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The Early Years
On the 12th of September, 1961, a girl named Marie Hélène Gauthier was born in the little village of Pierremond, near Montreal, Canada. Her father was an engineer, her mother took care of the children and the house. She was the third of four children. There was one sister, Brigitte, and two brothers, Michel and Jean-Loup. Mylène is a common abbreviation of Marie Hélène. (Mylène herself states that she was never called Marie Hélène) When Mylène was about five years old the family moved to France. This because of her fathers work. Here they lived in Ville-d'Avray, and Mylène went to school at the Cadre Noir de Samour in Paris.
France
At the age of 17 Mylène's life took a turn to the artistic side. At the time she did some modelling, and even won a song contest. Still she had no ambition to sing at that time. First of all she wanted to become an actress. Her studies were in that direction. All of this changed when in 1984, at the age of 23, she met Laurant Boutonnat. He was a writer and producer of music, and together with his then partner Jérôme Dahan he was looking for someone to sing their song Maman a tort. It was at this time that Mylène changed her surname from Gauthier to Farmer. Whether Laurant Boutonnat had something to do with this is not clear. The name Farmer was chosen as a tribute to American actress Frances Farmer. A woman with obvious talents in movies and on stage, who spent years of her life in a mental institution, due to an alcohol problem, and eventually died of cancer. The big break came when a record deal was signed with Polydor in 1986. On this label the album Cendres de lune was released. The singles of this album, Plus Grandir, Libertine and Tristana did very well. The public noticed Mylène. The fact that the music videos seemed more like movies might have helped. Appearing naked in your video's is also something that attracts attention. The combination of a sweet high voice and very dark lyrics was also a rare thing (and still is, I guess). Maybe it was a combination of these facts, but Cendres de lune was the start of something big for Mylène...
The Fame
The next albums, Ainsi soit je... and L'autre... did even better. Mylène even scored some hits outside of the French speaking countries. Her video's for Pourvu qu'elles soient douces and Désenchantée could even be seen on MTV. These video's were again movies in their own right. The public response was huge, especially in France of course. Even though Mylène has always claimed not to be comfortable with too much press exposure, she could be seen on TV shows on a regular basis in those days. But after a while the lack of privacy got to her, and Mylène disappeared from the public eye for a while. In this period, she worked together with Boutonnat on an ambitious new project. Making the film Giorgino was like a wish come true for the both of them. Finally, Mylène got to be an actress. Even though the film was shot in English, all the voices were dubbed in French by the original actors before its release. The film didn't do well at all, and is rather hard to find now. In 1995 there was a new album; Anamorphosée. A big tour followed, and Mylène was right back where she left; a huge star with a big and passionate following. In this period Mylène's brother Jean-Loup died in an accident. The video of the 1996 tour is dedicated to him. So is her album Innamoramento by the way. Again, an album the fans had to wait for, and again there was a huge tour to follow. The Mylenium Tour again was a huge succes, with tourdates being added almost daily, and all shows sold out. There even were 4 concerts in Russia. It seemed Mylène was back were she belonged, on the stage and in the public eye.
Even after the concerts it never really got quiet again. Together with Laurant Boutonnat Mylène wrote a new album, for a young French performer called Alizée. The first single from Alizée's debut album Gourmandises, Moi-Lolita, scored huge in France (where it was on number 1 for several weeks) but also in the rest of Europe. It was a top 10 hit in many European countries. But also the release of the Mylenium Tour on Cd, DVD and Video got a lot of attention. Late 2001 there was the Greatest Hits compilation album Les Mots (also containing 3 new songs, one of which is Les Mots, a duo with SEAL) was released. With a 2 Cd collection of Mylène's best, you realise that this artist has done some great things over the years. Let's just hope that Les Mots is the end of a period, not of Mylène as a recording Artist....
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