Marie-mai

Marie-Mai Bouchard (born July 7, 1984 in Varennes, Quebec) also known as her stage name Marie-Mai, is a French Canadian singer from Quebec. She was initially known as one of the top finalists of the first season of the Quebec reality show Star Académie. Profile/Background edit: As her father was also a musician, Marie-Mai began her interest in music in her early years when practising piano lessons and also participated in musical theatre. Shortly, she began singing and her grandmother noticed her talent. In the following years, she would help Marie-Mai improve her singing abilities even further. At that time, her grandmother suggested to her that she audition for a new competition, Star Académie. Prior to this, in 2001, she would start to perform in shows at Montreal's Théâtre Musical in the Passion intense show. She became a finalist in the 2003 edition, in which she was immediately noticed by her pop-rock style. She finished third behind Marie-Elaine Thibert, the runner-up of the competition and Wilfred Le Bouthillier, the eventual winner. After the Star Académie tour that ended in 2004, she was part of Rent, a rock opera musical which was held at the Olympia Theatre in Montreal. On September 4, 2011, she married Fred St-Gelais (also her producer) in Hawaii. The couple were engaged since 2006. History edit: Inoxydable (2004-2005) edit: Her debut album Inoxydable, produced by Fred St-Gelais, was released on September 28, 2004. Over 120,000 albums were sold in Quebec alone while the album was released in France in 2006. Several singles had reached high in the Quebec charts including the songs "Il faut que tu t'en ailles" and "Encore une nuit" which reached the top of the Radio Énergie charts. In 2005, she won the prize for best music video for French MuchMusic Video Awards with the video for her song "Il faut que tu t'en ailles". In support of her album, Marie-Mai played 87 shows and had released a video album of her concert, La Tournée Inoxydable. Dangerous Attraction (2007-2009) edit: Her second album, Dangerous Attraction, was released on 28 August 2007 in Quebec, Canada. In August 2008, Marie-Mai was awarded a gold disc for selling over 50,000 copies of this album in Quebec. On 24 June 2009, Marie-Mai participated for the first time at the Quebec National Holiday celebrations in Montreal, simulcast on the Radio-Canada Television and radio. She interprets notable success "Mentir" and "Emmène-moi", a cover of the song "Lady Marmalade", and an excerpt of the national anthem of Quebec, "Gens du pays" by Gilles Vigneault. On 1 July 2009, during the festivities of Canada Day in Ottawa broadcast on Radio-Canada chain and English CBC, the singer was invited to sing three songs. Originally, the English-language channel broadcast did not include her first song, "Mentir". CBC eventually reversed its decision following the rehearsals and instead decided to distribute all three songs. Version 3.0 (2009-2011) edit: On 26 September 2009, she released her third album, Version 3.0. She received a third gold record on 7 December 2009 for having sold 40,000 copies of this album. Among her compositions present on the album are "Rebatir notre histoire" and "C'est moi". On 28 February 2010, she sang "Emmène-moi" at the closing ceremony of 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In the same year, she had been featured in David Usher's "Je repars". The song remained on the chart for over a month ahead of Top 100 Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems/ In 2011, her album Version 3.0 reached platinum disc with 80,000 copies sold. She also recorded a duet in the same year with Simple Plan for the song "Jet Lag". Later in the same year, she signed with Warner Music France to be her record label and distributor in Europe . Miroir (2012-Present) [edit: Prior to her fourth album release, on 22 February 2012, she released the song "Sans cri ni haine", a cover of the song "Call Your Girlfriend" by Robyn, as a promotional single. Marie-Mai's official website had undergone major upgrade prior to the album released by Motion in Design, an advertising agent based in Drummondville. A timer counting to the day of the releasing of the album was shown. The agency also designed a new logo and the album art of the fourth album. On 14 August 2012, the first official single of the album "C.O.B.R.A." was released to radio stations and a 22-seconds teaser of the music video have been released. As announced by her on the same date, the new album will be called "Miroir" and set the release date for the 17 September. "Miroir" managed to sell 22,000 units during the first week after release. On 17 October 2012 only a month after the album was released, a press conference was held at the Olympia theatre in Montreal to announce that the album was certified gold for reaching the 40,000 copies sold mark. This press conference also was also used to announce the first 2 dates at the Bell Centre of her brand new tour Tournee Miroir due to kickoff on January 18, 2013 in Grandby, QC. In Late 2012 the second Canadian single "Jamais Ailleurs" was released to the radios, while a more acoustic version of the song "Je Cours" was chosen as the first single to promote the yet-to-be-released album in France. To begin 2013 Marie-Mai is getting ready to kickoff her fourth concert tour "Tournee Miroir" on 18 January in Grandby,QC. The tour will see her perform in front of over 80,000 people across Quebec. In popular culture edit: In 2012, she took part in tribute album project dedicated to Jean-Jacques Goldman songs called Génération Goldman singing Goldman's "Là-bas" as a duo with French model and singer Baptiste Giabiconi.