Actor Elijah Wood has led tributes to Francoise Hardy after the French singer died on Tuesday night aged 80 following a long battle with cancer.
Hardy, known around the world for her crystal-clear voice and melancholic lyrics, suffered from different types of diseases, including lymphoma and larynx, for two decades.
This made her a passionate advocate of euthanasia, as she declared her home country “inhumane” for not allowing the procedure.
In the wake of her death, tributes have flooded in, with the most notable coming from American actor Wood, 43, who shared a moving image of the singer on X, formerly Twitter.
In a post on the social media platform, the actor wrote: ‘Au revoir, Francoise Hardy’, accompanied by a black and white photograph of the vocalist.
Actor Elijah Wood has led tributes to Francoise Hardy after the French singer died on Tuesday night aged 80 following a long battle with cancer.
Hardy, known around the world for her crystal-clear voice and melancholic lyrics, suffered from different types of illness, including lymphoma and larynx, for two decades.
In response to Elijah, other fans also paid tribute to Francoise, posting: ‘Goodbye beautiful Francoise. My condolences to the family.’
Another added: ‘Thank you for everything, Françoise. You will stay in my heart and on my playlist.’
A third wrote: “This morning I mourned the death of Françoise Hardy, more than the death of my own mother!”
It follows another tribute from Francoise’s son Thomas Dutronc, whose father is fellow singer Jacques Dutronc, after the former announced her death in a simple Instagram post that read: “Mom is gone.”
Other tributes to the iconic singer included those from prominent French politicians.
French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said in a post to X: ‘How to say goodbye? The eternal Françoise Hardy, legend of French song, who entered, through her sensitivity and her melodies, into the heart of an entire country.
“I send my warmest thoughts to Thomas Dutronc, his son, his family and his loved ones.”
Far-right politician Marine Le Pen said on X: ‘Françoise Hardy, icon of French song, left tonight. Several generations have been moved by her melancholic voice and the poetry of her texts. My condolences to her family.’
Hardy rose to fame at just 18 with his first hit ‘Tous les Garcons et les Filles’ (‘All the Boys and Girls’) in 1962, and helped found the ye-ye musical style, a pop-inspired cultural movement. who embraced British and American Rock in the 1960s.
Following her death, tributes have flooded in, the most notable being that of American actor Wood, 43, who shared a moving image of the singer on X, formerly Twitter.
Tributes also poured in from the singer’s fans following the news of her death.
Her status as a cultural giant saw her chat with the biggest names in showbiz at the time, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan.
He also worked with composers such as Serge Gainsbourg, Patrick Modiano, Michel Berger and Catherine Lara.
His final years were marred by illness, and Hardy went into an induced coma at one point, before a new form of radiation saved his life.
She was a prominent advocate of assisted suicide near the end of her life and told the magazine that it was “inhumane” that France did not legalize the controversial procedure.
“It is not up to doctors to grant every request, but rather to shorten the unnecessary suffering of an incurable disease from the moment it becomes unbearable.”
He joked at the time that while he would have loved to have chosen to end his own life, “given my small notoriety, no one will want to risk being removed even further from the medical order.”
In one of his last interviews before his death, he said the only thing he would miss was his son.
She told Le Parisien: ‘I think above all of the immense pain of leaving my son, of causing him pain.
But I would rather die than suffer prolonged and unbearable conditions. And I always have in the back of my mind the idea that there’s something next.’
