  franÃ§oise madeleine hardy (; born 17 january 1944) is a french singer and actress. hardy is a popular figure in music and fashion."franÃ§oise hardy", in unknown legends of rock 'n' roll: psychedelic unknowns, mad geniuses, punk pioneers, lo-fi mavericks & more, richie unterberger, hal leonard corporation, 1998, isbn 0-87930-534-7 p. 177 ffbelle and sebastian: just a modern rock story, paul whitelaw, macmillan, 2005, isbn 0-312-34137-7 p. 64 ==biography== hardy grew up in the 9th arrondissement of paris with her younger sister michÃ¨le. her parents lived apart when she was young; her father contributed little financially to the family and had little to do with his daughters. he was, however, persuaded by the girls' mother to buy franÃ§oise a guitar for her birthday as a reward for passing her baccalaurÃ©at. her early musical influences were the french chanson stars charles trenet and cora vaucaire as well as anglophone singers paul anka, the everly brothers, cliff richard, connie francis and marty wilde whom she heard on the english-language radio station, radio luxembourg. after a year at the sorbonne she answered a newspaper advertisement looking for young singers. hardy signed her first contract with the record label vogue in november 1961. in april 1962, shortly after she left university, her first record "oh oh chÃ©ri" appeared, written by johnny hallyday's writing duo. her own flip side of the record, "tous les garÃ§ons et les filles" became a success, riding the wave of yÃ©-yÃ© music in france. it sold over a million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.{{cite book|first=joseph|last=murrells|year=1978|title=the book of
1944_births 20th-century_French_actresses 21st-century_French_actresses Actresses_from_Paris English-language_singers_of_France Eurovision_Song_Contest_entrants_of_1963 French_astrologers French_female_singers French_film_actresses French_pop_singers German-language_singers Italian-language_singers Living_people Monegasque_Eurovision_Song_Contest_entrants Musicians_from_Paris Reprise_Records_artists Spanish-language_singers Virgin_Records_artists