henri Salvador, “in my heart you will always bloom”.
“Mom is gone…”
Françoise Hardy died on June 11 at the age of 80, after battling cancer that appeared in 2004. Thomas Dutronc, son of the famous couple she formed with singer Jacques Dutronc, announced the news Tuesday evening on the social networks, with a sober “Mom is gone…”
An emblematic figure of the sixties with an evanescent voice and melancholic airs, Françoise Hardy had conquered the Anglo-Saxon public, which made her the only Frenchwoman in the ranking of the 200 best singers of all time by the American magazine Rolling Stone in 2023 .
“This evening takes on a special character for us”, underlines Véronique, a fifty-year-old who came to the concert with two friends, moved to pay “tribute to Françoise Hardy”, and saluting the “courage” of her son for “having honored her presence “.
