Jane Birkin, the most French of British artists dies, aged 76

The French-English singer and actress Jane Birkin has died at the age of 76.

The star was found at her home this morning by her caregiver, according to French media reports.

The French Ministry of Culture has issued a statement paying homage to a "timeless francophone icon".

Menna Rawlings, the British ambassador to France, paid tribute to her on Twitter, describing her as "the most French of British artists".

Birkin was born in Marylebone, London but found fame singing in French, and relocated there in the 1970s. She was loved in France for her accent and once told an interviewer: “Without my accent, I would have had a different career."

“The French gave me a real gift in accepting me very quickly. They found me amusing, in large part because of my accent and the mistakes I made in French. It’s no doubt one of the reasons I never sought to improve it.”

She later obtained French nationality but was so-often known affectionately as France’s ‘petite anglaise’.

Her rise to international fame came with her on and off-screen relationship with French singer Serge Gainsbourg.

The pair met while co-starring in the French satirical romantic comedy Slogan and went on to release a debut album in 1968.

It famously featured the sexually explicit song "Je t'aime...moi non plus." The song was initially banned from the radio for being too explicit as it featured stimulated sounds of a female orgasm at the time rumoured to have been recorded during live sex. However, a ban by the BBC and condemnation from the Vatican only led to intrigue and more success and the song reached number one in the UK Singles Chart.

Last year The Connexion interviewed Jane Birkin’s brother Andrew about the mythic couple. Read our interview here.

After splitting with Gainsbourg in 1980 Birkin continued to work, appearing in multiple films and recording numerous solo albums.

She had been forced to postpone several concerts in Paris scheduled for May after breaking her shoulder in March 2022.

"I've always been a big optimist, and I realise that it still takes me a little while to be able to be on stage again and with you. I love being with you so much," she said in a statement at the time.

It followed a earlier string of cancelled shows and appearances after the star suffered from a stroke in September 2021.

An Hermès bag - the Birkin bag (or simply Birkin) - was launched in 1984 after Jane Birkin complained to a fellow passenger on a flight from Paris to London that she did not have "a bag suited to her needs as a young mother". Little did she know that the passenger was Jean-Louis Dumas, managing director of Hermès, who went on to give shape to her wishes.

Birkin had three daughters: Kate Barry, a fashion photographer (from her relationship with British composer John Barry before she moved to France), Charlotte Gainsbourg, a musician and actress from her time with Serge Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon, a model and musician (from her 1980s relationship with French film director Jacques Doillon). Kate Barry died in 2013 as a result of a fall from her fourth floor apartment in Paris.

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