Johnny Hallyday

Born in Paris in 1943 under the name Jean-Philippe Smet, Johnny Hallyday established himself from the early 1960s as one of the first singers to permanently install rock'n'roll in French in the popular landscape. Trained through family tours and marked very early by Elvis Presley and the American repertoire, Johnny Hallyday passed through Golf-Drouot before launching his recording career at Vogue, then Philips. His journey traverses rock, twist, rhythm and blues, soul, pop rock, blues, country and ballad, with a powerful voice and a vocal style that evolves over the decades without breaking with a rock base. Among his often cited albums are Nous les gars, nous les filles (1961), Rivière… ouvre ton lit (1969), Flagrant Délit (1971), Rock’n’Roll Attitude (1985), Gang (1986), Sang pour sang (1999), À la vie, à la mort ! (2002) and Mon pays c’est l’amour (2018), published posthumously. Johnny Hallyday also mounted many large tours, Parisian residencies and collaborations with authors and composers such as Philippe Labro, Michel Mallory, Michel Berger, Jean-Jacques Goldman, David Hallyday, Miossec or Yodelice. A constant figure on the French scene until his death in 2017, Johnny Hallyday also pursued an acting career in film and theatre.