title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: In 2005, Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act, which purported to ban torture, but in his signing statement Bush asserted that his executive power gave him the authority to waive the restrictions put in place by the bill. Bush's policies suffered a major rebuke from the Supreme Court in the 2006 case of "Hamdan v. Rumsfeld", in which the court rejected Bush's use of military commissions without congressional approval and held that all detainees were protected by the Geneva Conventions. Following the ruling, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which effectively overturned "Hamdan". The Supreme Court overturned a portion of that act in the 2008 case of "Boumediene v. Bush", but the Guantanamo detention camp remained open at the end of Bush's presidency.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: The Israeli–Palestinian conflict, ongoing since the middle of the 20th century, continued under Bush. After President Clinton's 2000 Camp David Summit had ended without an agreement, the Second Intifada had begun in September 2000. While previous administrations had tried to act as a neutral authority between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Bush administration placed the blame for the violence on the Palestinians, angering Arab states such as Saudi Arabia. However, Bush's support for a two-state solution helped smooth over a potential diplomatic split with the Saudis. In hopes of establishing peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Bush administration proposed the road map for peace, but his plan was not implemented and tensions were heightened following the victory of Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian elections.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: Believing that protectionism hampered economic growth, Bush concluded free trade agreements with numerous countries. When Bush took office, the United States had free trade agreements with just three countries: Israel, Canada, and Mexico. Bush signed the Chile–United States Free Trade Agreement and the Singapore–United States Free Trade Agreement in 2003, and he concluded the Morocco-United States Free Trade Agreement


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: and the Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement the following year. He also concluded the Bahrain–United States Free Trade Agreement, the Oman–United States Free Trade Agreement, the Peru–United States Trade Promotion Agreement, and the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement. Additionally, Bush reached free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama, though agreements with these countries were not ratified until 2011.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: In 2002 the US withdrew from the U.S.-Russian Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. This marked the first time in post-WW2 history that the United States has withdrawn from a major international arms treaty. China expressed displeasure at America's withdrawal. Then newly-elected Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that American withdrawal from the ABM Treaty was a mistake, and subsequently in a 1 March 2018 Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly announced the development of a series of technologically new missile systems in response to the Bush withdrawal. In Oliver Stone's 2017 "The Putin Interviews", Putin said that in trying to persuade Russia to accept US withdrawal from the treaty, both Clinton and Bush had tried to convince him of an emerging nuclear threat from Iran.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: On 14 July 2007, Russia announced that it would suspend implementation of its Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe obligations, effective after 150 days. This failure can be said to mark the start of the Putinian Revanchism.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: Bush emphasized creating a personal relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin in order to ensure harmonious relations between the U.S. and Russia. After meeting with Putin in June 2001, both presidents expressed optimism regarding cooperation between the two former Cold War rivals. After the 9/11 attacks, Putin allowed the U.S. to use Russian airspace, and Putin encouraged Central Asian states to grant basing rights to the U.S. In May 2002, the U.S. and Russia signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, which sought to dramatically reduce the nuclear stockpiles of both countries. Relations between Bush and Putin cooled during Bush's second term, as Bush became increasingly critical of Putin's suppression of political opponents in Russia, and they fell to new lows after the outbreak of the Russo-Georgian War in 2008.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: In his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush grouped Iran with Iraq and North Korea as a member of the "Axis of Evil", accusing Iran of aiding terrorist organizations. In 2006, Iran re-opened three of its nuclear facilities, potentially allowing it to begin the process of building a nuclear bomb. After the resumption of the Iranian nuclear program, many within the U.S. military and foreign policy community speculated that Bush might attempt to impose regime change on Iran. In December 2006, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1737, which imposed sanctions on Iran in order to curb its nuclear program.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: North Korea had developed weapons of mass destruction for several years prior to Bush's inauguration, and the Clinton administration had sought to trade economic assistance for an end to the North Korean WMD program. Though Secretary of State Powell urged the continuation of the rapprochement, other administration officials, including Vice President Cheney, were more skeptical of the good faith of the North Koreans. Bush instead sought to isolate North Korea in the hope that the regime would eventually collapse.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: North Korea launched missile tests on July 5, 2006, leading to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1695. The country said on October 3, "The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test", which the Bush administration denied and denounced. Days later, North Korea followed through on its promise to test nuclear weapons. On October 14, the Security Council unanimously passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, sanctioning North Korea for the test. In the waning days of his presidency, Bush attempted to re-open negotiations with North Korea, but North Korea continued to develop its nuclear programs.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: Shortly after taking office, Bush pledged $200 million to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Finding this effort insufficient, Bush assembled a team of experts to find the best way for the U.S. reduce the worldwide damage caused by the AIDS epidemic. The experts, led by Anthony S. Fauci, recommended that the U.S. focus on providing antiretroviral drugs to developing nations in Africa and the Caribbean. In his State of the Union message in January 2003, President Bush outlined a five-year strategy for global emergency AIDS relief, the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. With the approval of Congress, Bush committed $15 billion to this effort, which represented a huge increase compared to funding under previous administrations. Near the end of his presidency, Bush signed a re-authorization of the program that doubled its funding. By 2012, the PEPFAR program provided antiretroviral drugs for over 4.5 million people.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: Bush made 48 international trips to 72 countries (in addition to visiting the West Bank) during his presidency.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: He visited six continents: Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. On one of his two trips to Sub-Saharan Africa, he visited three of the poorest countries in the world: Liberia, Rwanda, and Benin. He was the first sitting president to visit: Albania, Bahrain, Benin, Estonia, Georgia, Iraq, Lithuania, Mongolia, Qatar, Slovakia, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates. Bush also made a secret trip to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day 2003 to dine with the troops. His father had made a similar visit to the U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia in 1990. On November 15–20, 2006, Bush made the third round the world presidential flight (after Johnson and Nixon).


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: In July 2005, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's respective chief political advisers, Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, came under fire for revealing the identity of covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Valerie Plame to reporters in the CIA leak scandal. Plame's husband, Joseph C. Wilson, had challenged Bush's assertion that Hussein had sought to obtain uranium from Africa, and a special prosecutor was tasked with determining whether administration officials had leaked Plame's identity in retribution against Wilson. Libby resigned on October 28, hours after his indictment by a grand jury on multiple counts of perjury, false statements, and obstruction in this case. In March 2007, Libby was convicted on four counts, and Cheney pressed Bush to pardon Libby. Rather than pardoning Libby or allowing him to go to jail, Bush commuted Libby's sentence, creating a split with Cheney, who accused Bush of leaving "a soldier on the battlefield."


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: In December 2006, Bush dismissed eight United States attorneys. Though these attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, the large-scale mid-term dismissal was without precedent, and Bush faced accusations that he had dismissed the attorneys for purely political reasons. During the 2006 elections, several Republican officials complained that the U.S. attorneys had not sufficiently investigated voter fraud. With the encouragement of Harriet Miers and Karl Rove, Attorney General Gonzales dismissed eight U.S. attorneys who were considered insufficiently supportive of the administration's policies. Though Gonzales argued that the attorneys had been fired for performance reasons, publicly released documents showed that the attorneys were dismissed for political reasons. As a result of the dismissals and the subsequent congressional investigations, Rove and Gonzales both resigned. A 2008 report by the Justice Department inspector general found that the dismissals had been politically motivated, but no one was ever prosecuted in connection to the dismissals.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: Bush's approval ratings ran the gamut from high to all-time record low. Bush began his presidency with ratings near fifty percent. In the time of national crisis following the September 11 attacks, polls showed approval ratings of greater than 85%, peaking in one October 2001 poll at 92%, and a steady 80–90% approval for about four months after the attacks. Afterward, his ratings steadily declined as the economy suffered and the Iraq War initiated by his administration continued. By early 2006, his average rating was averaging below 40%, and in July 2008, a poll indicated a near all-time low of 22%. Upon leaving office the final poll recorded his approval rating as 19%, a record low for any U.S. president.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: In the 2002 mid-term elections, Bush became the first president since the 1930s to see his own party pick up seats in both houses of Congress. Republicans picked up two seats in the Senate elections, allowing them to re-take control of the chamber. Bush delivered speeches in several venues in support of his party, campaigning on his desire to remove the administration of Saddam Hussein. Bush saw the election results as a vindication of his domestic and foreign policies.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: Bush and his campaign team seized on the idea of Bush as a "strong wartime leader," though this was undermined by the increasingly-unpopular Iraq War. His conservative policies on tax cuts and several other issues appealed to many on the right, but Bush could also lay claim to some centrist achievements, including No Child Left Behind, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Medicare Part D. Fearing that he might hurt Bush's re-election chances, Cheney offered to step down from the ticket, but Bush refused this offer, and the two were re-nominated without opposition at the 2004 Republican National Convention. On the advice of pollster Matthew Dowd, who perceived a steady decline in the number of swing voters, the 2004 Bush campaign emphasized turning out conservative voters rather than the persuasion of moderates.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: In the 2004 Democratic primaries, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts defeated several other candidates, effectively clinching the nomination on March 2. A Vietnam War veteran, Kerry had voted to authorize the Iraq War but had come to oppose it. The Bush campaign sought to define Kerry as a "flip-flopper" due to his vote on a bill funding the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Kerry sought to convince Republican senator John McCain to become his running mate, but chose Senator John Edwards of North Carolina for the position after McCain rejected the offer. The election saw a major jump in turnout; while 105 million people had voted in 2000, 123 million people voted in 2004. Bush won 50.7% percent of the popular vote, making him the first individual to win a majority of the popular vote since 1988 United States presidential election,


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: while Kerry took 48.3% of the popular vote. Bush won 286 electoral votes, winning Iowa, New Mexico, and every state he won in 2000 except for New Hampshire.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: Damaged by the unpopularity of the Iraq War and President Bush, the Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress in the 2006 elections. Republicans were also damaged by various scandals, including the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal and the Mark Foley scandal. The elections confirmed Bush's declining popularity, as many of the candidates he had personally campaigned for were defeated. After the elections, Bush announced the resignation of Rumsfeld and promised to work with the new Democratic majority.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: Under the terms of the twenty-second amendment, Bush was ineligible to seek a third term in 2008. Senator John McCain won the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, while Democratic senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeated Senator Hillary Clinton of New York to win the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries. Obama's victory in the Democratic presidential primaries was due in large part to his strong opposition to the Iraq War, as Clinton had voted to authorize the Iraq War in 2002. McCain sought to distance himself from the unpopular policies of Bush, and Bush appeared only by satellite at the 2008 Republican National Convention, making him the first sitting president since Lyndon B. Johnson to not appear at his own party's convention in 1968.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: McCain briefly took the lead in polls of the race taken after the Republican convention, but Obama quickly re-emerged as the leader in polls. McCain's campaign was badly damaged by the unpopularity of the Bush administration and the Iraq War, and McCain's response to the outbreak of a full-blown financial crisis in September 2008 was widely viewed as erratic. Obama won 365 electoral votes and 52.9% of the popular vote. The election gave Democrats unified control of the legislative and executive branches for the first time since the 1994 elections. After the election, Bush congratulated Obama and invited him to the White House. With the help of the Bush administration, the presidential transition of Barack Obama was widely regarded as successful, particularly for a transition between presidents of different parties. During his inauguration on January 20, 2009, Obama thanked Bush for his service as president and his support of Obama's transition.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: A 2009 C-SPAN survey of historians ranked Bush in 36th place among the 42 former presidents. A 2017 C-SPAN poll of historians ranked Bush as the 33rd greatest president. A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association's Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Bush as the 30th greatest president. Historian Melvyn Leffler writes that the Bush administration's achievements in foreign policy "were outweighed by the administration's failure to achieve many of its most important goals."


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: The Bush presidency transformed American politics, its economy, and its place in the world, but not in ways that could have been predicted when the governor of Texas declared his candidacy for America's highest office. As president, Bush became a lightning rod for controversy. His controversial election and policies, especially the war in Iraq, deeply divided the American people. Arguably his greatest moment as president was his initial, heartfelt response to the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks. Soon, however, his administration was overshadowed by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. President Bush's place in U.S. history will be debated and reconsidered for many years to come.


title: Presidency of George W. Bush

text: Andrew Rudalevige has compiled a list of the 14 most important achievements under the Bush administration:


title: Omorashi

text: , sometimes abbreviated as simply omo, is a form of fetish subculture originating and predominately recognized in Japan, in which participants experience arousal from having a full bladder or wetting themselves, wearing a diaper,


title: Omorashi

text: Outside Japan, it is not usually distinguished from urolagnia, or water sports, though they are different things: the "Handbook of Clinical Sexuality for Mental Health Professionals" specifically defines omorashi as persistent sexual arousal toward a full bladder. Dr. J. Paul Fedoroff acknowledges this distinction, observing that "The theme of taking control of autonomic process is prominent in the paraphilia known as omorashi, which involves sexual arousal associated with the sensation of needing to urinate due to a full bladder." Westerners who make the distinction sometimes use the term "bladder desperation" to do so, though some fetishist communities in the West adopt the more specific Japanese language terminology. The word is also occasionally romanized as "omorasi" in the Kunrei-shiki romanization system. In the English-speaking BDSM community, the term "bathroom use control" is used to describe omorashi play in which the dominant controls how and when the submissive is allowed to use the bathroom.


title: Omorashi

text: Most fetish activities concerning the use of bodily waste are considered by the general public as "hardcore", taboo, or edgeplay. However, because the object of the fetish is clothed incontinence, omorashi videos do not necessarily feature direct sexual contact, though some use it as a form of foreplay. The focus on clothed (rather than overtly sexual images) makes garment fetishism a prominent feature in most omorashi erotica: commonly featured outfits include school uniforms, those worn by working professionals, and other people attempting to look dignified before succumbing to the need to urinate.


title: Omorashi

text: Fetishists who are into this kink may have specific scenarios they enjoy, such as while waiting in line for a bathroom or just doing it for fun in front of the toilet. Regardless of their personal wetting preferences, everyone who is into this kink enjoys watching someone wet themselves or have an accident in clothing.


title: Omorashi

text: One of the variations is known as "omorashi yagai", which translates as "to wet oneself outdoors (or publicly)." A further variation includes "yagai hōnyō", or "outdoor (or public) urination", in which the subject publicly removes their clothes to urinate. Other "yagai hōnyō" practitioners operate much like graffiti artists, attempting public urination acts without being caught.


title: Omorashi

text: Another variation of omorashi play is "omutsu omorashi" (おむつおもらし) or "omutsu play" (おむつプレイ), less commonly called "oshime omorashi" (おしめおもらし), both of which translate as "to wet oneself in a diaper." This omutsu variation is essentially the same as the standard omorashi, except that the participants are wearing a diaper. Diapers may be favorable for public wetting because they render it more discreet and eliminate mess, and their use is not limited specifically to those with a diaper fetish. However, omorashi fetishists specifically interested in this aspect of the subculture could be considered a Japanese variation of the diaper lover community.


title: Omorashi

text: Japanese acceptance of adult diaper use is comparatively high, with the market for such products growing as much as 6–10% a year. However, these are largely intended for and worn by the elderly, with the growth due to Japan's aging population, and younger people wearing these have met with some criticism. In 2012, the Japanese magazine "SPA" ran an article entitled "The Ultimate Form of Slob", which criticized the trend of young Japanese women who wear diapers to avoid public restrooms. The article included an interview with a 25-year-old woman who had been wearing diapers "instead of going to the toilet" for a period of six months, "wearing [them] almost every day."


title: Omorashi

text: Some individuals find it attractive when someone wets themself in a skirt, since it allows for upskirt views of the wetting. This is referred to as "sukāto omorashi" (スカートおもらし). This can combine with uniform fetishism, and pornography with skirted performers dressed as high school girls and office workers is common, as well as depictions of skirted people in casual dress.


title: Omorashi

text: To avoid Japan's strict censorship laws, which limited depictions of actual sex and pubic hair, erotic films (known as "pink films") often relied on fetish elements which could skirt such restrictions. One such film, "" in 1973, was the first to depict an omorashi scenario to a cinematic audience. The video depicts a high school girl wetting herself on her desk after drinking gallons of water.


title: Omorashi

text: As the AV (adult video) genre took hold in the 1980s, videos specifically devoted to omorashi began to appear. Several notable AV idols have starred in such scenes, including Sakura Sakurada. However, perhaps because of its softcore nature, omorashi never became a clearly pornographic genre.


title: Omorashi

text: Today, Japanese omorashi fans also enjoy game show-style videos in which contestants must compete in various urine-holding challenges. The Giga video company's "Desperation Tournament" series is an example of this kind of contest. One such activity is a panel of contestants competing to hold their bladders, or to guess which woman has to use the restroom the most.


title: Omorashi

text: Since the 1990s, magazine companies catering to the Japanese kink community have produced a number of periodicals dedicated to omorashi subculture, including most notably 's (rendered phonetically as the wasei-eigo おもらし倶楽部, or "Omorashi Kurabu"). First published September 22, 1994, "Omorashi Club"'s success allowed Sanwa to extend the brand in 2006 to include a DVD magazine. The following year, the demand for material catering specifically to "omutsu omorashi" fandom led to further expansion with the spin-off periodical (おむつ倶楽部, or "Omutsu Kurabu"). The scarcity of earlier issues of these magazines has caused them to become collector's items.


title: Omorashi

text: Japanese-produced omorashi media also include Manga and Anime. These range from independently produced dōjinshi to large, commercially produced manga. Some focus exclusively on omorashi stories, while others include only the occasional scene. Some contain obvious sexual themes and could be considered a form of H manga, while others, like "", are well known to be suitable for all ages, since they have only mild ecchi content such as panchira.


title: Omorashi

text: Wetting scenes have existed in anime as early as the popular "Doraemon" and "Devilman" series of the 1970s. However, these did not have the erotic context which characterizes modern omorashi media, since they predated the first full-blown anime pornography, which was not available until 1984, when the advent of the first Hentai OVAs such as Wonder Kids' "Lolita Anime" were made possible by the widespread availability of home video. One example of this later erotic context is the 1994 Hentai OVA "Vixens", which features scenes of incontinence in a setting that is overtly sexual.


title: Omorashi

text: An "eroge" (erotic game) is a Japanese video or computer game that features erotic content, usually in the form of anime-style artwork. The crossover of omorashi and anime fandom has produced a number of games such as "Water Closet: The Forbidden Chamber" which are specifically focused on omorashi. The limited popularity of omorashi in the West has prompted a number of programmers in the scene to create software patches for these Japanese games which translate the on screen text into English.


title: Omorashi

text: Some eroge game designers have capitalized on the omorashi fandom's niche market by including the occasional wetting scene in their games as a selling point. "MAID iN HEAVEN SuperS", for example, which contains only a single, diapered wetting scene, was used to spin-off an entire set of collectible figures in various omorashi poses. These PVC model figures were created by toy manufacturer Giga Pulse, which is not related to the video company of similar name.


title: Omorashi

text: With the translation of omorashi into manga and its subsequent adoption by otaku fandom, a number of omorashi themed collectibles have appeared on the Japanese market, including figurines and "Shizukuishi kyuun kyuun toilet paper" printed with wetting scenes featuring the character Shizukuishi from the omorashi manga, "Iinari! Aibure-shon".


title: Omorashi

text: Though there is a small community devoted to such fetishism outside Japan, it is usually overshadowed by the more hardcore fetishes, urolagnia and urophagia. Vice Media has documented an account of an omorashi community existing in the United States since at least 1970. Outside Japan omorashi groups sometimes refer to their shared interest as "desperation/wetting" fetishism, often making a distinction between content featuring males and females. In 2018, "People" magazine and the New York Post reported the use of the English language portmanteau word "peegasm" among people who practiced "releasing urine after a long period of time" to achieve "a stimulation of pelvic nerves" that "could feel like an orgasmic response." Some English language fetish websites with a focus on females simply identify as "panty wetting." Since such sites abandon the "desperation" title which implies an effort not to wet, they are more likely to include nudity, overtly sexual models and situations, as well as purposeful (as opposed to accidental) wetting. There are still communities which focus on the more tame or softcore aspects of omorashi, which are generally focused on simple wetting in fully or semi-clothed situations without the overtly sexual models and situations. However, this softcore side is more rare in English-speaking communities than the more explicitly sexual omorashi content.


title: Omorashi

text: Though there is generally no wide acceptance of incontinence-based play, studies in England have shown that urinary incontinence during sexual activity is a "common, but rarely volunteered symptom" observed in 24% of sexually active women. Moreover, no connection could be identified with any specific abnormality of bladder function associated with these symptoms, indicating that such leakage is both normal and healthy.


title: Omorashi

text: Because of the western stigma in numerous countries against urine, omorashi subculture has not received such diverse exposure in non-Japanese media. In some countries, governments have even banned such materials. In New Zealand for example, creating, trading, distributing (e.g., making available on one's web page) anything promoting or supporting "the use of urine or excrement in association with degrading or dehumanising conduct or sexual conduct" is a felony punishable by up to ten years in jail. Nonetheless, urination is a common fetish in pornography; the 1915 film "A Free Ride", widely considered the first pornographic film made in the US, contains scenes of urination.


title: Omorashi

text: An early example of urination and skirt-wetting appearing in a sexualized context in the west can be found in the 1928 erotic novel "Story of the Eye" by Georges Bataille.


title: Omorashi

text: Underground periodicals dedicated to pants wetting subculture outside of Japan began to appear in the 1991 with the British underground magazine "Cascade", which collected erotic letters related to the fetish that occasionally appeared in older publications such as "Fiesta" and combined them with original stories, drawings, and photography. This was followed in 1993 by the Australia-based "Wet Set Magazine". "Wet Set" publications were originally only available in English, but readership in German speaking countries proved high enough to justify printing some materials in German. Such publications facilitated the burgeoning subculture by providing opportunities for contact between its members via personal ads. The importance of these printed materials declined with the advent of the internet, and both "Cascade" and "Wet Set" ceased publication of physical magazines in the 21st century as the subculture shifted increasingly toward message boards and social media.


title: Omorashi

text: Though "Wet Set" did not generally acknowledge the comparatively large Asian fan base over any other country, it exposed its readers to the Japanese kink community through articles reporting on that subculture's activities. During the 21st century, some Western writers on the subject of omorashi began to recognize the Asian influence upon the subculture in a more direct way. For instance, in a February 2006 issue of "The Brooklyn Rail", American poet Garrett Caples of Oakland, California chose to describe the shooting of an omorashi film in a Japanese setting. Aside from lending Western omorashi media an "authentic" quality, the inclusion of Japanese models and settings might also be seen as an attempt to play upon the stereotype of ultrapassivity globally associated with Asian women, further enhancing their perceived "moe" qualities and catering to Asian fetishists.


title: Omorashi

text: In the 1993 film "The Cement Garden", themed around incest, a boy tickles his older sister until she urinates in her skirt, with an upskirt view of her wet underwear. The 2002 award-winning film "Secretary" depicts a scene of bathroom use control in which the submissive has to sit in a chair until she wets her dress.


title: Omorashi

text: Despite omorashi subculture's intrinsic relationship to garment fetishism, taboos in the west against relating sexuality and urine prevented mainstream acceptance of overtly sexual garments related to incontinence until the 21st century, when New Zealand-based underwear brand Confitex debuted a line of incontinence lingerie at New Zealand Fashion Week 2015. The organizers stated in a press release that "This is the first time, anywhere worldwide, that incontinence underwear has graced a catwalk as a designer range." In Cosmopolitan Magazine's coverage of the event, they proclaimed that "You Can Feel Sexy Even if You Leak," despite the ban existing in that country against promoting or supporting incontinence-based play. The Sweden-based brand TENA subsequently followed the precedent set by Confitex with their Silhoutte Noir line of disposable incontinence undergarments, which were designed to "dismantle taboos around incontinence." Anna McCrory, senior brand manager for TENA UK, explained the goal of the product as "helping women to feel sexy, confident and able to wear what they like without being restricted by the colour or shape of their underwear, an important step towards normalising incontinence." According to the Canadian Trademarks Database, the word "Omutsu" began to be used in Canada for a line of designer adult diapers in 2017, catering specifically to the omutsu omorashi community in that country.


title: Omorashi

text: In 2019, Greek fashion designer and performance artist Dimitra Petsa released a collection entitled "Wetness" showcasing pants "dyed in such a way that it seems someone peed in them." According to Petsa, the idea for her design came from a piece of performance art in which she deliberately wet herself on a crowded subway in Athens. In a subsequent interview, she explained that though she initially experienced shame at peeing her pants publicly, "Afterwards I felt very free and powerful, but at the same time I felt very naked." She went on to state that models who were asked to wet their pants during the presentation of the collection experienced it as "an emotional process" and an "eye opening experience." She described this as "the ultimate metaphor for letting go – both of my bodily fluids and of my shame" and explained that "shaming is an effective way of keeping women under control. I think that’s one of the main reasons why shame is such a central theme in my work."


title: Omorashi

text: Similar sentiments regarding fashion as a tool for overcoming stigmas against adults wetting themselves were previously expressed by the organizers of a 2008 Japanese fashion show for adult diapers aimed at Japan's increasingly elderly population, in which an organizer stated that "Diapers are something that people don't want to look at, but if you make them attractive, then people can learn about them more easily."


title: Omorashi

text: In 2021, NorthShore Care Supply (the leading direct-to-consumer brand of high absorbency adult diapers and incontinence supplies in the United States) published a statement via their website regarding people who wear their products out of preference rather than medical need. It affirmed that “people who wear adult diapers (aka tab-style briefs) voluntarily […] have been the best thing to happen to the incontinence products industry since the invention of adhesive tape.” According to the website, such people have “driven the whole category past the thin industrial products, past the drug store or even national brands, and into a place where there is a size, fit, thickness, absorbency, color, and yes, even print, for every imaginable application. They are hugely responsible for the mindboggling variety we have to choose from.”


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Françoise Madeleine Hardy (; born 17 January 1944) is a French former singer and songwriter. Mainly known for singing melancholic sentimental ballads, Hardy has been an important figure in French pop music since her debut, spanning a career of more than fifty years with over thirty studio albums released. She rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a leading figure of the yé-yé wave, a genre of pop music and associated youth culture phenomenon that adapted to French the pop and rock styles that came from the United States and the United Kingdom. The singer differentiated herself from her peers by writing her own material, a rare feat in an industry dominated by older, male composers and producers. France's most exportable female singer of the era, Hardy rose to international fame and released music sung in English, Italian and German, in addition to her native French. She also landed roles as a supporting actress in the films "Château en Suède", "Une balle au cœur" and the American big-budget production "Grand Prix", although she never pursued a serious acting career. In the mid-1960s, she also established herself as a pop and fashion icon with the aid of photographer Jean-Marie Périer, becoming a muse for top designers such as André Courrèges, Yves Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne. In the English-speaking world, her trendy public image and personal style led her to become an icon for the Swinging London scene, and attracted the admiration of several famous artists. Long after the height of her career in the 1960s, Hardy remains one of the best-selling singers in French history, and continues to be regarded as an iconic and influential figure in both music and fashion. Her work has appeared on several critics' lists.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Born and raised in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, Hardy had a troubled childhood marked by the strict upbringing of her single mother and a largely absent father. As a teenager, she discovered English-language rock and roll performers including Elvis Presley and Brill Building pop acts such as Paul Anka through the radio, and decided to pursue a singing career. Hardy made her musical debut in 1962 on French label Disques Vogue and found immediate success through the hit song "Tous les garçons et les filles", which remains one of her most popular compositions. Disliking the production of her early releases, she began to record in London in 1964, which allowed her to broaden her sound with albums such as "Mon amie la rose", "L'amitié", "La maison où j'ai grandi" and "Ma jeunesse fout le camp..." In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hardy sought to assert herself as an artist, although this implied less commercial repercussion. The albums "Comment te dire adieu", "La question" and "Message personnel"—released during this period—are among her most influential and critically acclaimed works. In them, Hardy began to work with more renowned songwriters such as Serge Gainsbourg, Patrick Modiano, Michel Berger and Catherine Lara. Between 1977 and 1988, she worked with producer Gabriel Yared in a string of successful albums, including "Star", "Musique saoûle", "Gin Tonic" and "À suivre". Her 1988 record "Décalages" was widely publicized as Hardy's final album, although she returned eight years later with "Le danger", which completely reinvented her sound to a harsher alternative rock. Her following albums of the 2000s—"Clair-obscur", "Tant de belles choses" and "(Parenthèses...)"—saw a return to her mellow style.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: As a public figure, Hardy is known for her shyness, disenchantment with celebrity life and self-deprecatory attitude—attributed to her lifelong struggles with anxiety and insecurity. In addition to music, Hardy has developed a renowned career as an astrologer, having written extensively on the subject since the 1970s as a proponent of the "conditionalist" school of thought—outlined by Jean-Pierre Nicola—which rejects the divinatory use of the discipline. Since the 2000s, she has also worked as a writer of both fiction and non-fiction books, including a bestselling autobiography and two essays. Through these works, Hardy has been noted for her frankness in discussing her family life and health problems related to MALT lymphoma and old age, as well as her sometimes controversial political ideas. In 2006, she was awarded the "Grande médaille de la chanson française" honorary award given by the Académie française, in recognition of her career in music. In the 2010s, Hardy released her last three albums: "La pluie sans parapluie", "L'amour fou"—released alongside her eponymous first novel in celebration of the 50th anniversary of her music career—and "Personne d'autre"—which brought her out of a previously declared retirement. She has been married to fellow French singer-songwriter Jacques Dutronc since 1981 and their only son, Thomas, is also a musician. In 2021, Hardy announced that her health had worsened and that she would not be able to sing again owing to the effects of cancer therapy.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Françoise Madeleine Hardy was born on 17 January 1944 at the Marie-Louise Clinic in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. At the time of her birth, there was an air raid alert in place, with the windows of the clinic "exploding". She has related being born during this violent context with the "abnormally anxious temperament" that she developed as an adult. Her mother Madeleine Hardy, who came from an ordinary background, raised Françoise and her younger sister Michèle—born eighteen months after her—as a single parent. Her father Étienne Dillard—a married man who came from a much wealthier family—did little to help them financially and was largely an absent figure in their upbringing, only visiting the children a couple of times a year. Madeleine Hardy raised her daughters strictly, in a modest apartment on the 9th arrondissement's Rue d'Aumale street. Hardy had an unhappy and troubled childhood, and mainly engaged in solitary activities like reading, playing with dolls or listening to the radio. At the insistence of their father, the girls went to a Catholic school called Institution La Bruyère, under the tutelage of Trinitarian nuns. The gap of social origin between Hardy and her classmates was a source of permanent humiliation for her. She recalled in her autobiography: "This is most likely where the feeling of shame that has tormented me non-stop since I was a child took root. Everything fell into place: the social status of my parents who I naively believed were divorced, (...) the good sisters' constant complaints that my father was generally a year behind in his payments, and the various differences with the other girls." Her lifelong insecurities were also fuelled by her regular visits to her maternal grandmother in Aulnay-sous-Bois, who "told [her] repeatedly that [she] was unattractive and a very bad person". Between 1952 and 1960, Hardy and her sister were sent every summer to Austria to learn German, encouraged by her mother's new lover, an Austrian baron. As her father played piano, Hardy was encouraged to receive piano lessons as a very young child, from which she quickly dropped out after experiencing stage fright when she was supposed to display her talents onstage at the Salle Gaveau.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: A disciplined student, Hardy skipped two years of secondary education and passed her "baccalauréat" in 1960 at age sixteen. To mark the occasion, her father asked her what gift she would like and she chose a guitar, with which she began to sing her own melodies. Following her mother's orders, she enrolled in the Paris Institute of Political Studies while still a teenager. Considering it too challenging, she quickly left the institution and joined the Sorbonne to study German. Hardy used the time left from her courses to devote herself to composing songs on her guitar. She began to test her repertoire on the small stage of venue Moka Club, also known as Club des mordus, where she performed every Thursday "in front of an audience of retirees". Around this time, she auditioned for record label Pathé-Marconi after reading an ad in "France-Soir". Although she was rejected, Hardy was impressed that she had held the directors' attention for longer than she expected. She also felt encouraged after hearing her recorded voice, which she found "less off-key and tremulous than [she] feared". The aspiring singer then went to Philips Records, where she was recommended to take singing lessons. Following this advice, Hardy joined "Le Petit Conservatoire de la chanson" in 1961, a school for radio performers—the first of its kind in France—led by singer Mireille Hartuch. Originally launched as a radio program in 1955, the "Petit Conservatoire" was turned into a popular TV show beginning in June 1960. When a student gave a satisfactory performance, they were given the chance to release it on the radio, or even perform it again for television. Hartuch—who was known to be very selective—accepted Hardy right away, recalling in 1966: "The first time Françoise entered the classroom to audition, I didn't know if she sang, if she played guitar, what she was doing, I just looked and felt like there was a spark, something that lit up." They developed a "mother-daughter relationship" and a long friendship based on mutual esteem.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: On 14 May 1961, Hardy auditioned for the French label Disques Vogue, where was received by directors Serge Goron and Léo Vidaly, who recommended that she take music theory and harmony lessons with a pianist. Her good looks impressed Vogue sound engineer André Bernot—feeling that she "would make a nice record cover"—who offered to teach her some rudiments of music theory in order to improve her sense of rhythm. Bernot later recorded a four-track demo with her, which he submitted to Jacques Wolfsohn, the most influential director at Vogue. At that time, Wolfsohn was looking for a female singer to record "Oh oh chéri", a French-language version of Bobby Lee Trammell's song "Uh Oh". After an audition in person, Wolfsohn immediately offered her a one-year contract, which she signed on 14 November 1961. Upon learning of Hardy's new record deal, Mireille Hartuch presented her student at the "Petit Conservatoire" TV show on 6 February 1962, in what has been described as "one of the most popular French TV extracts of all time". In a much remembered exchange, the hostess asked the young singer what the English-language "yeah! yeah!" in her lyrics meant, after she performed "La fille avec toi" on her guitar. The transliteration "yé-yé" was later popularized by sociologist Edgar Morin through an article published in "Le Monde" on 7 July 1963, in which he analyzed the burgeoning youth-led pop music scene. The yé-yé phenomenon was spearheaded by the massively popular radio program "Salut les copains"—created by Daniel Filipacchi—and a successful magazine of the same name.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Recorded in the spring, Vogue released her first extended play in May 1962, which included "Oh oh chéri" along with her own compositions "Il est parti un jour", "J'suis d'accord" and the sentimental ballad "Tous les garçons et les filles", which despite her wishes was relegated as a B-side because the label deemed it too melancholic for young audiences. On 5 June 1962, the singer proudly shared the record sleeve at the "Petit Conservatoire". In early October, Hardy filmed a black-and-white music video for "Tous les garçons et les filles" directed by Pierre Badel, which aired on TV show "Toute la chanson". The song was chosen at the initiative of Hardy and the show's producer André Salvet, despite Wolfsohn's reluctance to promote it. Hardy was introduced to the large majority of French people on the evening of 28 October 1962, when the clip was rebroadcast during an interlude of the televised results of the presidential election referendum. The exposure propelled the song to widespread popularity among young people—particularly teenage girls—aided by the wide airplay it received by radio stations, starting with youth-favorite Europe n° 1. "Tous les garçons et les filles" was further popularized by a Scopitone music video directed by Claude Lelouch, which shows the singer in an amusement ride alongside two girls whose skirts are lifted up by the wind.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Building on the momentum generated by the song's success, Vogue released two more EPs almost simultaneously, which were later compiled along with the first one in a debut studio album commonly known as "Tous les garçons et les filles". In France, the LP format was initially viewed with skepticism, so Hardy's first series of albums were compilations of previously released four-track, 7-inch records, a format that was known as "super 45 [rpm]". Most of her full-length records were released without a title and bearing only her name on the cover, coming to be referred to by the title of their most popular song. Her debut studio album was soon awarded the Trophée de la Télévision, as well as the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque award given by the Académie Charles Cros. She later stated: "It would have made me even more happy if I had received it a little later for records better made than this." On 11 May 1962, Hardy made her debut as a live performer alongside other young singers at the Disco Revue gala in Nancy. She performed on Christmas Eve in Brussels and underwent a successful tour in Southern France from late 1962 to early 1963. By early 1963, 500,000 copies of "Tous les garçons et les filles" had been sold in France, which rose to two and a half million in the following months.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Between late 1962 and early 1963, Hardy's singles "J'suis daccord", "Le temps de l'amour" and "Tous les garçons et les filles" topped the French singles' chart. In January 1963, she graced the cover of "Paris Match" in a special article devoted to the "new millionaires of song" and she signed a new five-year contract with Vogue, as well as an agreement with Editions Musicales Alpha, created by Wolfsohn. In February 1963, Hardy appeared on TV show "Cinq colonnes à la une" alongside Sylvie Vartan and Sheila; they would go on to be considered the three biggest idols of the yé-yé era, each one embodying a different modern girl archetype. On the third of that month, she made her first performance at the prestigious Olympia concert venue in Paris, where she opened for Richard Anthony. Between 26 February and 10 April, Hardy took part in the Gala des Stars concert tour sponsored by Europe n° 1 and "Salut les copains", to great success. Between two of the tour's dates, she represented Monaco at the Eurovision Song Contest in London, singing ""; she finished joint fifth with 25 points, level with France's Alain Barrière. "" reached no. 5 in the French charts in June 1963. In October, Hardy released her second studio album "Le premier bonheur du jour". That month, she received the "Youth" Edison Award at the Grand Gala du Disque in Scheveningen, Netherlands. She was handed the trophy by author Godfried Bomans, who praised her as a "creative artist" that knew how to impose "a personal style without trying to imitate the Americans". Between 7 November and 18 December 1963, Hardy once again performed as Anthony's opening act at the Olympia and was well received by the press, who had hitherto criticized her stiff live performances.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: As a leading figure of the yé-yé craze, Hardy found herself at the forefront of the French music scene and became the country's most exportable female singer. Beginning in 1963, translated re-recordings of "Tous les garçons et les filles" began to be exported to Italian, German and English-speaking markets. The first foreign-language country where the singer found success was Italy, where the song became "Quelli della mia età" and sold 255,000 copies, topping the singles' chart between April and October and dropping to second place between July and August, behind Rita Pavone's "Cuore". At the end of the summer, she recorded new songs in Milan, which were included in the Italian release "Françoise Hardy canta per voi in italiano". The single "L'età dell'amore" / "E all'amore che penso" also topped the Italian charts. On 11 October, Hardy performed in Barcelona, Spain, as part of the fourth Great Gala of the Sedería Española. In November 1963, she embarked on her first Italian tour, which mostly visited small coastal towns. The singer was also successful in Portugal and travelled to Lisbon in late 1963 to appear in several TV shows.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: At the peak of the British Invasion phenomenon, Hardy sought to modernize her music, opting to leave the poor quality of French studios and sound engineers to go record her songs at Pye Records' studios in London. Working with producer Tony Hatch in February 1964, she recorded an EP that included a cover of "Catch a Falling Star" and three adaptations of her hits: "Find Me a Boy" ("Tous les garçons et les filles"), "Only Friends" ("Ton meilleur ami") and "I Wish It Were Me" ("J'aurais voulu"). On 21 February, she promoted "Catch a Falling Star" on TV show "Ready Steady Go!" English audiences initially preferred her recordings in French, with "Tous les garçons et les filles" entering the UK Singles Chart on 1 July 1964 at number thirty-six.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Her 1965 English-language single "All Over the World" was a substantial hit in the United Kingdom, reaching the Top 20 and staying in the charts for fifteen weeks. It was also successful in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, probably being her most popular recording among English-speaking audiences. She promoted the song with performances on the British TV shows "Ready Steady Go!", "Ollie and Fred's Five O'Clock Club", "Thank Your Lucky Stars" and "Top of the Pops".


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 1965, Hardy flew to New York City to sign a record deal with Kapp, allowing them to distribute her records in the United States. The label released her debut studio album under the title "The "Yeh-Yeh" Girl From Paris!", as well as the single "However Much"—an English-language version of the previously released track "Et même..." While in the United States, Hardy made her first appearance in American television in NBC's program "Hullabaloo", where she performed "However Much", a bilingual version of Charles Trenet's "Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?" and a rendition of "The Girl from Ipanema".


title: Françoise Hardy

text: The singer became famous overnight in Germany after her 28 April 1965 appearance on TV show "Portrait in Musik", in a series of staged musical performances directed by Truck Branss. Shortly after, the album "In Deutschland" was released, which, in addition to containing translated versions of her previous songs, included five original compositions. Her most popular track in Germany was "Frag' den Abendwind", which remained in the national singles' chart for twenty-four weeks.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Pressured by her French and Italian record companies, Hardy took part in the Sanremo Music Festival 1966, where she reached the finals with the Edoardo Vianello-penned song "Parlami di te".


title: Françoise Hardy

text: On 12 April 1966, Hardy was among the forty-six performers that took part in the famous group photograph shot by Jean-Marie Périer for "Salut Les Copains", which became a symbol of the yé-yé era and came to be known in France as the "photo of the century" (French: ""photo du siècle"").


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Beginning in late 1967, Hardy began to release her records under her own production company Asparagus, although Vogue continued to distribute them. She later regretted this decision, recalling in 1999: "Wolfsohn had sensed that the singers were going to want to be more and more independent. So it was he himself who suggested that I create a production house. At first I was very seduced, then I realized that it was a trap: the CEO of Vogue, Léon Cabat, was also in this production company and, between them, owned the majority of the shares. This has given rise to a lot of harassment, lawsuits." Her seventh French studio album "Ma jeunesse fout le camp..."—the first one produced under Asparagus—was released in November 1967.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: On the advice of English producer Noel Rodgers, Hardy recorded her second English-language album in the spring of 1968, known variously as "En anglais", "The Second English Album", "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "Loving", depending on the country.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hardy sought to assert herself as an artist, although this implied less commercial repercussion than that which she had achieved with Disques Vogue. In 1970, the singer definitively broke up with the label and signed a three-year contract with Sonopresse, a subsidiary of Hachette. She also created a new production company—called Hypopotam—and founded her own music publishing company—Kundalini. Hardy received high advances from Sonopresse, which allowed her to finance her own projects. She has described this period as "the happiest time", as she was now able to work independently on her music endeavours. This transitional period in her career was kicked off by the 1970 publication of several compilation albums—including the French release "Françoise"—as well as the studio albums "One-Nine-Seven-Zero"—recorded in English—and "Träume", her last German-language release.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Her first French studio album produced under Hypopotam was "Soleil", released in the spring of 1970. It featured a wide array of arrangers, including Bernard Estardy, Jean-Claude Vannier, Jean-Pierre Sabar, Mick Jones, Saint-Preux, Simon Napier-Bell and Tommy Brown from Nero and the Gladiators. In the summer of 1970, Hardy released her penultimate Italian-language single "Lungo il mare", written by Giuseppe Torrebruno, Luigi Albertelli and Donato Renzetti. Neither this one nor the next Italian single—which included translated versions of "Soleil" ("Sole ti amo") and "Le crabe" ("Il granchio")—obtained success. She also recorded in Spanish for the first time, in a single that contained translated versions of "Soleil" ("Sol") and "J'ai coupé le téléphone" ("Corté el teléfono"). In the spring of 1971, Hardy released the Patrick Dewaere-penned single "T'es pas poli", reaching out to the singer-songwriter after being impressed with his performances at the Café de la Gare in Paris. To promote the song, Dewaere and the singer performed it on several television shows. Despite counting on Hardy's fame, the record did not sell as anticipated.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In the early 1970s, Hardy met Tuca—pseudonym of Valeniza Zagni da Silva—a Brazilian singer and guitarist based in Paris, and they soon became close friends. After attending the Festival Internacional da Canção in Rio de Janeiro—and having come into contact with the music of Brazil—Hardy decided to make an album with the Brazilian musician in late 1970. It was the first time in the singer's career that she was able to work with a songwriter on songs before entering the recording studio, in addition to participating in the choice of string arrangements. The resulting album, "La question", was released on 16 October 1971, promoted through the singles "Le martien", "Même sous la pluie" and "Rêve". Although it was highly acclaimed by the French press upon release, the album sold poorly in comparison to other works by the singer, as it received little promotion on television, and failed to gain traction on radio stations and among audiences at the time. Nevertheless, "La question" has generated a dedicated cult following since its release and is regarded as Hardy's artistic peak. The singer reflected in 2008:


title: Françoise Hardy

text: I have never been as proud of one of my records as I was of ["La question"]. (...) This album seems to me to be more homogenous, "classier," and sophisticated than my previous efforts, and while it did not enjoy great success with the public at large, at least I can claim that it did touch another audience. (...) Often an ambitious record can be more or less ignored when it is released but ends up having a long life. The sole concern, and it is a valid one, is that some of the artists who played on it were in no position to wait twenty years to feed themselves. I became increasingly concerned about this situation as time passed, even though creating songs remains a very particular life choice, one that involves accepting natural selection and precarious employment.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Following the poor commercial performance of "La question", Hardy decided to move towards a different sound and enlisted British arranger Tony Cox to produce her following album. Known as "Et si je m'en vais avant toi", "L'éclairage" or "the orange album"—in reference to its cover—the record was released in November 1972 and promoted through the single "La berlue", released in June. Immediately after finishing "Et si je m'en vais avant toi", Hardy and Cox recorded the English-language release "If You Listen", which included cover versions of several little-known American and British songs. Hardy's Sonopresse period, which had started off well thanks to the success of "Comment te dire adieu?" and "Soleil", ended on a sour note with the commercial failure of "La question", "Et si je m'en vais avant toi" and "If You Listen"—which she nevertheless considered her "best [albums] by far". After her contract expired, the record label decided not to renew it. The singer was relatively unbothered by the poor sales, feeling that she had been artistically vindicated with these records.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Around 1972, Hardy contacted songwriter and producer Michel Berger with the intention of working with him, after being impressed by his work with Véronique Sanson. Berger agreed to produce and arrange her following album, but was unable to write all of its music owing to other obligations. He wrote two of the record's twelve songs—"Message personnel" and "Première rencontre"—and took the responsibility for finding the other ten immediately after, which Hardy felt were subpar in comparison. Following a period of artistic independence, the singer again found herself working under the hectic schedule of a demanding producer. She later described Berger as "a man in a hurry, with a thousand things to do, a thousand things to think about, a thousand people to see". The album's recording sessions took place in July 1973, soon after Hardy had given birth to her son Thomas Dutronc. "Message personnel" was released that year on Warner Bros. Records— with whom Hardy signed a three-year contract— and was greeted with commercial and critical success. Its title track was a big commercial success in France that reignited the singer's career. She promoted the project with appearances on several French TV shows, including "Dimanche Salvador", "Sports en fête", "Top à", "La Une est à vous", "Midi trente", "Minuit chez vous", "Tempo", "Averty's Follies" and "Domino".


title: Françoise Hardy

text: For her following project, Hardy wrote ten songs that revolved around a common, underlying story. To put the words into music, she mainly relied on her friend Catherine Lara, also working with Jean-Pierre Castelain and Gérard Kawczynski (with whom she had worked in "Message personnel"), André Georget and Michel Sivy. Produced by Hughes de Courson, the concept album "Entr'acte" was released in November 1974 and promoted through the songs "Ce soir", "Je te cherche" and "Il y a eu des nuits". It was a commercial failure. The singer then decided to stay away from music and devote more time to raising her child, releasing only two singles between 1975 and 1976. The first one was the Jean-Michel Jarre-penned "Que vas-tu faire?"—backed by "Le compte a rebours"— which sold poorly. The second one was "Femme parmi les femmes", the main theme of Claude Lelouch's film "Si c'était à refaire", featuring lyrics by Pierre Barouh and music by Francis Lai.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Around 1976, Berger recontacted Hardy with the intention of signing her to his new record label Apache and she sent him the songs "Ton enfance", "Star" and "L'impasse". However, Berger was keen on releasing an album with compositions structured around a unifying concept, so she gave up the idea of joining the label. She finally signed a three-year contract with Pathé-Marconi.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: For 1977's "Star", her first album released under Pathé-Marconi, Hardy enlisted Gabriel Yared as a producer and arranger. The "patchwork album" includes six tracks written by Hardy, along with songs written by Serge Gainsbourg, William Sheller, Catherine Lara, Luc Plamondon, Roland Vincent and Michel Jonasz. At first, their relationship was tense, and "Star" was recorded under a "strained atmosphere", which earned her the nickname "ice queen". According to Frédéric Quinonero, "the singer deemed it necessary to immediately dispel any misunderstanding, physical or sentimental, before being integrating into a faithful friendship." "Star" was a commercial success that put the singer back into the media spotlight, introducing her work to a new generation of young people. Despite their stiff relationship in the recording studio, Hardy and Yared would continue to work together for nearly six years and record five albums. In 1991, the singer recalled her work with the producer:


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Gabriel [Yared] is demanding, rigorous and, consequently, disturbing, destabilizing, in work as in friendship. He had great influence over me. The five albums we made together were not easy, there were even tensions on the verge of breaking up, but I consider that it was one of the great chances of my life to find myself again under the guidance of a musician of this dimension.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Her 1978 follow-up "Musique saoûle" included compositions by Yared, Alain Goldstein and Michel Jonasz. The album changed Hardy's musical direction to a more danceable sound with commercial success, aided by the popularity of lead single "J'écoute de la musique saoule", especially its extended remix version. It was promoted through intensive televised appearances, which showed the singer "awkwardly" performing the track among a dancing crowd. Fueled by the popularity of "J'écoute de la musique saoule" with young people, Yared and collaborator Bernard Ilous worked on her following 1980 album "Gin Tonic" with an even more commercial approach. Its album cover attempted to present a "furiously modern" image of the singer and was photographed by a collaborator from "Façade", a French magazine modelled after Andy Warhol's journal "Influence". "Gin Tonic" was promoted through singles "Jazzy rétro Satanas" and "Juke-box", with only the former achieving modest commercial success. Despite reduced sales and mixed reviews, the singer's respectability remained intact and she was invited as a distinguished guest in Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier's TV show "Numéro Un" in 1980. Hardy's following album "À suivre" was released in April 1981 on label Flarenasch, in breach of contract with Pathé-Marconi. It featured a new array of collaborators—presumably because of her dissatisfaction with her previous songs—with Yared enlisting composers Louis Chedid, Pierre Groscolas, Jean-Claude Vannier, Michel Bernholc, Daniel Perreau, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre and Étienne Roda-Gil. "À suivre" was promoted through singles "Tamalou" and "Villégiature", with only the former achieving commercial success.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: The album "Quelqu'un qui s'en va" was released in the spring of 1981 and featured an album cover photographed by Serge Gainsbourg.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: "Décalages" was released on 2 May 1988. Promoted as Hardy's final album, it was a commercial success and was certified gold for selling a hundred thousand copies.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 1990, the singer wrote the song "Fais-moi une place" for Julien Clerc, which was included in his album of the same name.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Hardy resumed her music career in the 1990s, signing a contract with Virgin Records in December 1994.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 1995, Hardy collaborated with English band Blur in the French version of "To the End", recorded at Abbey Road Studios. It was included as a B-side to their single "Country House".


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 1997, Hardy collaborated with French duo Air in the track "Jeanne", which was included as a B-side to their maxi single "Sexy Boy".


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 2000, her album "Clair-obscur" received the Grand Prize awarded by the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 2005, Hardy received the Female Artist of the Year award for her album "Tant de belles choses" at the Victoires de la Musique.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 2006, Hardy received the Grande médaille de la chanson française award given by the Académie Française, in recognition of her music career.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 2012, Hardy celebrated her 50th anniversary in music with the release of her first novel and an album that shared the title "L'Amour fou". Diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, the singer declared it her last album but nevertheless returned nearly five years later with the 2018 release of "Personne d'autre".


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In March 2021, Hardy announced that she could not sing anymore as a consequence of cancer treatments.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Although journalists often take note of Hardy's film roles, she never embarked on a serious career as an actress nor wished to do so. Although reluctant, she accepted several acting roles she was offered in the 1960s on the advice of Jean-Marie Périer. The singer recalled: "I couldn't see how I could turn down offers by well-known film directors. However, I far preferred music to cinema. Music and "chanson" allow you to go deep into yourself and how you feel, while cinema is about playing a part, playing a character who might be miles away from who you are." In 1963, Hardy made her film debut playing the role of Ophelia in Roger Vadim's "Château en Suède". Before casting her, Vadim tested Hardy's abilities as an actress by directing her in a reading of Cécile de Roggendorf's love letters to Giacomo Casanova for radio Europe n° 1. She did not get along well with the director during the making of "Château en Suède", who mocked her for her "infinite apathy", and the shooting of the film marked the "beginning of her dread for filming sessions and the movie business in general". In promotion of the film, Hardy attended the Cannes Film Festival, where she wore a black coat by Pierre Cardin.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: After a cameo in "What's New Pussycat?", Hardy landed a role in Jean-Daniel Pollet's 1966 film "Une balle au cœur", which was filmed on location in a remote Greek island. Her experience was also unsatisfactory, recalling: "I felt like I was at the other end of the world and my morale sank below zero when, after a day or two, I realized that the director was hopelessly bad and his film was a disaster." Building on her music career success in Italy, Hardy also made appearances as a performer in "musicarelli" films, including "I ragazzi dell'Hully Gully" (1964), "Questo pazzo, pazzo mondo della canzone" (1965), "Altissima pressione" (1965) and "Europa canta" (1965). She also appeared in the 1968 television special "", hosted by Grace Kelly.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In the mid-1960s, American director John Frankenheimer spotted Hardy as she was leaving a London club and thought she would be perfect as one of the characters in "Grand Prix", a film he was developing about Formula One auto racing. Despite remaining disinterested in an acting career, Hardy agreed because the film's big-budget production offered her a large remuneration. The singer made a notable cameo in Jean-Luc Godard's 1966 film "Masculin féminin", wearing a head-to-toe look by André Courrèges, including his famous white boots. In 1969, she starred in the television film "L'homme qui venait du Cher" alongside Eddy Mitchell. In the 1970s, she made brief appearances in Jean-Claude Lord's "Les Colombes" (1972) and Claude Lelouch's "Si c'était à refaire" (1976).


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In addition to music, Hardy has developed a career as an astrologer, having written extensively on the subject. She aligns herself with the so-called "conditionalist" school of thought—outlined by Jean-Pierre Nicola in his 1964 book "La condition solaire"—which puts forward a non-divinatory character of the discipline and considers that it should be used taking into account other factors such as hereditary, educational and socio-cultural determinants. Hardy has written about her distrust of most astrologers and of "predictive astrology", explaining:


title: Françoise Hardy

text: ... I believe this human science is restricted to offering information on one of the many factors that conditions our lives—the one connected with the rhythms of our solar system. It simply allows us to get our bearings and identify as best we can the various phases of our development, which are dependent on many more factors than just planetary cycles and configurations, and does not necessarily translate into terms of particular events and outcomes.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Hardy first became interested in the practice after consulting astrologer André Barbault in the mid-1960s. She took public courses, learned to draw up a birth chart and read many specialized books before meeting Catherine Aubier, who recommended her professor to Hardy. Hardy was then taught traditional astrology for two years by Madame Godefroy in Paris. She became more dedicated to astrology after meeting Nicola in late 1974, who contacted her to be part of a new magazine he was developing. The singer has described Nicola as "the best astrologer in the world" and wrote: "[he] initiated me into an intelligent understanding of astrology and trained me to use it, by his side, to the best of my ability." Besides astrology, Hardy was initiated into the reading of the Tarot of Marseilles by Alejandro Jodorowsky. As a complement to her astrological knowledge, she also took courses with graphologist Germaine Tripier, the dean of the French Society of Graphology.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Between recordings of her album "Gin Tonic" in 1979, Hardy was asked by Nicola to collaborate on a collection on the zodiac signs launched by Tchou Editions, being tasked with writing the book dedicated to Virgo. Since she had no time to write the book by herself, she shared her work with fellow astrologer Béatrice Guénin. She also collaborated with magazine "Quinze Ans". In late 1980, Hardy was contacted by Pierre Lescure of the RMC radio station to entrust her with the daily horoscope as well as a weekly show, and she asked Nicola to help her so as to aid him financially. In 1982, Hardy began a new weekly broadcast titled "Entre les lignes, entre les signes", in which she interviewed a film or music figure using their birth chart, while graphologist Anne-Marie Simmond—whose courses she had taken as well—drew up their psychological portrait using their handwriting. The duo also wrote a book under the same title that compiled the interviews and profiles of the show's guests, first published by RMC in 1986.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 1990, Hardy continued her astrological work by writing articles in Swiss newspaper "Le Matin" and by hosting a weekly section in Thierry Ardisson's program "Télé Zèbre" on Antenne 2. On 7 May 2003, Hardy released "Les rythmes du zodiaque", which she conceived as "a book that would allow me to make my little contribution to modern astrology". The making of the book was a laborious and stressful process that took Hardy over two years to write.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In addition to writing about astrology, Hardy has developed as an author of both fiction and non-fiction. Her autobiography "Le désespoir des singes... et autres bagatelles" was released on 9 October 2008 and became a bestseller in France, with 250,000 copies. The book was translated and published in Spanish by the San Sebastián-based independent publisher Expediciones Polares in 2017. In 2018, the English-language edition of the book was released by Feral House, titled "The Despair of Monkeys and Other Trifles" and translated by Jon E. Graham.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 2012, Hardy published her first novel "L'amour fou" on Éditions Albin Michel, released in conjunction with a musical album of the same title. Hardy began working on its story, which deals with an obsessive romantic relationship, thirty years before its publication. Hardy had shelved the text and had no intention of releasing it, but was urged by her editor to do so and agreed after the encouragement of friend Jean-Marie Périer. The singer felt that it was appropriate to publish the book to mark the occasion of her fifty years of music career, as it was "the story that has been the matrix of almost all of my lyrics from the start". In 2013, the Italian-language edition of the novel was released by Florence's Edizioni Clichy.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Following the poor sales of albums "La pluie sans parapluie" and "L'Amour fou", Hardy decided to momentarily distance herself from music and dedicate herself to writing. This resulted in the essay "Avis non autorisés"—released in 2015 on Éditions des Équateurs—in which she expresses the difficulties of reaching her old age. In the book Hardy also shares her views on current affairs, which have been deemed "politically incorrect". "Avis non autorisés" was a commercial success. A year later, she published "Un cadeau du ciel", a book in which she reflects on her hospitalization in March 2015 for cancer, during which she nearly died. In the early 2020s, after being unable to continue singing—claiming she had "nothing else to do"—Hardy dedicated herself to the making of the song book "Chansons sur toi et nous"—published in 2021 on Éditions des Équateurs—which compiles all of her lyrics and contains commentary on them.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Although Hardy's music has covered a wide range of genres, she has maintained a signature sound since the beginning of her career, which is defined by her breathy alto vocals and predilection for melancholic songs. "Rock & Folk"s Basile Farkas has dubbed her the "queen of melancholy", and the singer herself stated in 2012: "In music, I like above all the slow, sad melodies, that stir the knife in the wound. Not in a way that plunges, but in a way that uplifts. Because it feels good that the pains of feelings turn into something beautiful: a beautiful text, a beautiful melody. I still aspire to find the heartbreaking melody that will bring tears to my eyes. A melody whose quality gives it a sacred dimension." Cosette Schulz of "Exclaim!" described the singer as a "master of crafting simple but stellar tracks". Writers have likened Hardy's music to that of English singer Marianne Faithfull. Comparing both singers, "The Guardian"s Keith Altham wrote in 2014: "They both sing sad songs with a simple folksy style. They both have the same shy, wistful, almost waif-like appeal about them. They both have a dramatic, 'all-alone' quality about their voices which commands sympathy and attention." Her deadpan delivery, characterized by its "cool, aloof air", has also been compared to that of German singer Nico. The recurring themes of her lyrics are sadness, personal pain, heartache, one-sided love, sleeplessness, boredom, loneliness and confinement.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Hardy is known for her demanding attitude towards her music—such as her decision to leave low-quality French studios to go record in London during the mid-1960s—something that set her apart from her French compatriots. As she matured, Hardy honed her own despairing songwriting, but also chose with alacrity the works on offer from leading professionals. Producer Erick Benzi recalled: "From when she was 18, she knew she was different. She was capable of going in front of big artists like Charles Aznavour and saying, 'Your song is crap, I don't want to sing it.' She never made compromises." Tony Cox recalled his experience working with Hardy: "Françoise was good in that she liked things to be slightly more adventurous than the norm. There was a bit of the Left Bank about her – she’s not your average pop singer, that’s for sure." She is also known for her disapproving views towards her skills as a singer and musician, telling "Rock & Folk" in 2018: "I'm not a musician, that's it. By stopping to compose, I went towards ease, but also towards realism. I understood that even if I did learn things, I would never be able to do as well as real melodists. That's why I thought it was best to bring in musicians whose work touched me."


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Most of Hardy's musical output took place in the 1960s and is thus the one that attracts the most attention by music journalists. She told "The Independent" in 1996: "Most people don't really know me artistically. The proof is always having to talk about the Sixties and the Beatles." Her earliest musical tastes were French "chanson" singers—including Cora Vaucaire, Georges Guétary, Charles Trenet and Jacques Brel—since in the 1950s it was the only music played on the radio. She has expressed that Trenet "touches [her] more than the others because his music is sad and light". Hardy was also a big fan of singer and songwriter Barbara, who inspired her to write her own compositions. In the early 1960s, she was introduced to English-language rock and roll and Brill Building pop through Radio Luxembourg, receiving inspiration from artists such as Brenda Lee, the Everly Brothers, the Shadows, Cliff Richard, Neil Sedaka, Connie Francis, and especially, Elvis Presley and Paul Anka. Hardy felt "completely spellbound" by these foreign young artists and began to sing and play the guitar to try to imitate them. She recalled in 2008: "I immediately identified with them, because they expressed teenage loneliness and awkwardness over melodies that were much more inspiring than their texts". Although she is regarded as one of the greatest exponents of the yé-yé pop phenomenon of the early-to-mid 1960s, she was set apart from her peers by writing much of her own material, which allowed her songs to be "devoid of older, male sexualization or control, a privilege not many others of her era enjoyed." She also distanced herself from the other yé-yé singers by "eschewing the easy road of sunny, good girl pop". According to Jean-Marie Périer: "She was the opposite of all the French new artists trying to look and sound American. And her melodies were sad, she didn't try to make them dance the twist." Aside from original compositions, much of her 1960s repertoire consisted of versions of foreign artists that spanned a wide range of styles, including American girl-groups, early rockabilly, pre-Beatles British rock and roll, country music, folk, folk-rock and, to a lesser extent, doo-wop and soul.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Her rockabilly-tinged full-length debut "Tous les garçons et les filles" is the closest she was to the yé-yé genre and its noted for its simplicity, featuring minimalist accompaniment of acoustic and electric guitar, bass and jazz-influenced percussion. Robert Ham of "Paste" felt that the album "reveals a musician that had yet to fully absorb her influences and make them her own." Russell Warfield of "Drowned in Sound" felt that "her first record sticks out like a sore thumb" and described it as "the product of a patriarchal music industry", as Hardy was untrusted to shape her own material. Considered an artistic growth, her sophomore record "Le premier bonheur du jour" incorporated more complex instrumentation and lyricism, including electric organs and "weeping" string arrangements. It includes compositions inspired by jazz music, as well as American girl groups such as the Crystals and the Ronettes. Despite their enduring popularity, Hardy is highly critical of her first releases. She told "Clash" in 2018: "From very early on I felt very frustrated because I wanted to have beautiful electric guitars like those of the Shadows in the sixties or those of Cigarettes After Sex now. Instead, I had very bad French musicians and a terribly bad musical production. My albums began to improve when I went to London to record them. My first songs were not very interesting either."


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Beginning in the mid-1960s, her music became lusher and richer, as she eschewed the poor quality of French studios in 1964 to go record in London with arranger Charles Blackwell, who allowed her to "reach new levels of sophistication." She told "The Guardian" in 2018: "I was happy from that moment. I was free to make another kind of music, not this mechanical music I had been trapped in." Hardy's music during the second half of the decade incorporated influences from the British Invasion pop phenomenon and "a strong comeback of the traditional values of French "chanson", neither yé-yé nor 'Left Bank', but rather romantic." Released that year, "Mon amie la rose" showcased a growing complexity in her music, with stronger vocals and increased experimentation in song structure. Her most varied album yet, it incorporated influences of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound technique, as well as Italian composer Ennio Morricone. Her 1965 and 1966 output showcased a stylistic maturation, with productions that "moved from the tinny sound of yeh-yeh pop into a fuller brand of rock arrangements." The overall sound of her follow-up "L'amitié" is considerably more expansive. According to Pitchfork's Hazel Cills: "It wasn’t until her fifth record "La maison où j'ai grandi" that Hardy grew into a more grown-up, baroque sound, one that matched the depth of her sorrow and its complexities." Likewise, Warfield considered that it was the album in which "she really settles into her sound, giving us a glimpse of the performer we can still recognise as a 70-year-old". With "Ma jeunesse fout le camp", her last 1960s album recorded in London, she "moved toward a more adult, sedate form of orchestrated pop balladry". It has been described as "her farewell to the yé-yé years".


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Her return to French recording studios, 1968's "Comment te dire adieu" is more MOR-oriented than her previous releases. Richie Unterberger considered its music to be "perhaps even sadder and more sentimental than was the norm for Françoise". As the yé-yé era faded away following the May 68 protests, Hardy "smartly reinvented herself as an elusive folk rock jazz "chanteuse"" with her early 1970s releases. The singer looked for a more mature and less-pop oriented style in an effort to reflect her inner self to a greater extent. Described as "the first truly personal Françoise Hardy record", the 1971 album "La question" is regarded as an important turning point in her career, moving towards a less commercial sound with no apparent hooks. It is one of her "most sparsely produced efforts," with subdued and acoustic-flavored arrangements that feature guitar, touches of bass, and subtle orchestration. Through the work of Brazilian guitarist and arranger Tuca, the album incorporates marked influences of bossa nova music. Her vocals have been called "sultry" and "breathy", at times "[substituting] melodic humming in the place of singing, wordlessly articulating the emotional essence of the song." "La question" also marked the first time that Hardy had a part in choosing the string arrangements of her work.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Following the poor commercial performance of "La question", Hardy leaned towards a more folk and rock-influenced sound. Around this time, she became an admirer of then little-known English folk singer-songwriter Nick Drake and championed his work in interviews. She recalled: "For me, he didn't belong to a particularly British tradition: his style was quite different from that of The Beatles, the Stones and other groups that I was listening to a lot around this time. It is the soul which comes out of his songs that touched me deeply – romantic, poetic... but also the refined melodies. As well as the very individual timbre of his voice, which adds to the melancholy of the whole thing." According to Tom Pinnock: "There are certainly analogues with Nick Drake, in their personalities, voices and even a similar taste in chords and harmony." This led Joe Boyd to propose that the English musician write an album of songs for her, which would be produced by Tony Cox. Although Drake and Hardy met several times, including a visit to her recording sessions in London, the project was never carried out. Nevertheless, Cox was keen to work with Hardy regardless and, in late 1971, they recorded "If You Listen", which featured a "crack team" of British folk-rock musicians. Influenced by Drake, the album showcases Hardy's taste for this musical style at the time, featuring "cinematic" arrangements that emphasize the acoustic guitar and light strings. The same year, she released "Et si je m'en vais avant toi", also known as "the orange album" in reference to its cover, which incorporated influences from American blues, folk and rock music. The album features a slightly humorous tone and catchier rhythms, which were atypical for the singer.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: In 1972, Véronique Sanson's debut album made a great impact on Hardy, who began to feel her own music was "very outdated". She described her impression of Sanson in her autobiography: "The originality and quality of the melodies, the lyrics, the production, and the singing made all other French singers, starting with me, seem like hasbeens. (...) It was as if the English and American influences that yé-yé had been happy to simply copy with varying degrees of success had been thoroughly digested and allowed for the emergence of something much more musically mature, as well as more personal." Hardy thus enlisted Michel Berger, the producer of Sanson's album, to oversee the production of her 1973 album "Message personnel", which features arrangements by Michel Bernholc, who directed "a basic rock band backed by a lush set of strings [underlining] Hardy's wispy yet compelling vocals." The album is characterized by its sad, introspective mood and "classy, adult tone". The 1974 release "Entr'acte" was Hardy's first attempt at a concept album, with lyrics that narrate "the successive phases of a one-night stand between a stranger and a young woman, who, abandoned by the man she loves, is looking to give him a taste of his own medicine." It featured orchestral arrangements by Del Newman, who had recently worked on Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and Cat Stevens' "Tea for the Tillerman".


title: Françoise Hardy

text: A jazz-oriented pop record, 1977's "Star" was Hardy's first album arranged by Gabriel Yared, who would produce her output for the next ten years. In 1978, as disco dominated the music industry, his team sought to adapt her sound to the era with the release of "Musique saoûle", which incorporated a marked binary rhythm influenced by funk music. The singer later stated that she felt uncomfortable and embarrassed when singing over danceable rhythms. The 1988 album "Décalages" is noted for its layered, atmospheric sound. It incorporated the use of a Synclavier synthesizer, despite the singer's wishes to avoid fashionable digital sounds in favor of an acoustic album.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: Deeply inspired by the alternative rock scene, Hardy veered into an assertive, guitar-oriented modern rock style with "Le danger", her first album in seven years. She incorporated influences from English band Portishead, and the grunge, Britpop and roots rock genres. Pitchfork's Jazz Monroe described its music as "adult-contemporary space rock". The album's harsh sound and lyrics reflect the "very dark" period that the singer was living in her personal life at that time. The commercial failure of "Le danger", among other reasons, caused Hardy to return to her characteristic soft and light style in her following album "Clair-obscur", released in 2000. Her last five albums are characterized by their elegant and melancholic sound. 2006's "(Parenthèses...)" is a collection of twelve duets with a production that "[keeps] tricks and mixing slick-ery to a tasteful minimum," drawing comparisons to previous uncluttered releases such as "La question". Compared to previous albums, 2010's "La pluie sans parapluie" features a "sunnier" sound, with a few of its songs being driven by a typical rhythm track of drums and bass, rather than by piano or strings. Her 2012 album "L'amour fou" features half-sung, half-spoken vocals and is characterized by its "resigned, philosophical" mood. Hardy is backed by "classy" pianos, minor chords and brushed drums. The lyrics of her last album "Personne d'autre", released in 2018, deal with her advancing years in repose and her own mortality, having survived a major health crisis after the release of her previous record. Her vocals in the album show the wear and tear resulting from her illness. The dark lyrical subject matter of "Personne d'autre" is contrasted with the singer's characteristic delicate and intimate sound.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: As a public figure, Hardy is renowned for her shyness and reservedness, and observers have emphasized her "anti-social nature as a celebrity". She has been open in her autobiography and in interviews about her struggles with anxiety, self-doubt, loneliness and inferiority complex. "Uncut"s Tom Pinnock noted that "it was her refusal to play the showbusiness game that made her something of an icon." The singer's sudden celebrity status was a source of great discomfort for her, as she claimed in 2011: "I didn't enjoy at all everything, the trappings, when all of a sudden you become very famous. (...) [Being taken up by fashion houses] was work, things I had to do, a chore—I didn't enjoy it at all... It is quite impossible to stand—to be admired too much—it is not a normal situation. I don't like that at all. I am not comfortable with my professional life really, so the word 'icon'—it's as though you were talking about someone else, it's not me really." She regularly suffered from stage fright, which led to her stopping performing live altogether in 1968. Her public image and style during the 1960s made an impact on international pop culture, something that overshadowed her skills as a singer outside of France. As Hardy's almost exclusive photographer and agent during the decade, Jean-Marie Périer became a Pygmalion-like figure for her, transforming the singer's public image from "a shy, gauche-looking schoolgirl" into a "modern young trend-setter." She wrote: "...[Périer] tried to open my mind and help me in all domains with his characteristic generosity. For example, he taught me to love the cinema by bringing me to see great films, and under his tutelage I realized the importance of aesthetics, which became one of my major criteria. He taught me how to carry myself and to dress, and gave me advice on social skills". He persuaded the singer to begin modelling and she soon became "a star of the international fashion world as well as the French music scene." She was also notably photographed by Gered Mankowitz, William Klein and Richard Avedon for "Vogue" and other publications. Her regular appearance on magazine covers gave her the reputation of being the quintessential French cover girl of the 1960s. In 1967, teen magazine "Special Pop" wrote: "Françoise manages to attract both kids and their parents, men and women alike. More than a singer, she's becoming a universal myth with whom thousands of young girls dream of identifying." Nevertheless, she was disenchanted with the lifestyle of the jet-set and high society, and in the 1970s abandoned the image of "fashionable young girl about town" that Périer had created for her.


title: Françoise Hardy

text: An "it girl" and fashion icon, Hardy was considered the epitome of "the 'Modern Woman'" and of 1960s French chic and cool, known for her avant-garde and futuristic fashion choices. Brett Marie of PopMatters noted that "her sense of style and '60s-era model figure made her as much an icon of fashion as a music-business star." She recalled in 2008: "At the start of the 1960s, all of a sudden, my slender build, which made me so self-conscious, became fashionable." The singer began to be regarded as an ""égérie"" 'muse' by the top French fashion designers of the time, including André Courrèges, Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. Hardy championed the first incarnation of Saint-Laurent's rupturist 1966 design Le Smoking. The designer recalled the time he took the singer to the Paris Opera dressed in one of his tuxedos: "People screamed and hollered. It was an outrage". She was also an early fan of Paco Rabanne, earning the Spanish designer popularity by wearing his creations for both photoshoots and television performances. Her 1968 photographs wearing a golden, metal minidress by Paco Rabanne—dubbed "the most expensive dress in the world" at the time— are now considered "legendary" and "perhaps her most iconic look". In 1968, Hardy told a reporter that: "If it weren't for the way I dress, no one would notice me". Likewise, she told "Vanity Fair" in 2018: "My songs had little interest compared to the Anglo-Saxon production. So I took it to heart to dress well every time I went to London or New York. I was above all a fashion ambassador." Hardy also modelled the creations of the nascent "prêt-à-porter" industry, a new wave of French female designers known as the "yé-yé school" or "the "stylistes"", who rebelled against the "strictures of "haute couture"". For instance, she helped launch the career of Sonia Rykiel by wearing her influential "poor boy sweater" on the cover of "Elle", and was photographed by David Bailey wearing Emmanuelle Khanh's color-blocking coat for "Vogue". Fashion Institute of Technology's Colleen Hill considers Hardy's style to be the most enduring out of all the yé-yé girls, noting that "her nonchalance is an important part of her appeal. Hardy's fashion choices, such as her white Courrèges pantsuits and Yves Saint Laurent's first Le Smoking, are distinctly '60s and streamlined, yet they also have an edge." In addition to high-fashion ensembles, Hardy was known for her pared-down style, with discreet hairdos and makeup, and often wearing a simple sweater and pants combination. Her signature look was defined by her famous bangs and use of white boots by Courrèges and miniskirts, considered one of the first people to wear the latter. She also regularly experimented with androgynous silhouettes. As such, she has been described as the "anti-Bardot", imposing a beauty ideal that "rendered the exaggerated femininity of the sex-kitten of the time old-fashioned".