Ode to Sylvie Vartan

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Sylvie Vartan was one of the most famous of the French yé-yé girls of the 60's. She had a really interesting life - she was born in Sofia, Bulgaria (where Adam's grandfather is from!) before moving to France, becoming discovered as a teen pop star and marrying Johnny Hallyday, the famous "French Elvis".  Adam loves how her career crosses paths with all these great musicans - she toured with UK rockabilly star Vince Taylor, for instance, whose story was the inspiration for David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, etc. Adam goes on and on if you let him...

There weren't really teen stars there until Sylvie came along.  She changed the meaning of a singer in France, becoming known for dancing and singing, which was a big deal at the time- weird, I know.  Wikipedia  describes her as having the toughest sound out of all the yé-yé girls, but I don't know...she's still sort of sticky sweet to me. For instance, her covers of "Baby, it's you" and "Locomotion"- pretty innocent, but still a favorite when I feel like French pop music.  Adam thinks French covers of English/American pop songs are the perfect combination of absolute silliness and absolute sophistocation.

Check out the Every Little Counts ode to Sylvie here