French singer and actress Francoise Hardy, one of the leading cultural icons of the Swinging Sixties, dies aged 80 after twenty-year cancer battle that made her a passionate advocate for euthanasia [Video]

18:44 EDT 11 Jun 2024, updated 21:27 EDT 11 Jun 2024

Legendary French singer and actress Francoise Hardy has died at the age of 80 after a long battle with cancer.

Hardy, known the world over for her crystalline voice and melancholy lyrics, suffered with different types of the disease, including lymphoma and laryngeal, over two decades.

It made her a passionate advocate for euthanasia, as she declared her home nation ‘inhuman’ for not allowing the procedure.

Her son Thomas Dutronc, whose father is fellow singer Jacques Dutronc, announced her death in a simple post to Instagram tonight which read: ‘Mum is gone.’

Hardy rose to prominence at just 18 with her first hit ‘Tous les Garcons et les Filles’ (‘All the Boys and Girls’) in 1962, and helped found the ye-ye style of music, a pop-inspired cultural movement that embraced British and American rock in the 1960s.

Her status as a cultural juggernaut saw her schmooze with the biggest …