Mitsou

Mitsou
Mitsou (left) with Anne-Marie Losique in 2012
Background information
Birth name	Mitsou Annie Marie Gélinas
Born	(1970-09-01) 1 September 1970 (age 46) Loretteville, Quebec, Canada
Genres	Synth-Pop, House, New Wave, Rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, actress, businesswoman, television and radio presenter
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Isba, Sony BMG
Website	http://www.mitsou.com/

Mitsou Annie Marie Gélinas (born September 1, 1970 in Loretteville, Quebec) is a Canadian pop singer, businesswoman, television and radio host, and actress. She is credited as Mitsou Gélinas when acting, but records simply as Mitsou (the French spelling of Mitsu, which means honey in Japanese).

Born in Loretteville, Quebec, Mitsou is the granddaughter of Quebec actor Gratien Gélinas. She got involved in acting and modelling as a child, but also began to pursue singing in her teenage years. In 1988, she signed with Canadian independent Isba Records and released her first single, "Bye Bye Mon Cowboy" (composed and produced by Jean-Pierre Isaac), which became a smash pop hit across Canada (an extremely rare feat for a francophone song). Later that year, she followed with her debut, multicultural-themed album, El Mundo which also spawned the singles "La Corrida" and "Les Chinois". "Bye Bye Mon Cowboy" was later remixed by Shep Pettibone and re-released for the American market with a new video.

In 1990, she released her follow-up album, Terre des hommes. Ivan Doroschuk (of Men Without Hats) wrote the title track in addition to her first English-language song "A Funny Place (The World Is)". She also changed her image by dyeing her hair reddish-brown instead of her trademark blonde.

The first single, "Mademoiselle Anne", failed to replicate her cross-Canada success, but in 1991 the second single, "Dis-moi, dis-moi", put Mitsou back in the spotlight with a controversial video that showed her and several male and female models nude in a shower room. The video, which was released only a few months after Madonna's "Justify My Love", was banned from regular rotation by MuchMusic as the Madonna video had been — technically, the video was not fully banned from the network, as the programming committee ruled that the late-night program City Limits was allowed to play it, but as a mainstream pop song incompatible with the show's alternative rock format, the program refused to do so. Notably, the video for "Dis-moi, dis-moi" was not banned on Much's French-language sister station MusiquePlus, but in fact was placed in heavy rotation; Mitsou's manager Pierre Gendron attributed the difference to English Canada being more prudish than Quebec.