2024-01-05 14:29:17
Time.news – On Monday the city of Paris will name a street afterrock music icon David Bowie, in honor of the singer a eight years after his death.
The “Rue David Bowie” will be officially inaugurated in 13th district of the capital, on the left bank of the city. No name of a former dignitary will have to be removed to make way for Bowie, as the street was created recently as part of a major redevelopment of the neighborhood, which also includes the modernist university library Bibliotheque Francois Mitterrand.
The artery – long about 50 meters – was previously known to city planners as “VoieDZ/13”, a working title that might have appealed to Bowie himself, who wrote songs like “TVC15” or “5:15”. Bowie, who died on January 10, 2016 from liver cancer, would have turned 77 on Monday.
Bowie is one of the most influential and best-selling musicians of the 20th century, thanks largely to his unrivaled ability to reinvent himself artistically throughout his career, which took off with the single “Space Oddity” in 1969.
His landmark songs and albums include “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” and “Aladdin Sane,” the commercial hits “Let’s Dance” and “China Girl,” and darkly experimental works like “Low.”
Paris played a less important role in Bowie’s life than London, Berlin and Los Angeles, but France’s avant-garde theater culture influenced his visual style.
He also successfully covered the French-language songs “Amsterdam” and “Ma Mort” (My Death) by Jacques Brel, who was actually not French but Belgian.
A cryptic line from Bowie’s song “Aladdin Sane” refers to “Paris or maybe hell“.
His character still has a cult following in France, where fan clubs like “Bowie France” sell merchandise, organize Bowie concerts and conventions that attract thousands of people, and where the cover band “Bowie Reloaded” also fills large venues with nostalgic fans.
Avid fan of Bowie, the mayor of the 13th district of Paris, Jerome Coumet launched the idea of a street dedicated to Bowie in early 2020 and won approval from the city of Paris later that year, arguing that the star he had “a strong connection with the city of light”.
The 13th welcomes David Bowie Street! ✨
Dancing in the street !➡️OFFICIAL INAUGURATION
Monday January 8, 2024 at 4:15 p.m.
At 61, avenue Pierre Mendès FranceComplete program:
pic.twitter.com/IIdlmD0uFe— Jérôme Coumet (@jerome_coumet) January 3, 2024
There is no record of a street named after David Bowie anywhere else. In his post on X, Coumet announced that “the 13th welcomes David Bowie! Dancing in the Street!”, a reference to a hit song performed by Bowie and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.
The unveiling of the plaque with the name of the street will be followed by a tribute evening to Bowie at the neighborhood town hall, with the participation of Bowie’s friend and biographer Jerome Soligny and Clifford Slapper, producer of the tribute album “Bowie Songs One”.
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