Sylvie Vartan

Sylvie Vartan (; born on 15 August 1944) is a Bulgarian-born French singer and actress. 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.

Early life

Sylvie Vartan was born in Iskrets, Sofia Province, in the then Kingdom of Bulgaria. Her father, Georges Vartan (1912–1970), was born in France to a Bulgarian mother named Slavka and had Armenian roots. He worked as an attaché at the French embassy in Sofia. Her mother, Ilona (1914–2007), was Bulgarian of Hungarian descent.

When the Soviet Army occupied Bulgaria in September 1944, the Vartan 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.

A commercial for the "Renown" clothing line and a supporting role in the film Patate increased her fame. She also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, Shindig!, Hullabaloo, and an international concert tour, including Canada, South America and Polynesia. In Tokyo she gave 13 concerts in 12 days. Set in the smart design of the J.C. Averty Show, "Cette lettre-là" was the first of Sylvie Vartan's TV variety night performances.

In 1965 (and until 1970), Sylvie Vartan founded the ready-to-wear company Les Créations Sylvie Vartan together with businessman Roland Berda, and the company was run by Jacques Rozenker, her fashion collection director. The collections were designed by Emmanuelle Khanh and Christiane Bailly, who had come from the fashion house Chloé.

In 1966–67 she recorded more original hits. "Dis moi, que tu m'aimes" premiered on TV on 9 July 1967 was accompanied by a group of male dancers. "Le jour qui vient" was aired on the Dim Dam Dom program of the French Television 1 in color on 14 January 1968. "2'35 de bonheur" and "Comme un garçon" were other #1s in France, Italy, Belgium, Japan, or Korea. Vartan continued with her one-woman shows at the Paris Olympia in December 1968; they were published as the documentary Sylvie à L'Olympia.

For nine Saturday nights in winter of 1969, Vartan starred in the Doppia coppia variety nights of RAI, performing her hits "Irrésistiblement" ("Irresistibilmente") and "Le jour qui vient" ("Una cicala canta") in Italian.

After her world tour in autumn 1969, she returned to Italy to perform "Festa negli occhi, festa nel cuore" on a Canzonissima variety night and "C'est un jour à rester couché" on the Incontro con Sylvie Vartan TV show, recorded in the Gattopardo Club of Messina. In addition to French, Vartan has also regularly performed in English, as well as has sung a few of her most well-known songs in Bulgarian, Italian, and, phonetically, in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and German.

Honours Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre national du Mérite on 13 November 1987, Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour on 14 November 1998,

Personal life

In 1962, during her second concert in Paris Olympia Hall, Vartan met pop-rock singer Johnny Hallyday; they were married in Loconville on 12 April 1965. They had a son, David Michael Benjamin Smet, later known as David Hallyday. The couple divorced in 1980. Vartan later married record producer Tony Scotti, and, together, they adopted a 7 months old baby girl from Bulgaria, born in 1997, and whom they named Darina.

Vartan is the aunt of American actor Michael Vartan, the son of her brother Eddie Vartan.

Discography

Sylvie (1962) Twiste et chante (1963) Sylvie a Nashville (1964) A gift wrapped from Paris (1965) Il y a deux filles en moi (1966) 2'35 de bonheur (1967) Comme un garçon (1967) La Maritza (1968) Aime-moi (1970) Sympathie (1971) Untitled (J'ai un problème) (1973) Je chante pour Swanee (1974) Shang shang a lang (1974) Qu'est-ce qui fait pleurer les blondes? (1976) Sylvie Vartan (Ta sorcière bien-aimée) (1976) Georges (1977) Dancing Star (1977) Fantaisie (1978) I Don't Want the Night to End (1979) Déraisonnable (1979) Bienvenue solitude (1980) Ça va mal (1981) De choses et d'autres (1982) Danse ta vie (1983) Des heures de désir (1984) Made in USA (1985) Virage (1986) Confidanses (1989) Vent d'ouest (1992) Sessions acoustiques (1994) Toutes les femmes ont un secret (1996) Sensible (1998) Sylvie (2004) Nouvelle vague (2007) Toutes peines confondues (2009) Soleil bleu (2010) Sylvie in Nashville (2013) Une vie en musique (2015) Avec toi (2018) Merci pour le regard (2021)

Filmography Pod igoto (1952), after the novel by Ivan Vazov (Under the Yoke) Un clair de lune à Maubeuge (1962) Cherchez l'idole (1963) D'où viens-tu, Johnny? (1964) Patate (1964) Malpertuis (1971) L'ange noir (1994) Mausolée pour une garce (2001) (TV) The Missionaries (2014) Once Upon My Mother (Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan) (2025)