Johnny Hallyday

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Johnny Hallyday

Johnny Hallyday (born June 15, 1943 in Paris, France) is a French singer and actor.

An icon in the French-speaking world since the very beginning of his career, some consider him to be the French equivalent of Elvis Presley. He has had a 40-year career in the music industry and is one of France's biggest stars. He has made 400 tours, had 18 platinum albums and performed in front of 15 million people, sold 100 million discs since the beginning of his career. Today Hallyday is still considered as France's number-one singer and is seen as a top stage performer, giving first class shows in crowded stadiums. Yet Hallyday remains largely unknown outside of France and the other French-speaking countries, being often nicknamed in the English-speaking countries: the biggest rock star you’ve never heard of.[1]

Johnny Hallyday was born Jean-Philippe Smet in Cité Malesherbes, Paris, France, to a French mother, Huguette, and a Belgian father, Leon Smet. His parents separated not long after his birth, so he was raised by his paternal aunt, Hélène Mar. (His pseudonym was borrowed from his cousin's friend, Lee Halliday).

Influenced by Elvis Presley and the 1950's rock revolution, Johnny, as he is popularly known, became famous in the 1960s for singing rock'n'roll in French. He appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on July 1, 1962 with American singing star Connie Francis in a show that was taped at the famous Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris.

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 caring father as his career had taken control of his life, his focus was more on his career and his next song rather than that of his family. 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.

His 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.

In December 2005 Hallyday had his third number-one single in France ,"Mon Plus Beau Noël".

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 A La Tour Eiffel in 2000, which attracted an audience of 500,000 and 9.5 million television viewers.

In November 2005 he started a procedure to receive 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 [2].

Hallyday has stated that his next album will be a blues album. It is believed that this album will be released in the second half of 2007.