Career
lieutenant was an enormous success, selling 150,000 copies. This opened the doors of the Olympia in Paris to him, where he opened for the Beatles in 1964. He went on to a two-month stand with Françoise Hardy, Jacques Dutronc, and Johnny Hallyday.
He had a string of hits, including "Charlotte", "Ivanhoe", and "Louisiana femme du sergent", censored because of the Algerian War.
With his vocal trio, he resurrected the old French song "Belle qui tiens ma vie", sung a cappella. In 2003, he made a Civil Defense with Senegalese griots of the Kalone Orchestra of Casamance.
Vassiliu lived a part of his life in the Casamance, the region of Senegal lying to the south of the Gambia.