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Johnny Hallyday released after bronchitis treatment

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Johnny Hallyday released after bronchitis treatment

French rocker Johnny Hallyday, a legend in his homeland, was treated in a Caribbean hospital Monday after being rushed there by helicopter but was quickly released.

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Hallyday, 69 and born Jean-Philippe Smet, was released from a hospital in Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe and was to undergo further tests.

"The state of health of Jean-Philippe Smet, alias Johnny Hallyday, no longer requires hospitalisation," the hospital said in a statement, adding that additional tests would take place at a hospital in Fort-de-France, the capital of the neighbouring French Caribbean overseas department of Martinique.

"He is going to Fort-de-France for a very short time for a cardiological assessment," Hallyday's manager Sebastien Farran told AFP.

The hospital earlier said Hallyday was being treated in its intensive care unit.

His producer Gilbert Coullier said Hallyday was treated for a case of "persistent bronchitis" and denied reports that he had suffered heart problems.

The latest incident came two and a half years after a health scare in Los Angeles that nearly killed the star, who is his country's top rocker.

French radio said he was holidaying on the French Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy, a millionaires' playground where he owns a house, when on Saturday he had a bout of tachycardia, or abnormally fast heartbeat.

Hallyday, who last year had his artificial hip replaced, had emergency surgery and was put into an induced coma in late 2009 after falling ill on a flight to Los Angeles from Paris, where he had a hernia operation days before.

He has sold more than 100 million albums and played 45 major tours in a career that began in the 1960s. He is currently in the middle of another major
tour.

Despite being a French national icon, Hallyday moved to Switzerland in 2007, becoming a symbol of an exodus of high-earners fleeing France's relatively high tax rates to neighbouring jurisdictions.

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