Mylène Jeanne Gautier[3] (French: [milɛn ʒan ɡotje]; born 12 September 1961), known professionally as Mylène Farmer ([milɛn faʁmœʁ]), is a French singer, songwriter, occasional actress, writer, and entrepreneur. She was born in Pierrefonds, Quebec, to a French family, and brought up in France.
She has sold more than 30 million records in France[4] and is among the most successful recording artists of all-time in that country.[5] She holds the record for the most number one hit singles in the French charts, with twenty one to date – eight of which were consecutive.[6] Fifteen of her albums have also reached number one in France.
Mylène Farmer was born in Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada. Her parents, Max Gautier (originally from Marseille) and his wife Marguerite (née Martin, born in Lennon, Finistère) moved from France in the late 1950s as Farmer’s father pursued an engineering contract on a dam. Her family moved back to France when she was eight, settling in the Parisian suburb of Ville-d’Avray. When she first arrived in France, she took speech classes after her school declared her Québécois accent to be “improper”.[7] In her teenage years, Farmer was passionate about horse-riding, qualifying as a riding instructor at the equestrian centre in Saumur. At the age of 17, however, Farmer discovered acting and she left the stables to undertake a three-year course at the Cours Florent, a drama school in Paris. Changing her name to Mylène Farmer as a tribute to her idol, 1930’s Hollywood actress Frances Farmer, she began to earn a living as a model acting in several TV adverts such as those for Fiskars, Caisse d’Epargne etc.
In 1984, Farmer met Laurent Boutonnat, a young film student, after answering a newspaper advert for an actress for a small film he was working on. Farmer and Boutonnat became friends and forged a creative partnership, writing and producing the music. Boutonnat, whose ambition was to become a film director, became the creative force behind Farmer’s videos.
Farmer gained fame with songs featuring controversial yet poetic lyrics and explicit music videos: “Maman a tort” was about a young girl’s love for her female nurse. “Pourvu qu’elles soient douces” contains hints of sodomy; the video, set in the 18th Century, features caning. “Libertine” is said to feature the first full frontal nudity appearance by a singer on a major music video. “Que mon cœur lâche” was about love in the AIDS era; the video features a scene in which God tells Jesus he will not be sent to Earth again because the last time “was a disaster”.
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