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Johnny Hallyday

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Johnny Hallyday (born as Jean-Philippe Smet on June 15, 1943 in Paris) is a French singer and actor.^[1] An icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career, some consider him the French equivalent of Elvis Presley. He has had a 45-year career in music and is one of France's biggest stars. He has completed 400 tours, had 18 platinum albums, performed in front of 15 million people, and sold 100 million records. Today Hallyday is still seen as a top stage performer, giving first class shows in crowded stadiums. Hallyday announced his retirement from performing on 3rd December 2007 at the age of 64[2]

1 Personal life
2 Career
3 Trivia
4 Albums
- 4.1 Studio Albums
- 4.2 Live Albums
5 Films
6 See also
7 Notes
8 External links

Personal life

Johnny Hallyday was born Jean-Philippe Smet in Cité Malesherbes, Paris, France, to a French mother, Huguette (1919-2007), and a Belgian father, Leon Smet. His parents separated not long after his birth, and he was raised by his paternal aunt, Hélène Mar. (His pseudonym was borrowed from his cousin's friend, Lee Halliday; it turned into Hallyday when it was misprinted on a record label.)^[2] He was married on April 12, 1965 to Sylvie Vartan (French singer) in Loconville. They have a son, David Hallyday (who is also a singer), born David Michael Benjamin Smet on August 14, 1966. Johnny was seen as a less than caring father, as his career had taken control of his life; his focus was on his career and his next song rather than on his family. Although Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan were France's "Golden Couple" of their generation, they divorced on November 4, 1980. A year later, he married a model named Babeth Etienne on December 1, 1981 in Los Angeles; the marriage lasted two months and two days. Hallyday's love affair with the French actress Nathalie Baye began in 1982, after they met on a television programme. Nathalie gave birth to their daughter, Laura, at the end of 1983. They separated in 1986. He married Adeline Blondiau in 1990. They divorced in 1992. In 1996, he married Laetitia Boudou. In 2004, the couple adopted a Vietnamese baby girl, called Jade.

Career

Influenced by Elvis Presley and the 1950s rock revolution, Johnny, as he is popularly known, became famous in the 1960s for singing rock and roll in French. His first album, Hello Johnny, was released in 1960.^[3] He appeared on the American Ed Sullivan Show on July 1, 1962 with American singing star Connie Francis in a show that was taped at the Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris. Many consider Hallyday to have developed well and become a greater performer in his later years, one of his best loved concerts being 100% Johnny: Live à La Tour Eiffel in 2000, which attracted an audience of 500,000 and 9.5 million television viewers (the show was broadcasted live on french TV).^[4] In December 2005, Hallyday had his third number-one single in France, "Mon Plus Beau Noël", dedicated to his adoptive girl Jade. Hallyday's last album is released on 12th November 2007. 'Le Coeur d'un homme' is a blues album and contains a song written for Hallyday by Bono from the band U2, and a duo with bluesman Taj Mahal. 'Always' is the first track to be released from the new album.

Trivia

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Hallyday hired Peter Frampton and the Small Faces to record on his 1969 album Rivière... Ouvre ton Lit. 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 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.^[5] For their first concert, the Jimi Hendrix experience opened for Johnny Halliday in Paris.

In November 2005, he 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.^[6] Hallyday supported Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 French Presidential Elections.