Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

JOHNNY HALLYDAY

Paris: La Madeleine to hold monthly mass in homage to Johnny Hallyday

The Madeleine church in Paris will hold a monthly mass in honour of beloved French rocker Johnny Hallyday in response to the number of fans turning up to pay tribute to the singer since his death in December.

Published: 11 January 2018 09:51 CET
Paris: La Madeleine to hold monthly mass in homage to Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday's memorial at the Madeleine church in Paris. Photo: AFP
The mass will take place on the 9th day of every month at the church where the late singer's memorial was held on the same day in December.
 
Unsurprisingly the service will be slightly different from other masses and is likely to include one of the prayers that was said during Hallyday’s original memorial.
 
The singer’s name will also be mentioned during some readings and instead of traditional hymns, the organist is expected to play Hallyday's own songs. 
 
France in mourning as king of rock Johnny Hallyday dies aged 74
Photo: AFP
 
“We are already on our fifth church guestbook since Johnny passed away,” Father Bruno Horaist told Le Croix. 
 
“I see people who need to express themselves, who give testimonies of affection. Many of the artist's fans come to burn candles and were frustrated at not being able to participate in the national tribute.”
 
The first mass in homage to Hallyday took place on January 9th, with the next set to take place on March 9th, following which Horaist said there would be a regular service on the 9th of every month.  
 
This isn't the first unusual tribute to France's “King of Rock”. After his death a Paris Metro station was renamed after Hallyday and France saw a boom in bizarre memorabilia linked to the singer, including a photo alleged to be Hallyday in his coffin.
 
Hallyday who was known as the French Elvis died of lung cancer aged 74 on December 5th 2017.
 
READ ALSO: 
Paris renames Metro station after French rock legend Johnny Hallyday
Photo: AFP

CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

SHOW COMMENTS