French Music: Johnny Hallyday, the French Elvis

Friend of presidents with a 50 year singing career, Hallyday was a force in France

Johnny Hallyday, know as the "French Elvis," was a towering figure in French pop culture with a dynamic career spanning six decades. He neatly answers the question, “What if Elvis had survived?”

Known for his adaptations of American hits like "Noir c'est noir," a French version of "Black Is Black" by Los Bravos, Hallyday got his start in 1960s, when young French people were fascinated with American culture while he was seen as a rebel by the conservative French establishment. Some early footage captures some of the excitement of his early career.

Hallyday was an epic rocker who never made it in America, though he once had a sold-out performance in Las Vegas when thousands of French fans traveled to see him perform.

He followed or led every musical trend, from rock and roll to a kind of prog rock opera phase with his musical version of "Hamlet," in the late 70s, before returning to blues, country, and French ballads, and later what was described as “a final flourish of Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic rock.” The only constants were Gitannes cigarettes and the “life of destruction” he led offstage.

"For a long time I couldn't get out of bed in the morning without cocaine," he said in an interview in 1998.

It’s hard not to enjoy the stadium show spectacle of it all. Hallyday could wow an audience and sold out sports stadiums all over France where he remains popular.

Allumer le Feu (“Light the Fire”) live in 2000

In 2009, millions of French fans held their breath when Hallyday "died" on the operating table during routine back surgery. Fans were gripped with anxiety for weeks as he lay in a medically induced coma. It was in all the papers. The surgeon responsible for the initial operation was once assaulted on the streets of Paris as the country awaited Hallyday’s recovery.

His death in 2017, due to lung cancer in the end, was the end of an era in France and marked by national mourning. French President Emmanuel Macron, one of 5 French presidents who were close to Hallyday during his career, called him a “national hero.”