Mylène Farmer (pronounced ; born Mylène Jeanne Gautier; ; born 12 September 1961) is a Canadian-born French recording artist, 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 and is among the most successful recording artists of all-time in France. She holds the record for the most number one hits in the French charts, with fifteen to date – eight of which were consecutive. Twelve 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 (born in Lennon, in Brittany) 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" – this is why she now speaks with the accent of metropolitan France. 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.