Mitsou

Mitsou G?linas (born September 1, 1970) is a Canadian pop singer, businesswoman, television and radio host, and actress. She uses her full name when acting, but records simply as Mitsou.

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Born in Loretteville, Quebec, she is the granddaughter of Quebec actor Gratien G?linas. Mitsou got involved in acting and modelling as a child, but also began to pursue singing in her teenage years. In 1988, she released her first single, "Bye Bye Mon Cowboy", which became a smash pop hit across Canada (an extremely rare feat for a francophone pop song from Quebec). Later that year, she followed with her debut album, El Mundo.

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In 1990, she released her follow-up album, Terre des Hommes. 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 which showed her and several background models in the nude. The video, which was released only a few months after Madonna's "Justify My Love", was banned by MuchMusic (as the Madonna video had also been).

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Having banned two high-profile pop videos within a few months of each other, MuchMusic created a new occasional late-night series, Too Much 4 Much?, on which they would play banned videos along with forum and panel discussions on the controversies these videos raised.

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Terre des Hommes also included Mitsou's first English-language single, "The World is a Funny Place". Her followup album, 1992's Heading West, was her first entirely English-language album, but failed to generate a significant pop hit. In 1993, she followed it with Tempted, which again failed to give her a hit single, and she subsequently returned to recording primarily French-language material. Her most recent album, Mitsou, was released in 2000.

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Mitsou has also acted in a number of Quebec films, most recently appearing in Denys Arcand's Academy Award-winning Les invasions barbares.

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Since 2001 she has been the editor of a Quebec magazine for young women, Clin d'oeil. She currently hosts the show Au Courant on CBC Newsworld.

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1970: 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday....

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