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David Hallyday (born David Michael Benjamin Smet on 14 August 1966) is a French singer/songwriter and amateur sports car racer. He was born in Boulogne-Billancourt and is the son of the French singers Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday.
He married Estelle Lefébure in 1989 and got divorced in 2001. They have two children, Emma and llona. He married Alexandra Pastor in 2004 and their son Cameron was born on 8 October 2004.
David Hallyday is a first cousin of actor Michael Vartan.
Crushed by his heredity, David Hallyday took years to work his way up in the French music business. His American education and his lyrics in English didn't help him to make his very Californian music known. But after more than ten years in the business and finally an album in French, David has found a place in his native land.
Little Prince
When David Smet, a.k.a. Hallyday was born on August 14th, 1966 in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, his parents were already pop personalities, even a superstar concerning his father, and had been for many years. After the highly publicised wedding of Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday in 1964, the birth of their son was an event that didn't go unnoticed. During this period, Sylvie and Johnny were constantly on tour. Moreover, Johnny came home on a in a whirlwind, from his Italian tour the day of his son's birth but left immediately to be on stage in Venice that same evening.
From the day he was born, David was a little star followed by the paparazzi. If his mother had already dedicated a song to him as early as 1966 with "Ballade pour un sourire", the most memorable tribute was dated 1969 with "Le Roi David".
California
In 1970, his parents were involved in a very serious car accident. Sylvie had serious facial injuries and had to be treated in the United States. From that point on, Johnny and Sylvie spent many weeks in this country where they acquired a house. Sylvie was working more and more with famous choreographers there. David was finally enrolled in school there.
When Johnny Hallyday celebrated his 20 years in show business at the Pavillon de Paris at the end of 1979, he had the surprise one evening to see his son on drums who accompanied him for just one song "le Bon temps du rock 'n roll". David says today that he was afraid of being scolded at the time for taking this initiative of which Johnny knew nothing about. Of course, nothing happened. Passionate about drums but also the guitar and piano, David would have other occasions as well to accompany his superstar father on stage.
In 1980 when Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday officially got divorced, Sylvie settled in Los Angeles for good and started on her American career. She got remarried to producer Tony Scotti in 1981 and David, who was 15 at the time and already knew the American way of life very well, became a true Californian teenager. It was shortly after this time that he formed his first group with five American friends called the Weekenders. The music bug was already well embedded in him and he never looked to do anything else.
Heredity
In 1984, Sylvie Vartan married Toni Scotti for the second time and moved into a luxurious Beverly Hills villa with him and her son. David divided his time between Los Angeles where he was studying and Loconville in Normandy, the family house that his parents had bought in the Sixties, and which remained the place to gather the family when he was in France. Once his schooling was finished, the teenager was a packer for a while in his father-in-law's business, owner of the record label Scotti Bros. But seeing the passion that was developing in David for music, Tony Scotti was especially a great help in launching him in his parental footsteps. This was how he made an appearance in the music film "He's my girl" by Gabrielle Beaumont in 1987. This film was a chance for him to write his first hits, "He's my girl" and "Church of the poison spider".
His career then launched, he released his very first album in 1988, "True Cool" which sold 900,000 copies and saw a hit come out of it the song "High". While taping a television show for the promotion of this album in France, David met a young French model, Estelle Lefebure. They got married on September 15th 1989 in Freneuse-sur-Risle in Normandy where the young woman comes from. This couple all blond and smiling, made the press people very happy. In October 1990, David and Estelle accompanied Sylvie Vartan to Bulgaria, where she is originally from, for a trip which resembled a pilgrimage.
A new album was released in 1990 "Rock 'n Heart. Still in English, David Hallyday's songs had a hard time making it in France. His French status but his American style made the public dubious, incapable of recognizing the son of the national hero, Johnny Hallyday. When David was looking for a French label, he didn't find one and continued working in the United States. This second album was followed by a series of concerts in France, a difficult challenge for the young artist. Accompanied by three musicians, Eric Godal, Bo Gavino, and Greg V, he attacked the Zenith Hall in Paris(3600 seats) but the hall was a bit big in proportion to the French success of the singer. David was more at ease in October '91 at the Cigale in Paris where a live album was recorded. A French tour followed.
Also in '91, Disneyland Paris asked him to write the music for its inauguration.
Maturity
In 1993, David took a chance for the first time to record a song in French released only as a single. For this experiment, he called upon a songwriter on the opposite style that he represents: Gerard Manset. A much mediatised composing duo, the two men wrote a song "Heros" which evoked with hidden words, Hallyday father. In fact his father celebrated his 50th birthday in June '93 by organising a huge concert event during which David found himself on the drums for a planned duo this time "o ma jolie Sarah", as well as for "Mirador", a song that David wrote. His single "Heros" was strongly inspired by this event.
Difficult, however to abandon English, the language in which David was most at ease for the moment when it came to writing songs. He then released an album in '94 "Pain and pride" with his group Blind Fish, still produced by Scotti Bros.
Absent from the musical scene for a while, we got a glimpse of him in 1994 beside his wife Estelle in the film "Grosse Fatigue" by Michel Blanc where they play themselves. A few months later, in May 1995, David and Estelle had their first baby girl who they named Ilona as a tribute to Sylvie Vartan's mother.
After Blind Fish, David Hallyday surrounded himself with a new group, Novocaine, just for one album of the same name. He worked with among others his partners from Blind Fish, Eric Godal and Bo Govino. The album was recorded in April 1996 in Santa Monica and released in 1997 in the United States only. On the other hand, if not for this latest record, David Hallyday was talked about again in the French press in September 1997 for the birth of Emma, his second child.
Sang Pour Sang
At the age of 32, a father of two children, happy in family life, blooming in his career, David Hallyday turned towards his parents to write songs for them. This is how in 1998, he wrote two songs for Sylvie Vartan's album "Sensible". But it was above all for the album "Sang pour Sang" by Johnny Hallyday in 1999 that marked a real and close collaboration between the two men. All the music on this album was written by David. It was a success hailed by the critics and confirmed by the public.
At the same time, David Hallyday released his first album entirely recorded in French in 1999 "Un Paradis, un Enfer". The lyrics were written by people new to his wake such as Zazie, Kristine Lidon and Lionel Florence. His style remains similar to the past but the French language totally changed the public's perception of him. Several hits made the CD one of the biggest sellers of the year: "Pour toi", "Tu ne m'as pas laisse le temps". Almost forty years after his father, David became an idol of French teenagers. In January 2000 he received the Best French Album of the year during the NRJ Music Awards and was nominated at the Victoires de la musique 2000 for the Best Song of the Year 1999.
David set off on his first major national tour in the spring of 2000, bringing the house down when he performed at the legendary Olympia (March 21st and 22nd).
Loaded with a pleasant personality and talent, David is finally well accepted in the profession. If during many years he was only considered as his father's son or the husband of a top model and a singer undoubtedly too americanised, he has finally been restored in the French public's esteem.
Crossroads
Recently estranged from his wife, David Hallyday took to his passion for car racing more intensively and won the French GT championship in 2001.
Following the success of "Un Paradis, Un Enfer" which had sold no less than 600,000 copies, David gained more confidence and released a new album "Revelation" in June 2002. He wrote the music himself on most of the tracks but entrusted the lyrics to songwriters like Eric Chemouny and Hocine Hallaf. Dave Bascombe, who had already collaborated with prominent English-speaking artists like Placebo and Natalie Imbruglia, served as producer. Despite a few ballads, most of the album proposed a stronger rock emphasis than David’s former ones. The first single to come out was entitled "Repenses-y si tu veux".
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