Hédika

Full name Sylvia Hédika Penzès-Csarkavy, singer Hédika was born in Budapest in 1946. One of the first female rock singers in France, she grew up in a family of artists, and was spotted by the manager Johnny Stark, who went on to manage the career of Mireille Mathieu. Introduced as a pianist, guitarist, accordionist and dancer, she sang jazz before finding her way into the burgeoning American rock'n'roll scene and befriending Johnny Hallyday, who booked her as an opening act on his tour. After a successful audition for the Festival label, Hédika and her group Les Rock'n'Rollers recorded the first French female rock'n'roll album, an EP released in April 1961 featuring four adaptations: "Journal intime" (based on Bobby Darin's "The Diary" ), "Il ne veut plus être un dragueur" (i.e. Elvis Presley's "Shoppin' Around" ), the classic "Hey Pony" based on Don Covay's "Pony Time", already performed by Les Chaussettes Noires, and "J'ai peur de l'amour", modeled on the Italian Pino Donaggio's "Ho Paura". The same year saw the release of a second and final EP, on which, with orchestrator Alan Gate and the same band, Hédika performed two adaptations and two originals: "L'Amour c'est tout ou rien" (Love is Everything ) by Carl Perkins and "Romantic' Rock" by Johnny Tillotson's "Princess, Princess ", alongside "C'est peut-être ça, l'amour" and "Croque, croque la pomme". Hédika later abandoned singing for cinema, starring in a number of films in Turkey, before retiring from acting in 1971. In 2002, the compilation Twistin' the Rock, Vol. 4 brought together her recordings with those of Nicole Paquin.

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