The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation after French DJ and electropop producer Kavinsky, born Vincent Belorgey, was reportedly found dead at his Paris home on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at age 50. Emergency responders reportedly found no immediate indication of foul play or suspicious circumstances, information from Le Parisien.
A stroke was cited as a possible medical hypothesis, not a final determination of the cause of death. Reports said Kavinsky had complained of severe headaches in the days before he died. The investigation aims to establish the circumstances and sequence of events.
Kavinsky became internationally known for “Nightcall,” associated with the 2011 film Lead, starring Ryan Gosling. The track brought his sound to a wider audience and connected his work with the French electronic-music tradition. France Télévisions described him as an emblematic figure of the French Touch.
On August 11, 2024, Kavinsky performed “Nightcall” at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony at the Stade de France, alongside Belgian singer Angèle and members of Phoenix. The performance put the song before a major international audience. Speaking about the collaboration on the television program Quotidien, Angèle recalled that they had not known each other beforehand and said Kavinsky was “a bit like an angel in my life.” She also called the performance “a moment outside of time” that she would never forget.
Born in the Seine-Saint-Denis department near Paris, Belorgey initially pursued acting before turning to music in 2005, encouraged by his friend, French director Quentin Dupieux. Kavinsky created a distinctive visual persona: a zombie with blue skin and red eyes who, in the character’s fictional biography, returned to music after a fatal Ferrari Testarossa crash in 1986. The character became a recurring feature of his album artwork and stage presence.
His work drew on 1980s music and French house, while retro video-game imagery shaped its presentation. His live career also included an appearance at the Poulpaphone festival in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 2014, part of a long connection with France’s electronic-music scene. His reported death renewed attention to a career that reached from the club circuit to the global audience for “Nightcall”; the Paris investigation is intended to establish the circumstances of his death.
