Sylvie Vartan bows out during three final concerts in Paris

“Irrevocable” farewells to the stage. In an interview with theAFP in November 2024, Sylvie Vartan declared that he had “lived on a volcano for [s]he beginnings. I've done so much that at some point you have to calm down a little. It's time. » This time has come: Friday January 24, 2025, the yéyé icon and talented showwoman, 80 years old, will give the first of her three farewell concerts at the Palais des congrès de Paris (17th).

Around fifty albums, 40 million records sold…

Titles “I bow out”these meetings will bring to an end a career spanning sixty-three years, marked by sometimes provocative titles and often melancholic melodies recalling the exile from his native Bulgaria.

To the credit of one of the greatest French-speaking artists, who formed a legendary couple with Johnny Hallyday: around fifty albums, 40 million records sold and 2,000 magazine covers, more than other French stars Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve.

Among his approximately 1,500 songs, there are many hits: from The most beautiful to go dancing (1964), composed by Aznavour, Love is like a cigarette (1981) through Like a boywhere she swaps the dress for “the jacket” and “the belt”, irreverent words for the time.

From “twist high school girl” to stage beast

Sylvie Vartan, however, came to the song by chance. “From the age of 6, I wanted to be an actress. And then life took me elsewhere. » In 1961, his brother Eddie made him skip school to record Running out of fuel with Frankie Jordan. Immediate success at 17 and first Olympia.

Rather introverted, the “high school girl of the twist” quickly turns into a femme fatale and stage beast.
The blonde with a deep voice was born on August 15, 1944 in Iskretz, a village in Bulgaria. She grew up in Sofia, where her father worked at the French embassy.

She was 8 years old when her family fled the communist regime for France via the Orient Express. A tearing away that we feel in his songs as the most legendary, The Maritzaname of a Bulgarian river.

Beautiful songs are melancholic. Melancholy has stuck with me since childhood.

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In Paris, the beginnings were difficult for the Vartans, who lived in a hotel room for five years. “Falling suddenly” into success, the teenager, a perfectionist, established herself in this difficult profession, “particularly for women”.

A missed appointment with the cinema

Weathering a storm of criticism in 1965 by being the first to sing… in pants.
The couple she formed with the Idol of young people, Johnny Hallyday, father of her son, David, fell prey to the paparazzi.

They sometimes share the stage and record I have a problem (1973), a duo that has remained famous. “If you’re not really love, you look like it,” they hum. However, the union of the enfant terribles of rock ended in divorce in 1980.

She moved to Los Angeles for her third life. But regularly finds France and its public.

Approached to play in The Umbrellas of Cherbourgshe ultimately had a modest career in theater and cinema, with only one major role (The Black Angel1994).
“If I feel a lack, it’s on the cinema side,” she confessed.

In 2024, when announcing that she is bowing out, she recalls that, if Johnny is “almost dead on stage”, this will “not be the case” for her.

with AFP

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