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.

[1][5][6][page needed] When the Soviet Army invaded Bulgaria in September 1944, the Vartanian family house was nationalised and they moved to Sofia.

[1] In 1961, Eddie offered Sylvie the chance to record the song "Panne d'essence" with French rocker Frankie Jordan.

[1] 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.

Later, after announcing their engagement over the radio, the young couple performed to a noisy audience of 200,000 at Paris' Place de la Nation.

With the special treatment of vocalists, strings, and brass sections in the true Nashville style, these recordings were a great commercial success in France.

[2] The album Sylvie à Nashville included the hits "La plus belle pour aller danser" and "Si je chante" and three new songs in English (one featuring Paul Anka).

Accompanied by the movie Cherchez l'idole, the EP with "La plus belle pour aller danser" became number one in France, sold over a million copies in Japan, was very successful in Korea and Spain, and was her first release in Italy.

She also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, Shindig!, Hullabaloo, and an international concert tour, including Canada, South America and Polynesia.

[1] In December 1964, as Hallyday went into military service, Sylvie's brother Eddie hired two English songwriting session musicians, Tommy Brown on drums and Mick Jones on guitar, as they went to record in New York; they wrote her the hit "Cette lettre-là".

[9] 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.

"Le jour qui vient" was aired on the Dim Dam Dom program of the French Television 1 in color on 14 January 1968.

[10] The variety night included the performance of "Irrésistiblement", accompanied by elaborate girl-group choreography, and "Jolie Poupée", a dialogue between a doll Sylvie and an adult one.

[11] Vartan continued with her one-woman shows at the Paris Olympia in December 1968; they were published as the documentary Sylvie à L'Olympia.

[10] Her appearances were popular in Italy and France; she donned a different costume for each song, including plenty of short skirts and Barbarella boots.

[1] Despite suffering a second serious car accident in 1970,[1] Sylvie Vartan continued to perform and record extensively;[2] and in 1972 she starred in the film Malpertuis.

RCA published the show as the Dancing star[1] After a week of concerts in Las Vegas in 1982, she released a duet with John Denver: "Love Again", a #85 single on Billboard Hot 100 followed in 1985 by a new album in the US with "Double Exposure" and "One-Shot Lover".

In 1996 Sylvie recorded a successful album ("Toutes les femmes ont un secret") featuring "Je n'aime encore que toi" written by Quebecer Luc Plamondon.

[15][16] In 1962, during her second concert in Paris Olympia Hall, Vartan met pop-rock singer Johnny Hallyday; they were married in Offenburg on 12 April 1965.

Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday were their generation's "golden couple" in France, and their marriage was among the most carefully watched relationships for the nation's publicity.