The EuropeCrazy European Music Hall of Fame opens its doors today.

As I promised a few posts ago, every month I will be featuring an act from Europe who will be inducted into our very own European Music Hall of Fame.

With a successful music career going back to 1984, our first inductee has continued to enjoy massive success in her native France since that time. Over the years she’s reinvented herself with almost every album, whilst retaining a distinctive sound that’s all her very own. Her music is unique and original, and so is her image.

She’s no puppet either - she’s the one in control of her career. She writes lyrics which have always varied between mysterious and outrageously provocative. Her videos, which are more like small scale movies, have often been banned, so shocking are they!

She redefined live performance with shows which are always an event. In recent years you could say she’s mellowed....why she’s even written a children’s book! - but don’t be fooled.

She is notoriously private and has very rarely given any interviews, therefore a mystique has grown up around her. This singer’s fans are often very obsessive too - lots of fan websites have been set up in the absence of an official one.
She is not the most prolific artists - so whenever she does release an album it’s always long-awaited, and the results have, on the whole been very rewarding.
Looking at some of the above info, this singer has a lot in common with a more famous superstar who came to prominence around the same time - Madonna. Indeed this singer has often been referred to as "The French Madonna".

Ladies and gentlemen...I am very happy to induct Mylene Farmer into our European music hall of fame. I first heard Mylene Farmer in 1991, back in the days when Radio Five (before it became Five Live) had a Saturday night French chart show. Mylene’s duet with Jean-Louis Murat, the haunting and delicious "Regrets" blew me away. Who was this singer? I had to find out more.

As I began travelling to Europe from the mid-90s I took the opportunity to buy her albums and now I have all of them in my collection. My favourite Mylene albums are "Live A Bercy" (I’ve also got the DVD - what a great, theatrical, unique live show!), and "Anamorphosee", the album influenced by the time when she lived in California.