Marianne Faithfull Hospitalized With COVID-19
Marianne Faithfull is being treated for COVID-19 at a London hospital, Billboard can confirm.
In a statement provided by Faithfull’s manager, François Ravard, on Saturday (April 4), he said that the 73-year-old singer-songwriter, actress and muse is “stable and responding to treatment.”
A Facebook post from performance artist and Faithfull’s longtime friend Penny Arcade offered additional details, mentioning that Faithfull has been receiving medical care since Tuesday. “She has withstood and survived so much in her life – including being Marianne Faithful, that to be taken down by a virus would be such a tragedy,” she wrote. “I spoke to her last week and she was hiding out from the virus but she has caregivers…” She added that she had been in touch with Faithfull’s ex-husband, John Dunbar, who indicated that “she can barely speak” and is not receiving visitors at this time.
Faithfull got her start as a folk singer Swinging ’60s London, and became a rock star in her own right with debut single “As Tears Go By” in 1964, which was penned by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham, the manager of the Rolling Stones. The song peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the Stones would go on to record a version of it themselves, which they released on 1965 album December’s Children (And Everybody’s). She has released 22 studio albums, the most recent being 2018’s Negative Capability.