I was born in Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada, a suburb (now borough) of Montreal. My parents moved from France to Canada in the late 1950s as my father, Max, pursued an engineering contract on a dam. My family returned to France when I was eight, settling in the Parisian suburb of Ville d'Avray. In my teen years, I was passionate about horse-riding, going on to qualify as a riding instructor at the equestrian centre in Saumur. At 17, however, I discovered other passion, acting, and I abandoned the stables to take a three-year course at the Cours Florent, a drama school in Paris. I changed my name to Mylène Farmer (after my favourite American actress Frances Farmer, I earned a living as a model in several TV ads.
In 1984, I met Laurent Boutonnat, a young film student also enrolled in Cours Florent, when I replied to a newspaper ad for an actress for a small film he was working on. I and Boutonnat became friends and forged a creative partnership, writing and producing all my music. Boutonnat, whose ambition was to become a film director, was also the driving force behind my videos. Much of my fame and success can be attributed to elaborate and theatrical music videos which are often eight minutes or longer. My concerts and videos are often compared to those of Michael Jackson and Madonna (Pourvu qu'elles soient douces lasts 17 minutes, while "California" was directed by Abel Ferrara and cost $700,000).
I gained fame with songs featuring ambiguous or shocking lyrics, and somewhat explicit music videos: "Maman a tort" was about the love of a young girl for her female hospital nurse. "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces" was about a man with an obsession for the buttocks of his lover, with hints of sodomy; the video, set in the 18th century, featured a 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 with condoms in the age of Aids; the video for the song features a scene in which God tells Jesus he won't send him to Earth again because the last time "it was a disaster."
I am the most successful and provocative female French recording artist, the only artist to have each of my own studio albums sell over a million copies in France. I am also popular in French-speaking countries Belgium, Switzerland, Russia and parts of Eastern Europe.
Among my best-known songs are "Désenchantée", "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces", "Sans contrefaçon", "Libertine", "C'est une belle journée", and "Rêver".
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