Kavinsky, whose real name was Vincent Belorgey, on the turntables. Credits: Based on Delrem, reframed by MRCLD / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) — restoration and scaling by DALL·E / Ecostylia.
The Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday, July 29, the death of Vincent Belorgey, known as Kavinsky. The French producer and DJ was found dead the previous evening at his Paris home. He was 50. An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of death, which has not been disclosed. His track “Nightcall” had carried French synthwave from the opening credits of “Drive” all the way to Stade de France.
An Investigation Opened To Determine The Cause Of Death
Vincent Belorgey’s body was discovered on the evening of Tuesday, July 28, at his Paris home. The Paris prosecutor’s office announced that an investigation had been opened into the cause of death. It specified that “no suspicious element was discovered at the scene by the first responders.” The investigation is ongoing.
No cause has been made public, and no verified information makes it possible to suggest one. Opening an investigation into the cause of death does not mean that a crime is suspected. This procedure is standard when a death occurs without a doctor present and its origin is not immediately established.
Born on July 31, 1975, in Seine-Saint-Denis, the musician was due to celebrate his 51st birthday three days after his death. Neither his family nor his label, Record Makers, has issued a statement at this stage.
Who Was Kavinsky, The Ghost Driver Behind The Wheel Of A Testarossa
Vincent Belorgey was first an actor. His music career did not begin until 2005, prompted by two close friends. The first was filmmaker and musician Quentin Dupieux, aka Mr. Oizo. The second, Jackson Fourgeaud, performs under the name Jackson and His Computerband. He composed his first tracks on an old Apple computer given to him by Dupieux. In 2007, he appeared in “Steak,” Dupieux’s first feature film, and contributed part of the music.
His first single, “Testarossa Autodrive,” was inspired by the Ferrari Testarossa he was driving at the time. Dupieux played it for Record Makers, which signed him. Three EPs followed. “Teddy Boy,” written and recorded entirely on a Yamaha DX7, came out in 2006. This synthesizer is emblematic of 1980s pop. “1986” was released the following year, then “Nightcall” in 2010.
Kavinsky is not a pseudonym but a character. The fictional figure is a blue-skinned, red-eyed driver. Dead at the wheel of his Testarossa in 1986, he reappears twenty years later as a zombie musician. Belorgey explained that he created this mask because he was not interested in putting his own face on an album cover: he preferred to tell a story. In 2007, he toured alongside Daft Punk, Justice, SebastiAn, and The Rapture. SebastiAn’s remix of “Testarossa Autodrive” ended up in the video games Grand Theft Auto IV and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.
“Nightcall,” The Track That Became The Opening Credits Of “Drive”
“Nightcall” was released on April 2, 2010, on Record Makers. The track owes its worldwide fame to Nicolas Winding Refn. In 2011, the director placed it over the opening credits of “Drive,” starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. The song then entered the charts: No. 10 in France, where it was certified diamond. It was also certified gold in Germany, Denmark, and New Zealand, and silver in the United Kingdom.
Its reach did not stop at the movies. It can be heard in “The Lincoln Lawyer” and the series “Riverdale.” The track also accompanies a Sony Xperia ad about low-light photography, then a Volvo campaign. London Grammar covered it on their debut album, “If You Wait,” in 2013. Childish Gambino, Lupe Fiasco, and Will Young have sampled it. In 2025, the Irish band Inhaler delivered a guitar version for the Like A Version segment on Australian radio station Triple J. That cover was later released on 7-inch vinyl.
Who Sings On “Nightcall”
The track credits, as listed on the album “OutRun,” name two voices. The female part is sung by Lovefoxxx, the singer of the Brazilian band CSS. The deep male voice, filtered through a vocoder, is Kavinsky’s own.
Production is credited to Kavinsky and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, one half of Daft Punk, for whom Kavinsky had opened in concert. Mixing was done by SebastiAn, and recording by Florian Lagatta. The single’s remixes were handled by Xavier de Rosnay, Jackson and His Computerband, and Breakbot. These names condense the French electronic scene of the time.
From French Touch To Synthwave
The two labels are often confused. French touch refers to the wave of French house from the late 1990s, built on disco and funk samples. Daft Punk, Cassius, and Étienne de Crécy embodied it. Emerging a decade later, synthwave does not sample. It replays 1980s soundtracks on synthesizers, like those of John Carpenter or Giorgio Moroder. It also borrows their neon-and-cars imagery. Kavinsky came from the first scene and helped establish the second.
His first album, “OutRun”, was released on February 25, 2013, and reached No. 2 in France. It includes “ProtoVision,” released in December 2012, “Roadgame,” and “Odd Look,” shared with SebastiAn and then remixed with The Weeknd. This record helped shape a generation of artists grouped under the synthwave label, from Perturbator to Carpenter Brut.
Seven years of silence on the record front followed. Kavinsky reappeared in November 2021 with “Renegade,” produced by Gaspard Augé and Victor Le Masne, the first single from “Reborn.” The album was released in 2022, preceded by “Zenith,” recorded with Prudence and Morgan Phalen. In about twenty years, he released two studio albums and several EPs, all on Record Makers.
The 2024 Paris Olympics, A Tube’s Second Life
On August 11, 2024, at Stade de France, Kavinsky performed “Nightcall” during the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games. Phoenix accompanied him and Belgian singer Angèle handled the lead vocal. She took over the part sung by Lovefoxxx on the 2010 recording.
She relaunched the track on a global scale. A studio version of this reinterpretation was released on September 20, 2024. It reached No. 3 in French sales and earned a diamond certification from SNEP, fourteen years after the original single.
Kavinsky had returned to Stade de France on September 8, 2024, among the DJs at the Paralympic Games closing ceremony. Six years earlier, he had played at the Élysée Palace for Fête de la Musique. Other representatives of the French electronic scene joined him.
Emmanuel Macron’s And The Culture Ministry’s Tributes
On Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron praised “a French pride forever,” recalling their meeting at the Élysée Palace. Culture Minister Catherine Pégard also paid tribute on X. She described Kavinsky as “one of the most singular voices” on the French scene. In her view, his music “will continue to cross generations and borders.”
What remains is a four-minute-thirty-second track written for a fictional character. Over fifteen years, it has become a standard to be covered, sampled, and reworked. Often without knowing the name of the person who signed it.