French music producer Kavinsky, known for the Drive soundtrack hit Nightcall, has died aged 50 | Electronic music

French electronic musician Kavinsky, known for the song Nightcall which gained fame after being included in the Ryan Gosling film. Drive ithe died when he was 50 years old.

Police speaking to the French newspaper Le Figaro revealed that the suspected cause of death was a stroke. Kavinsky, whose real name is Vincent Beorgey, says he has been complaining of headaches in recent days, and was found at home after a concerned neighbor called 911.

Paris authorities are investigating her death but said there was “nothing suspicious” about what was found at her home.

Emmanuel Macron was among those who paid tribute to him, calling him “a source of eternal pride in France”.

Part of heavy electronic music in the France which grew after Daft Punk and others, Beorgey was so popular with Nightcall that he ended up performing it at the final ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, with the help of the French group Phoenix and the Belgian pop singer Angèle on vocals.

Born in Paris in 1975, Beorgey’s musical career began in the 00s. The most powerful electro of his first single Testarossa Autodrive It was meant to be associated with the “blog house” that also produced French artists such as Justice and SebastiAn, and was signed by Record Makers, with whom they released five EPs and two albums.

With Brazilian singer Lovefoxxx on vocals, 2010’s Nightcall became her biggest and most popular single. Co-produced by Daft Punk member Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, it’s critical, nocturnal and romantic in a way that made it the perfect choice for the opening of Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 thriller Drive. It has been played more than half a billion times Spotify Personally, I’m another 350m YouTube player. It reached the French Top 10 upon release, the version performed at the Olympics peaked at number 3.

His debut album Outrun captured the ideals of Beorgey’s Kavinsky alter ego – the guy who crashed a Ferrari Testarossa in the 80s and restored it as a zombie in the 00s – and reached No 2 in the French charts. He followed it up with Reborn, in 2022.

Along with the old Ferrari references and the glasses-and-bomb jackets, his voice was also heard from the 1980s and ten films of the decade. “Everybody says, that guy is stuck in the past!”, he said in an interview in 2013. “I don’t miss the past – I’m just from the 80s, so my energy comes from that time. That’s what’s in my veins.”

The Weeknd appeared on a version of Kavinsky’s song Odd Shapesand in 2022 Kavinsky said the two could work together on new music.

Also paying tribute was the Minister of Culture of France, Catherine Pégard, who said: “France will lose one of its voices.”