Born Gergana, to Gypsy parents in Bulgaria in 1943 on Saint George's Day, Gigi's improbable journey to stardom, celebrity, notorious infamy and finally back to anonymity began when she became (along with her other teenage cohorts; Sylvie Vartan, France Gall, Sheila and Francoise Hardy) one of the most successful of the yéyé singers of the 1960s.
Gigi was the darkest of the mostly female and mostly frothy European yéyé singers. Where France Gall sang of lollipops and Sylvie Vartan of dolls, Gigi's lyrics veered toward existentialism, melancholia and romantic fatalism. An event of a tragic nature propelled Gigi into yet an even darker stage of her short career. She was referred to as The French Bob Dylan, A modern day Arthur Rimbaud or most commonly, The Black Flower. Her appeal was as sexual as it was aesthetic. She was a lyrical influence on many upcoming English rock groups, including the Rolling Stones as well the ultimate pin-up of the hippest bedroom walls. David Bowie said, "I was for a very long time passionately in love with her. Every male in the world, and a number of females also were, and we all still are." She was to become both a fashion icon and a mother as a result of her professional and personal collaboration with the famous 60s fashion photographer Giorgio Giannini. Many years later in a rare interview the now reclusive Gigi said of that time, "I could not outrun my past." Norman Mailer in an essay on Gigi wrote, "The characters of Greek tragedies are always the last to know their fates."