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Sylvie Vartan

Sylvie Vartan

Actor · b. 1944 · Iskretz, Bulgaria

Sylvie Vartan (born Sylvie Georges Vartanian on 15 August 1944) is a Bulgarian-Armenian-French singer and actress. She is known as one of the most productive and tough-sounding yé-yé artists. Her performances often featured elaborate show-dance choreography,[and she made many appearances on French and Italian TV. Yearly shows with then-husband Johnny Hallyday attracted full houses at the Olympia and the Palais des congrès de Paris throughout the 1960s and mid-1970s. In 2004, after a break in performances, she began recording and giving concerts of jazz ballads in francophone countries. Sylvie Vartan was born in Iskrets, Sofia Province, in the then Kingdom of Bulgaria. Her father, Georges Vartanian (1912–1970), was born in France to a Bulgarian mother named Slavka and an Armenian father. He worked as an attaché at the French embassy in Sofia. The family shortened the name Vartanian to Vartan. Her mother, Ilona (née Mayer 1914–2007), daughter of prominent architect Rudolf Mayer, was of Hungarian-Jewish descent. When the Soviet Army invaded Bulgaria in September 1944, the Vartanian family house was nationalised and they moved to Sofia. In 1952, a friend of Sylvie's father, film director Dako Dakovski, offered her the role of a schoolgirl in the movie Pod igoto, a film about Bulgarian rebels against the Ottoman occupation. Participating in the film made her dream of becoming an entertainer come true. The hardships of postwar Bulgaria made the family emigrate to Paris in December 1952. At first they stayed in the Lion d'Argent hotel near Les Halles, where Georges found a job, then for the next four years they stayed in a single room at the Angleterre Hotel. Young Sylvie had to work hard to keep up at school and blend in with her schoolmates. She spent two years learning French. In 1960, her family moved to an apartment in Michel Bizot Avenue. Thanks to the influence of her music producer brother Eddie, music became teenage Sylvie's main interest. Her most influential genres were jazz and, out of spite toward her strict high school, rock 'n' roll. Her favourite artists included Brenda Lee, Bill Haley, and Elvis Presley. In 1961, Eddie offered Sylvie the chance to record the song "Panne d'essence" with French rocker Frankie Jordan. The Decca Records EP was a surprise hit. Although she was not credited on the sleeve, "Panne d'essence" provided Vartan her first appearance on French television. The journalists gave her the nickname la collégienne du twist. After the "twisting schoolgirl" had finished the Victor Hugo High School, she was free to sign a contract with Decca Records to start recording her own EP; carrying the title song "Quand le film est triste", a cover of Sue Thompson's "Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)", the EP was on sale by the beginning of December 1961. ... Source: Article "Sylvie Vartan" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

Series24

  • TV5.8

    The Mike Douglas Show

    1961 · 11 votes

  • TV5.1

    Quotidien

    2016 · 19 votes

  • TV5.7

    Sacrée soirée

    1987 · 5 votes

  • TV6.8

    Champs-Elysées

    1982 · 9 votes

  • TV3.6

    Vivement dimanche

    1998 · 9 votes

  • TV7.2

    L'École des fans

    Fan School

    1977 · 2 votes

  • TV7.5

    Numéro un

    1975 · 2 votes

  • TV9.0

    Midi Première

    1975 · 2 votes

  • TV6.0
  • TV6.1

    C à vous

    2009 · 4 votes

  • TV
  • TV8.0

    Le Grand Échiquier

    1972 · 3 votes

  • TV6.0

    Midi trente

    1972 · 1 votes

  • TV8.0

    Discorama

    1959 · 1 votes

  • TV6.0

    Samedi soir

    1971 · 1 votes

  • TV8.0

    En aparté

    The Apartment

    2001 · 4 votes

  • TV3.3
  • TV5.7

    Star Academy

    2001 · 18 votes

  • TV6.2

    30 millions d'amis

    1976 · 3 votes

  • TV
  • TV5.1

    On n'est pas couché

    2006 · 5 votes

  • TV8.0

    À bout portant

    1968 · 1 votes

  • TV6.2

    Stars 90

    1990 · 2 votes

  • TV6.5

Movies19

  • Movie7.0

    Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan

    Once Upon My Mother

    2025 · 273 votes

  • Movie4.6

    Absences répétées

    Repeated Absences

    1972 · 16 votes

  • Movie7.2
  • Movie5.4

    L'Ange noir

    The Black Angel

    1994 · 26 votes

  • Movie6.5

    L'Âge d'or de la pub

    2023 · 6 votes

  • Movie9.3

    J'ai tout donné

    1972 · 3 votes

  • Movie5.3

    Des gens qui s'embrassent

    It Happened in Saint-Tropez

    2013 · 78 votes

  • Movie5.5
  • Movie5.9
  • Movie7.5
  • Movie
  • Movie6.4

    Malpertuis

    1972 · 47 votes

  • Movie6.0
  • Movie6.4

    Cherchez l'idole

    1964 · 12 votes

  • Movie5.3

    Just for Fun

    1963 · 4 votes

  • Movie4.0
  • Movie
  • Movie6.0

    D'où viens-tu, Johnny ?

    Where Are You From, Johnny?

    1963 · 5 votes

  • Movie5.4

    Patate

    Friends of the family

    1964 · 4 votes