PARIS (AFP) – The city of Paris will name a street in honor of rock music icon David Bowie on Monday, officials said, the singer's first honor eight years after his death.
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„Rue David Bowie” will officially open in the capital's 13th arrondissement on the city's Left Bank.
There was no need to remove any former dignitaries' names to make room for Bowie, as the street was recently created as part of a major transformation of the neighborhood that included the modernist university library, the Bibliotheque Francois Mitterrand.
About 50 meters (165 ft) long, the route was previously known to city planners as „VoieDZ/13”, which would have appealed to Bowie, who wrote songs like „TVC15” or „5:15”. „.
Bowie, who died of liver cancer on January 10, 2016, would have been 77 on Monday.
Bowie is considered one of the most influential and best-selling musicians of the 20th century, thanks to his unparalleled ability to reinvent himself artistically throughout his career with the hit single „Space Oddity” in 1969.
His major songs and albums include dark experimental works such as „Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” and „Aladdin Sane” as well as the commercial smash hits „Let's Dance” and „China Girl” and „Lo”.
Dance in the street!'
Paris played no more important role in Bowie's career than London, Berlin and Los Angeles, but French avant-garde theatrical culture influenced his visual style.
He also successfully covered the French-language songs „Amsterdam” and „Ma Mort” (My Death) by Jacques Brel, who was not actually French, but Belgian.
A cryptic line in Bowie's „Aladdin Sane” refers to „Paris or perhaps Hell.”
He still has a cult following in France, where fan clubs like „Bowie France” sell merchandise, concerts and Bowie conventions draw thousands, and cover band „Bowie Reloaded” fills even the biggest arenas with nostalgic fans.
The unveiling of the plaque on Monday is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. (1515 GMT), Jerome Goumet, mayor of Paris's 13th arrondissement, said in an ex-Twitter X.
A staunch Bowie fan, Coumet launched the idea for a Bowie Street in early 2020, and later that year Paris received city approval, arguing that the star „has a strong connection to the city of light”.
There is no other street named after David-Bowie.
His X post read, „The 13th welcomes David Bowie! Dancing in the Street!” announced Comet, referring to a hit song by Bowie and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.
Monday's street plaque unveiling will be followed by an evening tribute to Bowie at the county's City Hall, featuring Bowie friend and biographer Jerome Soligny and Clifford Slapper, producer of the „Bowie Songs One” tribute album.
A Bowie exhibit at the mayor's office runs through next weekend.
© 2024 AFP
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