What to Know
An unexpected detail has come to light after Brigitte Bardot’s death. The French film icon died on December 28, 2025 at age 91. Bardot was known as a sex symbol, later became an animal rights activist, and was convicted of inciting racial hatred on multiple occasions during her lifetime, making her legacy complicated. Because of her cultural impact, she has also been referenced in a variety of songs, including Billy Joel’s 1989 song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
Now, after her death, a dedicated music fan updated and shared a chart that revealed that only three of the 59 people mentioned in the song are still alive: Bob Dylan, Chubby Checker, and Bernhard Goetz.
A Redditor shared the data.
The music lover, u/cavedave on Reddit, shared a chart that shows everyone mentioned in Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” The song includes a ton of historical and pop culture references and was inspired by a conversation he had with someone who was much younger than him. At the time, Joel was about 40 years old. “I was talking with this guy in his 20s, and he was going on about how tough it is to grow up today with AIDS and crack and the homeless. I said, ‘Yeah, I know how you feel. I felt that way growing up,'” he told Northeastern University’s Larry Katz in 1989 (per People).
But the younger man argued that being young in the 50s was easier because nothing bad happened then. In response, Joel thought, “Whoa, didn’t you ever hear of the Korean War, the Suez Canal, the Hungarian freedom fighters?”
He then started writing down different events and famous people from throughout his life, which he then used to create the song. “The chain of news events and personalities came easily — mostly they just spilled out of my memory as fast as I could scribble them down,” he previously told biographer Fred Schruers, per the New York Times.
The chart, of course, includes Bardot.
The death of Brigitte Bardot necessitated the update of this marvelous chart. Only three people mentioned in Billy Joel's banger "We Didn't Start The Fire" are still alive. Source: https://t.co/RQytWpRj03 pic.twitter.com/mBtFG5Ra8O
— Simon Kuestenmacher (@simongerman600) December 28, 2025
The Redditor’s chart is color-coded to show what each person mentioned in Joel’s song was famous for. Given that the song includes historical events from throughout history up until 1989, some people mentioned in the song were not alive when Joel wrote the song. The Redditor explained exactly how to read the data: “Line starts when someone is born. Ends when they die. and a dot for when they did the thing they were mentioned for in the song.”
Geographer and demographer Simon Kuestenmacher also shared the visual on X, writing, “The death of Brigitte Bardot necessitated the update of this marvelous chart.”
Some people praised the visual representation for being “stunning” and “nerdy” in a good way, while others said it was exactly the “kind of useless trivia” they love to share with people. Even those who are not fans of the song could appreciate the effort. “A god awful song but great for nerds like me who love a list,” one of them commented.
