Etienne Daho - duel au soleil, 1986

"Let’s just get something straight here: Étienne Daho is very cool. He’s cooler than the coolest popstar you have at the top scale of cool. Better still, his voice is so good it makes every song it graces sound like the coolest song you’ve ever heard. All those styles from synthpop to surf rock, Étienne can do it all. In fact, he has done it all. But then he’s been around since the ’80s, wowing his native France, always dressed in the most effortlessly chic styles. For most popstars, new phases in their careers are greeted by a wardrobe overall. Étienne doesn’t need to do that. Leather jackets, jeans, over-sized coats, suit blazers and a smoldering cigarette has endured throughout the years, because he knows that cool is never out of style. An outsider who managed to conquer France’s mainstream, he started off his musical journey in London, back when punk was breaking. Apparently, he had to see it for himself. He felt it too, and would later jump at the chance of working with The Stinky Toys on his debut album. A great collaborator, Étienne would later appear in Saint Etienne’s He’s On The Phone, which is a repurposed version of an earlier hit Weekend A Rome. The ‘He’ the song is about? Étienne, most likely."