From May 2,èneFarmerentourné 2009, the French singer Mylène Farmer began a tour through France, Belgium, Switzerland and Russia. It was her fifth tour and supported her seventh studio album Point de suture. For the first time, this tour lead the singer through stadiums and, unlike her 2006 tour, featured a transportable stage.
Background
Since the announcement of Farmer's seventh studio album, the media said that a tour was scheduled for 2009 to support this album.
About this new series of concerts, Farmer explained in an interview: "I am back on stage because I'm bored. I need to reinvent my life. (...) I want to feel dizzy again." She announced that the tour will be carried out throughout France and that the show will be grandiose.
A concert at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, was first announced for September 12, 2009 (which is also the singer's date of birthday), then another concert on September 4 at the stadium of Geneva. Tickets for both concerts were put on sale from March 28, 2008. A second concert at the Stade de France, for September 11 was later announced on March 29 and the tickets were put on sale from April 1, 2008. In April, a concert was added in Brussels for September 19. Other concerts are announced in the media at present, such as Bordeaux, but are not officially confirmed. In Paris Match, Farmer confirmed the tour would go to Russia in 2009, and additional dates in Ukraine and Latvia are rumoured. A concert at the Bollaert stadium in Lens was announced as being official then was denied in the media, but the final decision, the cancellation, that should have been known on May 14, was published on May 21, 2008. On May 15, four concerts were officially announced: two in Nantes and two in Rouen for May 2009. The following day, the record label Polydor confirmed them and added eleven dates scheduled in various cities (Nice, Clermont-Ferrand, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes, Rouen, Strasbourg, Dijon, Lyon). On May 23, three new dates were added : May 6 (Clermont-Ferrand), May 26 (Nantes) and June 9, (Dijon). On November 30, fours concerts in Russia were announced in the Russian media, then on January 26, 2009, one concert in Amnéville.
In February 2009 Farmer's tour producers TS3 cancelled the Eastern European tour dates without giving any explanation. However, there had been rumours for months that the local producers were facing economic problems. At the same time new concerts were announced for June 28 in Saint Petersburg and July 1 in Moscow, organised by different local partners. For the concert in Geneva, the technical problems relating to the enormity of the structures have been resolved (the stadium of Geneva has a smaller capacity than the Stade de France, Saint-Denis). Various media revealed that the stage should have been made out of glass, installed more than three metres above the ground. However, these details about stage design were denied by her creative producer Thierry Suc. He also explained that there will be some differences between shows in stadiums and those in hall. Jean-Paul Gaultier confirmed to be the fashion designer for this tour. It was also announced that the entire show will be filmed "with very sophisticated means of the tridimensional cinema".
Farmer did the rehearsals in Nice a few days before the beginning of her concert tour. The concerts in stadiums were announced as different as the others, because the stage was bigger and there was additional material.
Controversy
The poster of the tour, first revealed on the Internet and then shown in Paris, generated a controversy. Indeed, on this poster, Farmer is lying on the ground, with distraught eyes, as if she had been thrown through a window. As a result, some media criticized this poster, that might suggest a suicide. Other media believed that it refers to a murder or a rape, or perhaps a message of farewell from the singer to her public. Others saw it as a promotional strategy. It was the subject of debate among Farmer's fans and critics on the Internet.
Commercial success
A huge rush took place on sites purchasing tickets, such as Fnac, with over 25,000 connections per minute. Some angry Internet users expressed their dissatisfaction about this problem. The same thing happened on April 1 for the second concert at the Stade de France. According to Michael Drieberg, the director of Live Music, the concert at Geneva is the most quickly sold of all time in Switzerland.