Mitsou
|
|
Mitsou Gélinas (born September 1, 1970) is a Canadian pop singer, businesswoman, television & radio host, and actress. She uses her full name when acting, but records simply as Mitsou.
Born in Loretteville, Quebec, she is the granddaughter of Quebec actor Gratien Gélinas. Mitsou got involved in acting and modelling as a child, but also began to pursue singing in her teenage years. In 1988, she released her first single, "Bye Bye Mon Cowboy", which became a smash pop hit across Canada (an extremely rare feat for a francophone pop song from Quebec). Later that year, she followed with her debut album, El Mundo.
In 1990, she released her follow-up album, Terre des Hommes. The first single, "Mademoiselle Anne", failed to replicate her cross-Canada success, but in 1991, the second single, "Dis-Moi, Dis-Moi", put Mitsou back in the spotlight with a controversial video which showed her and several background models in the nude. The video, which was released only a few months after Madonna's "Justify My Love", was banned by MuchMusic (as the Madonna video had also been).
Having banned two high-profile pop videos within a few months of each other, MuchMusic created a new occasional late-night series, Too Much 4 Much?, on which they would play banned videos along with forum and panel discussions on the controversies these videos raised.
Terre des Hommes also included Mitsou's first English-language single, "The World is a Funny Place". Her followup album, 1992's Heading West, was her first entirely English-language album, but failed to generate a significant pop hit. In 1993, she followed it with Tempted, which again failed to give her a hit single, and she subsequently returned to recording primarily French-language material. Her most recent album, Mitsou, was released in 2000.
Mitsou has also acted in a number of Quebec films, most recently appearing in Denys Arcand's Academy Award-winning Les invasions barbares.
Since 2001 she has been the editor of a Quebec magazine for young women, Clin d'oeil. She currently hosts the show Au Courant on CBC Newsworld.
See also
External links
- CyberMitsou (http://www.cybermitsou.com/entrer.asp)