Mylène Farmer

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Mylène Farmer (pronounced: [milɛn faʁmœʁ]; born Mylène Jeanne Gautier;[milɛn ʒan ɡotje]; born 12 September 1961) is a French recording artist, songwriter, occasional actress, writer and entrepreneur. She was born in Pierrefonds, Quebec, in 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 there. She holds the record for the most number one hits in the French charts, with fourteen to date – eight of which were consecutive. Twelve of her albums have also reached number one in France.

Biography and career

Early years

Mylène Farmer was born in Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada. Her parents moved from France in the late 1950s as Farmer's father, Max, 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.

Louise Bourgoin

Louise Bourgoin (born Ariane Louise Bourgoin; 28 November 1981) is a French actress, model and television presenter.

Life and career

She was born on 28 November 1981 in Rennes. Bourgoin's parents, both secondary level teachers, encouraged her to pursue a stable career. She studied for five years at the École des Beaux-Arts in Rennes. She became a plastic arts teacher while simultaneously beginning to work as a model; some of her most notable early work as a model was for the photographer Ian Sanderson.

After graduating in 2004, Bourgoin became a presenter for the television program Kawaï ! on Filles TV channel. Two years later, she made a brief appearance on Direct 8.At the same time, she worked with TV presenter Marc Lacombe on a pilot program for PlayStation TV. This television channel never started broadcasting, and the pilot was never distributed.

In 2006, she worked as the weather girl for Le Grand Journal with Michel Denisot, which broadcast nightly on Canal+. To avoid audiences confusing her for fellow Le Grand Journal presenter, Ariane Massenet, Bourgoin selected the pseudonym of "Salomé". As this was rejected by Canal +, she chose the name "Louise Bourgoin" as a tribute to her favorite sculptor, Louise Bourgeois.

Emily Loizeau

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Emily Loizeau (born 7 February 1975) is a French author, composer, and singer. Her debut album, released in 2006, was titled L'autre bout du monde (The Other Side of the World).

Biography

Loizeau was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, Europe. Her father was French, and her mother was English. Her grandmother was the acclaimed Academy Award-winning English actress Peggy Ashcroft.

Around 1980, when she was five, Loizeau began to learn piano. After studying classical music for many years, she turned to studying philosophy and then theatre in London, then worked assisting composer and stage manager Georges Aperghis.

Loizeau writes in many languages. She cites Georges Brassens, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles as her primary influences. Besides Bach and Franz Schubert, she also loves Renaud, and has since 1986, when she was 11 years old. She has also been influenced by Tom Waits, Nina Simone, and Randy Newman.

At the end of 2001, at the age of 26, Loizeau began to perform at a small Parisian cabaret, which became for her a one-person cottage industry, printing flyers, doing publicity. She then began to collaborate with likeminded artists such as Vincent Segal, Franck Monnet, Nils Tavernier, Jean-Louis Foulquier. She signed with Fargo Records at the age of 31 (their first French artist) and performed at the Comedia, where she sold out for three weeks straight.

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (born 21 July 1971) is a British-French actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress Jane Birkin and French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon Incest" at the age of twelve, she released an album with her father at the age of fifteen. More than twenty years passed before she released three albums as an adult (5:55, IRM and Stage Whisper) to commercial and critical success. Gainsbourg has also appeared in many films, including several directed by Lars von Trier, and has received both a César Award and the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award.

Background

Gainsbourg was born in London, to English actress and singer Jane Birkin and French actor and singer-song writer Serge Gainsbourg. Gainsbourg was born at the height of her parents fame as they had made headlines several years earlier with the sexually explicit song Je t'aime... moi non plus and by that point had become notorious for their turbulent relationship and multiple artistic collaborations. As a result her birth and childhood were well publicized.