French fashionista and singer Françoise Hardy dead at 80

Françoise Hardy has died at the age of 80.

The Parisian singer and actress – who was born in Nazi occupied Paris in 1944 - had battled lymphatic cancer since 2004 and had to undergo several years of treatment

This week, her son confirmed his mother passed away.

Taking to Instagram, Thomas Dutronc - whose father is singer Jacques Dutronc – simply wrote: “Mum is gone (sic).”

In 2015, Françoise was placed in an induced coma for weeks following a fall.

Six years later, the singer admitted she felt “close to the end” of her life after a tumour had been found in her ear.

After bursting onto the music scene in 1962 with the song ‘Tous les garçons et les filles’ (All the Girls and Boys’), Françoise became a cultural icon who inspired artists like Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Sir Mick Jagger.

Dylan famously penned a poem about Françoise.

The singer became renowned for her melancholy ballads, and symbolised France’s Yé-yé (yeah yeah) pop movement.

Françoise became a household name with earworms such as ‘It Hurts to Say Goodbye’ (‘Comment te dire adieu’) and ‘My Friend the Rose’ (‘Mon amie la rose’).

‘All Over The World’ - an English-language version of her track ‘Dans le monde entier’ - became the singer’s biggest UK hit, reaching number 16 in the charts in June 1965.

Françoise worked with several renowned songwriters, including Serge Gainsbourg, Patrick Modiano, Michel Berger and Catherine Lara, and collaborated with artists such as Iggy Pop and Blur.

Aside from her work in the music industry, the songwriter ventured into the film world, appearing in Roger Vadim’s ‘Château en Suède’ (1963) and John Frankenheimer’s ‘Grand Prix’ (1966), and made a brief appearance in Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Masculin féminin’ (1966).

She was also a style muse for the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, André Courrèges and Paco Rabanne, and once admitted the press in Britain in the Swinging Sixties were more fascinated with her French girl aesthetic than her music.

Speaking to The New York Times in 2018, she said: “When I came to London to perform at the Savoy in the mid-60s, I was well aware that the British press was more interested in the way I dressed than in my songs.”

After news broke of her passing, a number of stars have paid tribute to Françoise.

The Lord of the Rings’ actor Elijah Wood posted a black-and-white photo of the singer, and added the caption: “au revoir, Françoise Hardy.”

‘Fight the Power’ rapper Chuck D took to social media and wrote: “Over in France … us beat diggers found some vintage stuff in Françoise Hardy records #RestInBeats.”