Tributes to the singer are multiplying in the world of song and cinema. After Brigitte Bardot, Iggy Pop and Françoise Hardy, it’s Étienne Daho’s turn to pay tribute to the actress, model, singer and director who left us this Sunday. The artist, who published on the announcement of his death a photo of Jane Birkin accompanied by the message “unimaginable to live in a world without your light”, posted a second, longer message, where he pays a heartbreaking tribute to her longtime friend.
Étienne Daho worked with the Di Doo Dah singer on his last album in 2020 entitled Oh! Sorry, you were sleeping. He composed some of his songs alongside Jean-Louis Piérot. “Amazed as we were by your texts, we accompanied this chapter of your life on disc and on stage”, he wrote in his message. Having become “a friend of the family”, he explains that Jane Birkin has always been there for him in one way or another. “Thanks to your talent, your elegant free beauty, your sharp, macabre and British humor, you accompanied our gloomy adolescence.”
In his tribute loved by more than 12,000 people, Étienne Daho remembers with tenderness the many qualities of the former wife of Serge Gainsbourg. “I liked your unique voice, high pitched and so singular, your free, poetic and cheeky writing, your commitments. Always honest. Always light. Always too modest and generous, attributing your successes to others.
The artist also wanted to remember that the British-born singer was more than a muse and a physical. “Perhaps some people, who would prefer to place you definitively in the role of a charming muse, will finally realize that you are a complete artist with an alert curiosity”, he confides before evoking the various accomplishments of the actress. “Who could have made your film Boxes or written your play Oh sorry you were sleeping? Embody Johnny Jane in the film Je t’aime moi non plus or The false following directed by Chéreau? The singer, still in shock at the death of his friend, reveals that she saw herself a few days ago “going back on stage and going back on the road. Redo this Olympia that you had to postpone. Confident in the future.”
