L'Instant X

"L'Instant X"
Single by Mylène Farmer
from the album Anamorphosée
B-side	"Alice"
Released	12 December 1995
Format	CD single, CD maxi, 12" maxi, 7" single, 7" maxi (2003 version)
Recorded	1995, Los Angeles
Genre	Rock
Length	4:10
Label	Polydor
Writer(s)	Lyrics: Mylène Farmer Music: Laurent Boutonnat
Producer(s)	Laurent Boutonnat
Mylène Farmer singles chronology
"XXL" (1995) "L'Instant X" (1995) "California" (1996)
"Je t'aime mélancolie (Felix Da Housecat remix)" (2003) "L'Instant X (the X key mix by One-T)" (2003) "Fuck Them All" (2005) Alternative cover 2003 version by One-T Anamorphosée track listing "Mylène s'en fout" (3) "L'Instant X" (4) "Eaunanisme" (5)

"L'Instant X" (English: "The X Moment") is a 1995 song recorded by the French artist Mylène Farmer. It was the second single from her fourth album Anamorphosée and was released on 12 December 1995. Directed by Marcus Nispel in New York, the music video depicts with humour the apocalypse and shows Farmer bathing in the foam. The song became the biggest hit from the album, reaching number six in France, with a long chart trajectory. In January 2004, the song was the subject of a remix produced by One-T and was released as promotional single.

After the mixed success of her single "XXL" and the poor chart performances of the Anamorphosée album, Farmer decided to release a second single, "L'Instant X", for the Christmas period. The song's title comes from an expression of the first verse. The chorus covers in its own way Tino Rossi's Christmas song "Petit Papa Noël", as in the lyrics Farmer scans, in jerky syllabes, "Papa Noël, quand tu descendras du ciel...", which are also the lyrics of the chorus in Rossi's song.

For the first time throughout Farmer's career, all the remixes available on the various formats were not produced exclusively by Boutonnat's team: only two of them were made by Laurent Boutonnat and Bertrand Châtenet, while the other two, more techno and dance, were produced by Ramon Zenker. The 'Have an Instant X remix' was considered by French author Julien Rigal "probably one of the best remixes" outside Boutonnat's ones. The second track on the CD single is a jazz-oriented remixed version of "Alice", another song from the Anamorphosée album. Unlike many of Farmer's singles, there is no instrumental version on the various formats. The image uses on the cover was perhaps influenced by Ross Hunter's 1966 film Madame X.

On 21 January 2004, the song was remixed by One-T for the compilation RemixeS. Devoted to discothèques, this version was released as 7" maxi, becoming the third single from the RemixeS album, after "Sans contrefaçon" and "Je t'aime mélancolie". It was the more broadcast single from the album.