Françoise Hardy, the French chanson singer, songwriter, fashion "It Girl" and darling of the 1960s "yé-yé" French pop movement, has died. She was 80. Her death was announced Tuesday on Instagram by her son, Thomas Dutronc, who wrote, "Maman est partie" — "Mom is gone" in French — without specifying when or where she died.
Hardy said in 2004 that she'd been diagnosed with lymphoma. A superstar in Paris by the time she turned 20, Hardy released her debut single, "Tous les Garçons et les Filles" ("All the Boys and Girls"), in 1962. Across the following decades, she issued more than 30 studio albums, a body of work that was briefly interrupted by a late 1980s retirement.
Advertisement Though hardly a household name in America — she sang most of her hits in her native tongue — Hardy was a phenomenon in her homeland, regarded both for her minor-key lyricism and her delicate delivery. She followed her first hit with "Le Temps de L'amour" ("The Time of Love"), which featured spacious, echoed production that captured the spirit of Gene Pitney's sessions with Phil Spector. Songs including "La Maison Où J'ai Grandi" ("The House Where I Grew Up") and "Comment te Dire Adieu" ("How to Say Goodbye to You") pondered the absence of love and, once present, the futility of keeping it.
Director Roger Vadim, left, and stars Françoise Hardy and Jean Claude Brialy attend the premiere of "Château en Suède" ("Castle in Sweden") in Paris on Nov. 19, 1963. (Max Micol / Associate.