French Legion of Honour award for Lenny Kravitz

France has paid tribute to Grammy winner Lenny Kravitz with its highest award, the Legion of Honour.

Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand hailed the 47-year-old singer-songwriter at a Paris ceremony, telling him "you freed yourself of the barriers between black and white sound".

Rocker Lenny said he got his first big break at a 1989 music festival in the western French city of Rennes that transformed his career "overnight".

He said: "I know it sounds like a fairytale but it's true."

Lenny was born to a black mother and white father, and his latest album, Black And White America, tackles interracial issues - notably his parents' experience in 1960s New York.

photo:& copy; Getty

Thursday December 1, 2011

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