Music

The red-haired singer was born in Quebec, about thirty kilometres from Montreal, under the name Marie-Hélène Gauthier.
 
In 1969, when she was eight years old, when her parents crossed the Atlantic and settled in France. After a passion for horseback riding, the young lady turned her attention to theater and enrolled in the Cours Florent. She acted in a few plays, without perhaps encountering the success she had hoped for. But her destiny lay elsewhere. After going different jobs, she met Laurent Boutonnat, a composer looking for a performer for what he felt would be a hit, "Maman à tort". It was then that the young singer chose her artist name, in homage to Frances Farmer, the American actress that ended up, by mistake, in a psychiatric hospital. 
 
Farmer released her first track in 1984, accompanied by the man who became her pygmalion and composer for life, Laurent Boutonnat. He also directed most of her videos. Together, they cultivated a sulphurous and provocative image around the singer, firstly with the cult hit "Je suis libertine", released in 1986. Another success, a year later, was "Sans contrefaçon" followed by "Pourvu qu'elles sont douces". The artist's many fans showed their adoration for her at sold-out Paris concerts, at the Palais des Sports and at Bercy. 
 
 In 1991, Mylène Farmer released a new album, entitled "L'Autre", which includes the unforgettable title "Désenchantée". Four years later, she released "Anamorphosée", considered more of a rock peice by critics. It contains the famous track "L'instant X". In 1999, "Innamoramento" completed the singer's discography, which once again set Bercy on fire and delighted her thousands of fans. The singer put herself on stage and brilliantly cultivated her image as a provocative, sweet and mysterious icon. 
 
In 2000, she took young Alizée under her wing and propelled her to the forefront of the stage with "Moi Lolita". At the same time, she was working on a new album, "Avant que l'ombre" which was released in 2005, a year after her first best-of, entitled "Les mots". 
 
2008 saw the release of his seventh album, "Point de suture", with two concerts at the Stade de France in Paris as a highlight. In 2010, the singer delighted her fans with "Bleu noir", quickly followed by her second best-of "2001-2011", which was crowned as a double platinum record. Further recognition came the same year when she obtained, from the hands of fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier whose show she had closed the same year, an NRJ Award for Diamond. 
 
In 2012, "Monkey Me" was released, followed by a major tour in Belgium, Switzerland and even Belarus. Four years later, the album "Interstellaires" included a duet with Sting, entitled "Stolen Car". This was the first time that Mylène Farmer had set out to conquer the United States. Once again, she saw one of her tracks at the top of the charts.
 
2020 saw the release of "L'âme dans l'eau", a successful single and prelude to the best-of "Histoires de... ».  More recently, in 2022, she returned with "L'emprise", an electro-pop album, the result of collaborations with Woodkid, Archive, Moby and AaRON. The album sold over 1,000,000 copies in less than two weeks.

A year later, the star once again embarked on a long series of concerts, "Nevermore 2023". Two hundred thousand tickets were sold in less than eight hours - figures that make your head spin and testify to the long-term success of the flamboyant singer with 30 million records sold. In addition to her countless musical successes, Mylène Farmer has also appeared in several films, including "Ghostland" by Pascal Laugier in 2018.

(MH with CMa - Photo: Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Mylène Farmer on the set of the TV show "Chansons à La Carte" in Brussels (Belgium) in 1986 (© Etienne Tordoir)