This weekend sees the debut LP from Héloïse Letissier, the performer also known as Christine and the Queens, who is already behind a series of critically acclaimed hits, accompanied by some startling videos. Her rapid ascent to national prominence led to admiring profiles in French newspapers Le Monde and Libération but although her reflective songs and audacious creative philosophy sound about as French as it is possible to imagine, the original inspiration for Letissier’s act came from England.
After an unproductive period at drama school, Letissier came to London “in exile” in 2010 and befriended a trio of transgender “singing drag queens” in a London club. “They convinced me to attempt singing. They were my Queens,” Although she performs alone, as her alter ego of Christine, she sees herself as representing a force ranged against the cliche of the pretty pop stars. Her act, as seen in her video for the song Saint Claude, is polished and restrained – and determinedly asexual. She wears a trouser suit and expresses herself, like Michael Jackson
Born near Nantes in 1988, Letissier’s father was a professor of English literature and her mother taught French and Latin. She played the piano from an early age and remembers an obsession with performance. Classical dance training that began when she was five ended early with a painful foot injury and modern jazz took over for a while.
Her stage persona is in the playful tradition of English singer Jane Birkin during her period singing Serge Gainsbourg hits in the 1960s, but her style is more confrontational and less naive.
The French singer, dancer, performance artist and composer, who is 26 this year, lives alone in the brash 19th arrondisement of Paris, near Pigalle, with her two cats and finds it hard to keep friends. She is often melancholy and says she is obsessed with death:
The Fat Angel Sings 