Sylvie Vartan rocketed to fame in 1961, when English singer Gillian Hill failed to show up for a recording session in Paris with then current French pop idol Frankie Jordan. Sylvie’s brother, Eddy, who was the studio engineer for the session brought in his 16 year old sister to perform the female part on the song “Panne d'essence” (“Out of gas”), and the resulting single was a runaway success that launched a career that has now spanned 60 decades.

Sylvie has been known from the start as a high energy performer. French singers before her all tended to follow the Edith Piaf mold, standing rigid in front of the microphone. Sylvie instead took her cue from Claude François' frenetic stage presence, and incorporated extravagantly choreographed dance routines into her concerts that had the critics frothing at the mouth, and the teen public in first France, then Europe, and eventually the whole world flocking to see her.

Married for a while to French heart-throb Jonny Hallyday, when that marriage failed, Sylvie married her American arranger and promoter, Tony Scotti. She lives in Beverly Hills, where she can enjoy a peaceful life far from her adoring (and overbearing) fans, visiting France only to perform.