Jacques Dutronc

Singer/songwriter Jacques Dutronc gained popularity in his native France with his provocative songs that matched the rebellious spirit of the '60s so well. Though he was absent from the musical scene for nearly a decade, pursuing a film career, he successfully returned to music in the early '80s and still remains one of the most popular performers in the French-speaking world.

Son of French icons Jacques Dutronc and Françoise Hardy, Thomas Dutronc fell in love with Gypsy jazz music during his teenage years, starting with Django Reinhardt's works. Gifted with impressive learning capacities, he began studying Gypsy guitar at the age of 18 and has since collaborated with a wide range of artists, from the jazz community with the likes of Bireli Lagrene but also including his father, mother, and Henri Salvador from the pop world. In 2007 he released his own LP of songs penned with both wit and humor, displaying a gentle voice (very close to his father's) and his many talents as both a songwriter and guitarist, achieving a refreshing blend that quickly found an audience and earned strong record sales that same year. In 2009, Dutronc won the Victoires de la Musique for original song of the year with "Comme un Manouche Sans Guitare" before releasing his second album, Demain!, in 2011. (Olivier Duboc, AMG)

Françoise Hardy is a pop and fashion icon celebrated as a French national treasure. With her signature breathy alto, she was one of the earliest and most definitive French participants in the yé-yé movement (a style of pop music that initially emerged from Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal before spreading to France in the early 1960s). She is one of only a few female vocalists who could or would write and perform her own material. She offered a startling contrast to the boy's club of French pop in the early '60s, paving the way for literally thousands of women all over the globe.