Invited to the microphone of Europe 1, the French singer Sylvie Vartan tells its meeting at 18 with the famous rocker Johnny Hallyday. A story that lasted nearly fifteen years.

INTERVIEW

She is 18 years old and just started her career as a singer. He is 19 and already in the headlines with his rock'n'roll songs. Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday met one evening in December 1961 at the Olympia de Paris. "It was not love at first sight," recalls Sylvie Vartan, invited to tell her idyll with the singer on Europe 1.

"I was sensitive to his personality, to his beauty and what I liked was also knowing that he was already well known and loved, there were people who recognized him as his strength and charisma."

"We understood the anxiety and the passion of the other"

The artist looks back at Johnny Hallyday's attempts to seduce her and draws a character other than the one we think we know. "It was not him who dragged me, he called his secretary to send me the message ... I found it charming!", She says. "He was very shy, very discreet and he looked a bit sad."

How to protect this love before so much glory and solicitations? "That just brought us closer," says Sylvie Vartan. "We understood each other's anguish and passion, we were like brother and sister."