Friday December 22, Paris will once again vibrate to the sound of Johnny Hallyday. On the Left Bank, the public reception for the major Johnny Hallyday exhibition at the Porte de Versailles is scheduled for Friday December 22 at 10 a.m. This December 15, there are still tickets for all slots. For a celebration of a youth idol, this seems quite abnormal.
Perhaps these difficulties should be attributed to strange, in any case shaky, communication on the part of Laeticia Hallyday. Asking Jade and Joy, the daughters of Johnny and Laetitia Hallyday, to promote this exhibition in place of their mother blurs the message a little. Especially since the two young girls tried to relaunch the war in the Hallyday clan, increasing criticism towards personalities who have not spoken for a long time, whether Luana Belmondo, Laura Smet via David Hallyday and Jean- Claude Darmon. How could we imagine that these poorly closed wounds would be favorable for exposure?
This would not help Laetitia Hallyday’s affairs if we are to believe Jamal Henni’s investigation, published on the investigative site L’Informé. Johnny’s widow would have in fact promised the Paris Commercial Court to pay her tax debts – they would amount to 11 million – thanks to derivative products around the rocker. Products which will be sold in particular in this exhibition.
In this rather eventful context, Friday December 22, 2023 at 1:45 p.m., Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, and Delphine Bürkli, mayor of the 9th arrondissement, will unveil, in the presence of Laeticia Hallyday, a plaque in front of the building at 13, rue de la Tour des Dames where the rocker grew up.
We must hope that this celebration goes better than the one in front of Bercy two years ago. This September 21, 2021, the rocker’s fans who had traveled hundreds of kilometers to pay tribute to their idol were relegated more than 50 meters away, far behind barriers and forced to watch the ceremony on a screen. The space in front of Bertrand Lavier’s work, an electric blue Harley Davidson perched on a six-meter-high guitar neck, was protected by several security airlocks. In front, the esplanade had been reserved for Anne Hidalgo, her Areopagus and the family of Laeticia Hallyday. No artist, no opposition elected official, no friend of Johnny Hallyday was present at this ceremony.
The bikers who, during the funeral of their idol, had agreed to escort the rocker’s coffin along the Champs-Élysées, that day, at the request of Laeticia Hallyday, kindly agreed to make a spectacular entrance. Which gave them no free pass. They had to wait two hours in the rain hidden behind Bercy before starting their machines, without anyone thinking of offering them a hot coffee. And for the concert (in fact, a television show) organized the same evening of this celebration at the Accor Arena, they had to buy their tickets.
As Le Figaro was able to observe on Wednesday December 13 in the evening, the mayor of Paris did not see fit to have this mast topped with a Harley Davidson cleaned for this month of December, the date of the six-year anniversary of the disappearance of the rocker. In addition to pigeon droppings, the work is “decorated” with several tags. An outrage to the memory of Johnny.
And if we add to this that the new priest of the church of the Madeleine church has canceled the masses in homage to the rocker, the celebrations of the six years of his disappearance are definitely not up to the level of the one who sang I will forget your name…
