Name: Mylene Farmer
Date of Birtth: September 12, 1961
Place of Birth: Pierremond, near Montreal, Canada
Occupation: Singer, Model, Actress
On the 12th of September, 1961, a girl named Marie
Hélene 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. Mylene is a common abbreviation of Marie
Hélene. When Mylene was about five years old
the family moved to France. This because of her fathers
work. Here they lived in Ville-d'Avray, and Mylene went
to school at the Cadre Noir de Samour in Paris.
At the age of 17 Mylene'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 at the time
to sing. 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 Mylene 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
Mylene. 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 Mylene...
The next albums, Ainsi soit je... and L'autre... did
even better. Mylene 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 Mylene 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 Mylene 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, Mylene 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 Mylene was right back where
she left; a huge star with a big and passionate following.
In this period Mylene's brother Jean-Loup died in an
accident. The video of the 1996 tour is dedicated to
him. So is her most recent album Innamoramento by the
way. Again, an album the fans had to wait for, and again
there was a huge tour to follow. Mylene is in the spotlight
again, and while maybe she doesn't like all the media
attention, she sure seems to enjoy performing live...
