Twisting schoolgirl In 1961, Eddie offered Sylvie the chance to record the song "Panne d'essence" with French rocker
Frankie Jordan. The
Decca Records EP was a surprise hit. 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. Her appearances were popular in Italy and France; she donned a different costume for each song, including plenty of short skirts and
Barbarella boots. The cartoonists of both countries even drew Sylvie Vartan lookalikes.
1970–present Despite suffering a second serious car accident in 1970, Sylvie Vartan continued to perform and record extensively; and in 1972 she starred in the film
Malpertuis. She sold millions of records on the RCA label, which made her its most prolific artist after Elvis Presley. Her most famous songs are "J'ai un probleme", "L'amour au Diapason" (73), "Parle moi de ta vie"(71), "
Petit rainbow" (77), "Bye Bye Leroy Brown" (74), "Disco Queen" and "Nicolas" (79), and "Caro Mozart", an international hit in Italian (72). However, her annual world tours and Italian TV shows continued to include her biggest late-1960s hits. In 1976 she recorded "
Qu'est-ce qui fait pleurer les blondes?", a disco-style cover of a
John Kongos track, which topped the French chart for several weeks. Her disco era climaxed at the
Dancing star TV show on
TF1, produced by Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier, on 10 September 1977.
RCA published the show as the
Dancing star 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 1986 she took a break from show business; she returned in 1989 with "C'est Fatal" ("E' Fatale" in Italy). In 1990, Vartan gave a concert at Sofia's
Palace of Culture, opening and closing with a Bulgarian song. This was her first visit to the city since her emigration. In 1991, she performed for three weeks at the Palais des Sports in Paris and hit the charts with "Quand tu es là". In 1995, she starred in "L'ange noir" directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau. 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. After her brother Eddie died in 2001, she took another break from performing in public. In fall 2004 Vartan started recording and giving concerts of jazz ballads in francophone countries and Japan. She performed two weeks in the
Palais des congrès in 2004 and 2008—all sold-out concerts. In 2009 she toured Turkey, France, Japan, Switzerland, Quebec, USA, Italy, Spain, Netherlands and Belgium. ==Legacy==