Marie-Mai

Marie Mai
Marie-Mai performing at the festivities for Canada Day in Ottawa July 1, 2009.
Background information
Birth name	Marie-Mai Bouchard
Also known as	Marie-Mai
Born	(1984-07-07) 7 July 1984 (age 32)
Genres	Pop, rock, jazz
Years active	2003-present
Labels	Musicor, Warner Music France
Associated acts	Simple Plan, David Usher

Marie-Mai Bouchard (born 7 July 1984), known professionally as Marie-Mai, is a Canadian singer from Quebec. She was initially known as one of the finalists of the first season of the Quebec reality show Star Académie.

Marie-Mai Bouchard was born in Varennes, Quebec. As her father was also a musician, Marie-Mai began her interest in music in her early years when practicing 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 ended in 2004, she was part of the Montreal cast of Jonathan Larson's rock-opera musical Rent, performed at the Olympia Theatre.

In September 2011, she married her producer, Fred St-Gelais, in Hawaii. The couple were engaged since 2006. The pair ended the relationship in early 2016, and later divorced.

In December 2011, Marie-Mai participated in the campaign against bullying "It ends here," and made a video where she revealed that she had experienced bullying because of her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Her debut album Inoxydable, produced by Fred St-Gelais, was released on 28 September 2004. Over 120,000 albums were sold in Quebec (platinum certification) alone while the album was released in France in 2006. Several singles climbed 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 Francophone music video at the MuchMusic Video Awards with "Il faut que tu t'en ailles". In support of her album, Marie-Mai played 87 shows and released a DVD of her concert, La Tournée Inoxydable.