French DJ Kavinsky found dead in his Paris home

The author of the cult track “Nightcall”, sounded in the film “Drive” and at the closing of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, was found without signs of life in his Parisian apartment. The prosecutor's office began an investigation, but found no signs of violence at the scene.

What happened

On Tuesday evening, the body of a 50-year-old musician was found in his home in Paris, writes xrust. The Paris prosecutor's office announced this on Wednesday, and the news was first reported by BFM TV and the newspaper Le Figaro. The artist's real name is Vincent Belorger; He came up with the stage name Kavinsky at another party at the beginning of his career, considering that it better suited the cinematic image that the musician built around his tracks.

According to the prosecutor's office, the police who arrived on the call did not record anything that would indicate the criminal nature of the incident. Nevertheless, the department officially opened an investigation to establish the exact cause of death. A few days later, on July 31, the musician would have turned 51 years old.

Reaction in France

French Culture Minister Catherine Pegard wrote on the social network X that the country had lost one of the most recognizable voices of the national stage — according to her, Kavinsky's music sounded equally good in clubs and in moments of nostalgia, and will live on in different generations of listeners. French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed his condolences, calling the DJ the pride of the country. Colleagues from the electronic scene and fans around the world joined the farewell words — the track “Nightcall” again became one of the most discussed on social networks.

The path from actor to synthwave icon

class=»notranslate»>__GTAG5__Belorger was born in 1975 in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis. He didn’t take up music right away — first he tried himself as an actor, starring in films by fellow director Quentin Dupieux. He came to the electronic scene in the early 2000s as a self-taught pianist, and in 2006 he released his debut mini-album “Teddy Boy”. Soon the young DJ began opening for the iconic duo Daft Punk and sharing the stage with other rising names in the French electronic wave, including SebastiAn.

The real breakthrough happened in 2010 with the track “Nightcall” — slow, gloomy synth-pop, imbued with the spirit of the eighties. A year later, the composition was used by director Nicolas Winding Refn in the opening credits of the thriller Drive starring Ryan Gosling: the film became a box office and cult hit, and along with it, the song itself. Kavinsky later released two full-length albums: OutRun (2013) and Reborn (2022), both built on the aesthetics of neon lights, vintage cars and the atmosphere of chase films.

Olympic performance

One of the most notable moments of recent years for the musician was the performance of “Nightcall” at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris: on the stage of the Stade de France, the DJ was joined by the Belgian singer Angele and the group Phoenix, who specially reworked the composition for this performance. Kavinsky later also performed at the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games. The artist has been active recently: in particular, he was expected at the Garten on the Beach festival near Deauville on August 8 along with DJs Bakermat and Bellaire, and he also managed to appear in a cameo in the Netflix series “Banger” starring Vincent Cassel.

Sources: France 24, Variety, Deadline

Xrust French DJ Kavinsky found dead in his home in Paris