French singer-songwriter and fashion icon Françoise Hardy is releasing her 24th studio album, her first release in six years, Personne d’autre.
Hardy achieved immediate success in the early 1960s with her million-selling debut Tous les garçons et les filles on the Vogue label. The eternally chic pop star and actress found herself at the forefront of the French music scene, as a leading figure of the influential yé-yé movement. Mick Jagger once described Hardy as his "ideal woman," Bob Dylan dedicated a poem to her, and she has worked alongside greats such as Leonard Cohen, Serge Gainsbourg, Michel Berger, and Patrick Modiano. To this day she remains one of France's most iconic singers.
Personne d’autre features 10 original songs, including one sung in English, ‘You're My Home’ penned by Yael Naim, a cover of Michel Berger's ‘seras-tu là’, and an adaption of Finnish band Poet Of The Fall's ‘Sleep’.
Of the album, Françoise Hardy said – "For many - very reasonable - reasons, I wasn't planning on making another album. Circumstances decided otherwise, starting with me falling in love with a song I heard completely by chance, Sleep by Finnish band Poets of the Fall.
I played it to Erick Benzi who enjoyed it, then to my surprise sent me several beautiful melodies of his own composition that inspired me to write some lyrics. La Grande Sophie, who knew that I had started writing again, emailed me out of the blue with a wonderful song called ‘Le Large’ (Sailing Away), Pascale Daniel came to me with a haunting melody, then a song by Yael Naim in English brought tears to my eyes... The album practically made itself, and all under the talented and benevolent leadership of Erick Benzi, without whom none of this would have been possible."
