Mylène Farmer - Désobéissance

If there's one artist who defines the difference between French music and more anglocentric tastes it has to be Mylène Farmer.

The success she's had in France is genuinely staggering, with a record-breaking list of number one singles throughout her career, including 1988's Pourvu qu'elles soient douces and N'oublie pas in June. 

Along the way helped revolutionised the video clip, establishing it as more than just a means to sell records. Her new album will be one of 2018's biggest sellers in the country, and her run of shows in Paris next year are eagerly awaited. 

I've heard her described as 'The French Madonna' , but I really don't think Madonna enjoys the same status as Mylène does in France. Mylène however, remains very much an unknown figure in the anglophone world, something that I'm sure her record company would like to change.

Maybe her music confuses an anglophone ear. While she's an artist with a knowledge of philosophy, poetry and provocation, much is this is lost in the language gap, and all that remains is perhaps not  that inspiring to an audience with a more sophisticated ear.  

She's just released a video for the title track of her recent Désobéissance album, which comes out at the end of the week in a special edition that includes a DVD and an unreleased track. 

Mylène Farmer: Live dates in 2019

With the new album by Mylène Farmer on the immediate horizon, radio station Europe 1 say that she will be playing a series of a series of live concerts in 2019.

Europe 1 say that Mylène Farmer will play ten shows at the Paris La Défense arena in Nanterre on the west of Paris.

The Paris La Défense arena is a stadium that can hold 40,000 people when its being used for live concerts.  The 360 million euro building - the biggest concert hall in Europe - has been open since 2017 and regularly hosts sports events and is home to rugby club Racing 92.

The Rolling Stones were the first artists to play there, performing there for three nights in October 2017. Since then, Roger Waters  has played there, with Booba scheduled for next month.

There has been no official confirmation of the shows so far, nor details of the dates or when tickets might be available.

Mylène's last tour was in 2013, with the Timeless tour supporting her 2012 Monkey Me album. That tour saw her perform 39 shows in five countries, France, Switzerland, Russia, Belarus and Belgium. The tour began with with ten nights at Bercy in Paris, the final show of the tour taking place in Nice on December  6 2013.

Ahead of any live dates next year, Mylène has been invited to appear on a TV show focussing on Jean-Paul Gaultier on France 2 next month. The French TV channel is screening a special programme about the French fashion legend, who has influenced a generation of artists in fields including fashion and music.

Gaultier, a friend od Mylène, designed costumes for Mylène's Tour 2009 and Timeless 2013 live shows as well as for some of her videos. Speaking earlier this year, Gaultier said that he could design the costumes for a forthcoming Mylène Farmer tour.

Among the others expected on the show are Catherine Ringer, Indochine and Christine and the Queens.

Mylène releases her 11th studio album, Désobéissance on Friday, a collection that includes the singles Rolling Stone, N'oublie pas and the recently released Sentimentale.

Mylène Farmer: Sentimentale

A new track from the forthcoming new album by Mylène Farmer has emerged, with a video for the track Sentimentale the week ahead of the release of Désobéissance.

It's a fairly basic video, mostly a graphic with what looks like home movies of  Mylène enjoying some down time alone with her dogs. It's perhaps a lower key clip than usual,  no costumes, no locations and no rich cinematography. Instead it has the feel of something more relaxed, perhaps to show a more approachable side to Mylène, or perhaps it was just put together quickly to accompany the release of the track.

Fans will no doubt still be scouring it in minute details to determine exactly the state of Mylène's art.

The single is availeble from all the streaming and legal download platforms. No word as yet on a physical release, but that can't be far away.

Sentimentale is the third track to come out ahead of the release of Désobéissance, following Rolling Stone and N'oublie pas. It was produced by Feder, who aso produced Rolling Stone and is involved in many of the other tracks on the new album,

Désobéissance will inevitably be one of the biggest releases in France this year. The two previous singles have both added to Mylène's impressive collection of number one singles in France since the start of her career in the 80s. It's a fair bet that this one will also make a significant chart impact.

But the real test will be with the release of the new album. It is Mylène's first release on a new label, Sony, so there will perhaps be more eyes measuring its impact than before as well as determining her next moves.

More singles? More film work? A tour? Mylène always keeps her plans well guarded, but the success of the new album may play a significant measure in what Mylène does next.

Mylène Farmer: Désobéissance album details

More details have emerged about the forthcoming Mylène Farmer album, her 11th studio collection and much-anticipated follow up to 2015's Interstellaires.

With its title confirmed as Désobéissance, as suggested during her appearance on the final of the French edition of The Voice, the new collection comes out on September 28.

The cover of the new album features a portrait of Mylène by French photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino, an artist who has had close associations with music throughout his career. He's directed videos by French artists including Téléphone, Les Rita Mitsouko and Vanessa Paradis, as well as more recently videos for Carla Bruni, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Sébastien Tellier.

He's also created clips for Madonna, Don Henley, Bryan Ferry and Tom Waits, as well as Prince and David Bowie. But no videos for Mylène. So far anyway.

Mylène fans will notice she seems to be dressed in a style that perhaps suggests the period settings of her Libertine and Désenchantée videos, work that very much helped established her career.

The new album features 12 tracks, including the two singles that have been released so far, Rolling Stone and N'oublie pas. Both singles reached number one in France, as did Interstellaires which went on to sell over 300,000 copies.

Désobéissance was around 80% produced by French DJ Feder, who collaborated with her on the Rolling Stone single.

Mylène is probably the biggest music star in France, with the kind of career that Madonna would be envious of,  and the release of a new album will be one of the biggest events of this year's release schedule. Fans are already speculating that tour dates could be just over the horizon for next year.

Pre-sales of the new album have opened, with CD with a booklet, vinyl and a special collector's edition CD available.

Mylène Farmer: N'oublie pas (video)

The video has finally arrived for the new Mylène Farmer single N'oublie pas.

The song is a duet with American singer LP who also features on the video. The clip, directed by long-time Mylène collaborator Laurent Boutonnat, was shot in Iceland, an appropriately dramatic landscape.

Boutonnat has, of course, worked on some of Mylène's most memorable videos since the beginning of her career and has also written some of her most loved songs.

Having an artist like LP alongside Mylène probably won't do her any harm in the anglophone market. In recent years she's worked with Sting, Seal and Moby, and while she's probably France's biggest musical performer, she remains somewhat less of a household name in the UK and USA.

 N'oublie pas follows the release of the single Rolling Stone earlier this year, a collaboration with French DJ Feder which gave her the latest in a long catalogue of number one singles in France.

Farmer has a new album scheduled for later in the year, a follow up to 2015's Interstellaires, expected to be entitled Désobéissance.

While nothing has been confirmed as yet, the possibility of a tour next year has already got her fans in a frenzy.