French music and fashion icon Françoise Ardy dies at the age of 80

One of France's most beloved singers, Françoise Ardy, has died at the age of 80, UNN reports citing the BBC.

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"Mom is gone," her son Thomas Dutron, who is also a musician, wrote on social media.

Among those who paid tribute to Arda after the news of her death was French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, who wrote on social media: "How to say goodbye to her? The eternal Françoise Ardi, a legend of French song who entered, thanks to her sensitivity and her melody, the heart of the whole country.

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Ardi burst onto the music scene in 1962 and became a cultural icon that inspired Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan. Known for her melancholic ballads, she symbolized the French pop movement Yé-yé (yeah yeah), so named for its reference to English music.

Among her most famous songs are Tous les garçons et les filles, Comment te dire adieu, Mon amie la Rose.

For example, her biggest hit in Britain was All Over The World, the English-language version of her song Dans le monde entier, which reached number 16 on the charts in June 1965.

Her style fascinated fashion designers, and she modeled for creators such as Yves Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne, who designed a mini dress made of gold plates for her. Ardi was a fashion icon in this iconic gold dress by Paco Rabanne in 1968.

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger once called her "the perfect woman," and her fellow singer and songwriter Bob Dylan wrote her several love letters.

She has collaborated with a number of artists, including Blur and Iggy Pop.

Ardie was also an actress who appeared in films by directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Roger Vadim, and John Frankenheim, as well as a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Among the topics she wrote about was astrology, which she fell in love with in the 1970s.

Before her death, Ardi had been ill for some time, and in 2004 it turned out that she had been diagnosed with lymphoma.

Her career spanned more than five decades, during which she released about 30 albums. Ardi's latest album Personne D'Autre (Nobody Else) was released in 2018.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked her 162nd on the list of the 200 greatest singers of all time in 2023.