Johnny Hallyday (born Jean-Philippe Smet; 15 June 1943) is a French singer and actor. An icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career, he was considered by some to have been the French Elvis Presley. His father, Léon Smet (1908-1989), was Belgian, his mother Huguette Clerc (1920-2007) was French; the young Hallyday took his stage name from his aunt's husband, American artist Lee Halliday (also a pseudonym).
Hallyday, whose music career has spanned a half-century, is one of France's biggest stars. He has completed 100 tours, had 18 platinum albums, and sold more than 110 million records. Hallyday announced his retirement from performing on 3 December 2007 at the age of 64,after a farewell tour.
Career
Influenced by Elvis Presley and the 1950s rock revolution, Hallyday became famous in the 1960s for singing rock and roll in French. His first album, Hello Johnny, was released in 1960.In 1961 his cover of "Let's Twist Again" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. He appeared on the American Ed Sullivan Show with American singing star Connie Francis in a show that was taped at the Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris. He also staged many appearances in the Paris Olympia under the management of the late Bruno Coquatrix. For their first concert, The Jimi Hendrix Experience opened for Johnny Hallyday in Évreux on 13 October 1966. Black and white footage, also from October 1966, exists of Hallyday partying with Hendrix, his manager Chas Chandler and others.
At the end of the sixties, Hallyday made a string of albums with Mick Jones and Tommy Brown as musical directors, and Jimmy Page) as session musician. These are Jeune Homme, Rivière... Ouvre ton Lit (aka Je suis né dans la rue) and Vie. On Je suis né dans la rue, Hallyday also hired both Peter Frampton and the Small Faces. Amongst their contributions are the songs "Amen (Bang Bang)", "Reclamation (News Report)" and "Regarde Pour Moi (What You Will)" which are variations of Small Faces and Humble Pie - which was Frampton's band - tracks and they can be heard playing on the album. Often forgotten is Hallyday's non-LP single and EP track "Que Je T'aime" from the same sessions.By 1969 alone, his sales of records exceeded twelve million.
Many[who?] consider Hallyday to have developed well and become a greater performer in his later years, one of his concerts, 100% Johnny: Live à La Tour Eiffel in 2000, attracted an audience of 500,000 and 9.5 million television viewers (the show was broadcast live on French TV). In December 2005, Hallyday had his third number-one single in France, "Mon Plus Beau Noël" (after "Tous ensemble" and "Marie"), dedicated to his adopted daughter Jade. Shortly before announcing his retirement from touring, he released a blues-flavored album, Le Cœur d'un homme, on 12 November 2007. The album hit #1 in both France and French-speaking Belgium. In addition to the lead single "Always", Le Cœur d'un homme features "T'aimer si mal", a duet with bluesman Taj Mahal and "I Am the Blues", an English-language song written for Hallyday by U2 frontman Bono. His next album, Ça ne finira jamais, released in 2008, another #1 on the French album chart, and its lead single, "Ça n'finira jamais", also reached #1. In 2008 he recorded a series of acoustic songs with French musician Drexl Jonez. Hallyday's most recent album, also a #1 hit in France, is Tour 66: Stade de France 2009, a live set recorded at Stade de France during his farewell tour with appearances by Drexl Jonez on the guitar.
Hallyday remains largely unknown outside of France, thus earning the nickname "the biggest rock star you've never heard of" in English-speaking countries. He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur in 1997.
[edit]Personal life
In November 2005, Hallyday started a procedure to obtain Belgian citizenship but his request was turned down in 2006 because he failed to fulfill the residency requirements. In late 2006, Hallyday announced that he would move his permanent residency to Gstaad, Switzerland to escape the high tax rate imposed by the French government. Swiss law allows wealthy individuals to claim residency if they live six months and one day in the country and then pay a fixed tax based on expenses, such as rent or assets in Switzerland, rather than a percentage of their income. Hallyday has said that he would move his residency back to France if it changes its tax laws.
Hallyday keeps a second home in Los Angeles, where he has been spending increasing amounts of time in recent years, enjoying his relative anonymity in the U.S. One of his favorite leisure activities is riding his Harley-Davidson on long trips through the California desert, staying in small motels along the way.
Hallyday married Bulgarian - French singer Sylvie Vartan on 12 April 1965. Their son David Hallyday was born on 14 August 1966. Hallyday and Vartan divorced in 1980. He was then briefly married to Babeth Etienne; the marriage lasted less than three months, ending in February 1982. A four year relationship with French actress Nathalie Baye followed, their daughter Laura Smet was born on 15 November 1983. He was married to his third wife Adeline Blondieau for two years, divorcing her in 1992. He has been married to Laeticia Boudou since 25 March 1996. The couple have adopted two girls from Vietnam: Jade Odette Désirée, born August 3, 2004 (formerly Bui Thi Hoa), in November 2004, and Joy (Maï-Huong) born July 27, 2008, in December 2008.
Hallyday supported Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 French presidential election. In an ironic twist, when the Canadian comedy duo the Masked Avengers prank-called American vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin by pretending to be Sarkozy, they named Hallyday as Sarkozy's "Special American Advisor."
In July 2009, Hallyday was diagnosed with colon cancer,for which he was operated on. On 26 November 2009 Hallyday underwent surgery in Paris to repair a herniated disc, but he suffered complications and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. It was announced that Hallyday had been put into a medically induced coma in order to repair lesions that had formed as a result of the surgery and to relieve his pain. On 17 December, it was announced that Hallyday and his wife had started legal proceedings against Dr. Stephane Delajoux, who had performed the original surgery.
On 5 January 2010 it was reported that his daughter Laura Smet, 26, an actress, was taken to hospital after consuming medicines and alcohol and losing consciousness in a church in central Paris, amid claims that she was torn between her father and her lover who is Dr Delajoux's brother.
[edit]Albums
[edit]Studio albums
Hello Johnny (1960, Vogue)
Nous les Gars, Nous les Filles (1961, Vogue)
Tête à Tête avec Johnny (1961, Vogue)
Salut les Copains! (1961, Philips)
Johnny Hallyday sings America's Rockin' Hits (1962, Philips)
Les Bras en Croix (1963, Philips)
Les Rocks les Plus Terribles (1964, Philips)
Halleluyah (1965, Philips)
Johnny Chante Hallyday (1965, Philips)
La Génération Perdue (1966, Philips)
Johnny 67 (1967, Philips)
Jeune Homme (1968, Philips)
Rêve et Amour (1968, Philips)
Rivière... Ouvre ton Lit (aka Je suis né dans la rue) (1969, Philips)
Vie (1970, Philips)
Flagrant Délit (1971, Philips)
Country-Folk-Rock (1972, Philips)
Insolitudes (1973, Philips)
Je t'Aime, Je t'Aime, Je t'Aime (1974, Philips)
Rock'n Slow (1974, Philips)
Rock à Memphis (1975, Philips)
La Terre Promise (1975, Philips)
Derrière l'Amour (1976, Philips)
Hamlet (1976, Philips)
C'est la Vie (1977, Philips)
Solitudes à Deux (1978, Philips)
Hollywood (1979, Philips)
À Partir de Maintenant... (1980, Philips)
En Pièces Détachées (1981, Philips)
Pas Facile (1981, Philips)
Quelque Part un Aigle (1982, Philips)
La Peur (1982, Philips)
Entre Violence et Violon (1983, Philips)
Hallyday 84: Nashville en Direct (1984, Philips)
En V.O. (1984, Philips)
Rock'n'Roll Attitude (1985, Philips)
Gang (1986, Philips)
Cadillac (1989, Philips)
Ça ne change pas un homme (1991, Philips)
Rough Town (1994, Philips)
Lorada (1995, Philips)
Ce que je sais (1998, Philips)
Sang pour sang (1999, Philips)
À la vie, à la mort ! (2002, Mercury)
Ma Vérité (2005, Mercury)
Le Cœur d'un homme (2007, Warner Music France)
Ça ne finira jamais (2008, Warner Music France)
[edit]Live albums
Johnny et Ses Fans au Festival de Rock'n'Roll (1961, Vogue)
À l'Olympia (1962, Philips)
Olympia 64 (1964, Philips)
Olympia 67 (1967, Philips)
Au Palais des Sports (1967, Philips)
Que Je t'Aime (1969, Philips)
Live at the Palais des Sports (1971, Philips)
Palais des Sports (1976, Philips)
Pavillon de Paris (1979, Philips)
Live (1981, Universal Music)
Palais des Sports 1982 (1982, Universal Music)
Au Zénith (1984, Universal Music)
À Bercy (1987, Universal Music)
Dans la Chaleur de Bercy (1990, Universal Music)
Bercy 92 (1992, Universal Music)
Parc des Princes (1993, Universal Music)
À La Cigale (1994, Universal Music)
Lorada Tour (1995, Universal Music)
Destination Vegas (1996, Universal Music)
Johnny Allume le Feu: Stade de France 98 (1998, Universal Music)
100% Johnny: Live à La Tour Eiffel (2000, Universal Music)
Olympia 2000 (2000, Universal Music)
Parc des Princes 2003 (2003, Universal Music)
Flashback Tour Live (2006, Warner Music)
La Cigale (2007, Warner Music)
Tour 66: Stade de France 2009 (2009, Warner Music)
[edit]Films
L'aventure c'est l'aventure (1974) as himself
The Case of the Missing Bottle (1983) as Monsieur Waitor
Détective (1985) directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Why Not Me? (1999) as José
Love Me (2000) as Lennox
L'homme du train (The Man on the Train) (aka Man on the Train in the US) (2002) as Milan
Crime Spree (2003) as Marcel Burot
Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse (2004) as L'ermite borgne
Quartier V.I.P. (2005) as Alex
Jean-Philippe (2006) as Jean-Philippe
Vengeance (2009) as Francis Costello
The Pink Panther 2 (2009) as Laurence Millikin
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