A muse for musicians: 11 songs inspired by Brigitte Bardot

NEW YORK (AP) — In addition to being a 1960s French sex symbol, actor, singer and animal welfare activist, Brigitte Bardot was a muse to many — in particular, musicians.

Her name, with its alliterative cadence, became synonymous with a kind of classic beauty. In songs, Bardot is often not Bardot the woman, but a symbol for desire — shorthand for a bombshell. Decades removed from the peak of her screen fame, contemporary performers continue to sing her name despite her many controversies, including being convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred and provocative comments about the #MeToo movement.

It may not be her main legacy, but Bardot, who died Sunday in southern France, will live in on the songs that mention her. Across genre and language, here is a sampling.

The last track of the canonical “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” exhibits Dylan's wicked verbosity and elastic folk. “Well, my telephone rang it would not stop / It’s President Kennedy callin’ me up / He said, My friend, Bob, what do we need to make the country grow? I said my friend, John, Brigitte Bardot,” he sings. “Anita Ekberg / Sophia Loren / Country’ll grow.”

The Brazilian artist Caetano Veloso composed the protest song at the beginning of the tropicalismo movement; it became a hallmark of his career and one of the best-known Brazilian songs of all time. In it, he sings, “Em caras de presidentes / Em grandes beijos de amor / Em dentes, pernas, bandeiras / Bomba e Brigitte Bardot” (“In faces of presidents / In big kisses of love / In teeth, legs, flags / Bombs and Brigitte Bardot”).

A central architect of French pop, singer Serge Gainsbourg wrote this duet for himself and Bardot. It's styled after a poem the outlaw Bonnie Parker wrote, titled “The Trail’s End,” shortly before she and partner Clyde Barrow were killed.

Jaunty piano and Elton John's ascendent vocal melodies, all for a song with a less-than-optimistic title. John sings the words from his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin: “I’d make an exception / If you want to save my life / Brigitte Bardot gotta come / And see me every night.”

The Pretenders know a little something about the social power of Bardot. The English rock band's principal songwriter and frontperson Chrissie Hynde sings: “When love walks in the room / Everybody stand up / Oh, it’s good, good, good / Like Brigitte Bardot.”

Maybe it's a bit unfair to include Billy Joel's classic here, which name-drops more than most pop hits, but it's telling that Bardot gets a shoutout alongside “Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev / Princess Grace, Peyton Place, trouble in the Suez,” and just after “Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team / Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland.” Not an obscure name in sight.

“Stratford-On-Guy,” from influential indie rocker Liz Phair's seminal album “Exile in Guyville,” takes aim at the dude-centric music scene. But it also uses Bardot to describe a flight attendant who reminds her that while communities can be insular, they all look the same from 30,000 feet. “The stewardess came back and checked on my drink / In the last strings of sunlight, a Brigitte Bardot,” she sings. “’Cause I had on my headphones along with those eyes / That you get when your circumstance is movie-sized.”

In the second verse of “Warlocks,” from the funky California rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers, singer Anthony Kiedis near-scats, “Ring side and blow-by-blow / Another main event at the old Rainbow / We’re comin’ right on top of the tupelo / When she looks just like Brigitte Bardot.” It's a descriptive image of Los Angeles — even with the inclusion of Bardot.

Kali Uchis and Jorja Smith's dreamy collaboration imagines “Bardot” as shorthand for a make-out session with a complicated partner. “The world’s been asking us to lose control,” Uchis swoons. “All we ever do is French like Brigitte Bardot (Brigitte Bardot).”

Olivia Rodrigo is best known for her spirited punk-pop, but she's also a power balladeer, lest anyone forget it was “drivers license” that made her a household name. “Lacy,” a cut from “Guts,” is soft and slow, with Rodrigo obsessing over a woman she is not. It's a jealous song, and ripe for a Bardot mention. “Smart, sexy Lacy, I’m losin’ it lately / I feel your compliments likе bullets on skin,” she whisper-sings. “Dazzling starlet, Bardot reincarnatе / Well, aren’t you the greatest thing to ever exist?”

It arrives right at the top to describe an addictive crush. “She was a playboy, Brigitte Bardot,” the pop powerhouse Chappell Roan sings over springy synths and cheery guitar riffs. “She showed me things I didn’t know.”

FILE - French Actress Brigitte Bardot, left, attends a news conference in Mexico City, Jan. 18, 1965. Seated next to her is producer Louis Malle and at right is French actress Jeanne Moreau. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - French actress Brigitte Bardot at a television studio in Paris, France, Oct. 1974, during the filming of a program "For You Madam". (AP Photo/File)

FILE - French film actress Brigitte Bardot appears at the Mount Royal Hotel in London on April 9, 1959. (AP Photo/Dave Dawson, File)

A woman touches a poster showing actor Brigitte Bardo near her home in Saint-Tropez, southern France, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025 after the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later a militant animal rights activist and far-right supporter, has died. She was 91. (AP Photo/Philippe Magoni)

FILE - French actress Brigitte Bardot poses for photographers on a lawn in the garden of the Excelsior Hotel on the Lido of Venice, Italy, Sept. 2, 1958. (AP Photo/Walter Attenni, File)

LONDON (AP) — Broadcaster Channel 4 has pulled all episodes of “Married at First Sight UK” from its platforms after three contestants claimed they were sexually assaulted by on-screen partners on the matchmaking reality show.

The broadcaster said the allegations are “very serious,” and the British government said Tuesday there must be “consequences for criminality or wrongdoing.”

“Married at First Sight” is an international reality TV franchise inspired by a Danish original, with editions in countries including the U.S., Australia and South Africa. Strangers are matched by experts and move in together after mock wedding ceremonies.

Two women who appeared on the British show say they were raped by their on-screen husbands, and a third claims she was subjected to a nonconsensual sexual act.

The claims were made during an investigation by the BBC current affairs program “Panorama.” The BBC said the claimants have not contacted the police, and the men involved dispute the allegations.

Conservative lawmaker Caroline Dinenage, who heads the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, told the BBC that the show clearly involves “an element of risk.”

“It’s a TV show that almost expects and anticipates people that have only just met will have to become really quite intimate with each other,” she told the BBC. “They’re expected to share a bed and a life together within minutes of meeting. It almost feels like an accident waiting to happen.”

The U.K. version of the program is made by independent production company CPL. It has run for 10 seasons on Channel 4, with an 11th scheduled for broadcast this year. CPL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The broadcaster said the show is produced under “some of the most comprehensive and robust welfare protocols in the industry,” including background checks, a code of conduct setting out behavioral standards and “daily contributor check-ins with a specialist welfare team.”

It has ordered a review of its welfare standards and procedures.

“I want to express my sympathy to contributors who have clearly been distressed after taking part in ‘Married at First Sight UK,’” Channel 4 chief executive Priya Dogra said. “The well-being of our contributors is always of paramount importance.”

The claims are the latest incident to spark debate in Britain about the ethics of reality TV and the pressures placed on participants. Two former contestants on the show “Love Island” died by suicide in 2018 and 2019 and the show’s former presenter, Caroline Flack, took her own life in 2020.

Controversies also have roiled the BBC, Britain’s publicly funded national broadcaster. The BBC introduced chaperones on the dance competition “Strictly Come Dancing” after allegations of bullying and harassment in 2024. The hosts of cooking contest “MasterChef,” Gregg Wallace and John Torode, were fired last year after investigations into allegations of inappropriate behavior.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of sexual violence. If you or someone you know needs help, please call 1-800-656-4673 in the U.S.

FILE - General view at the entrance of the Channel 4 Headquarters in London, on April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)