Q

Christine and the Queens on reinventing herself as Chris

Hélöise Letissier, better known as Christine and the Queens, talks about the latest evolution of her on-stage persona: Chris. She tells us exactly who Chris is and where her need for reinvention comes from.
Chris is the second studio album by French singer Christine and the Queens. (Because Music)

French pop singer Hélöise Letissier, better known as Christine and the Queens, has invented a stage persona that she says sometimes feels like an expression of her true self.

When Letissier moved from Paris to London to escape a particularly tragic breakup, she ventured out at night on her own and wound up in the legendary Soho nightclub Madame Jojo's. That's where she befriended a group of drag artists, who eventually inspired her to create her own persona: Christine.

We first heard of Christine and the Queens three years ago when she released her debut album, Chaleur Humaine. But Letissier's evolution has continued in the three years since that first album. The new Christine and the Queens album brings us Chris, who is muscular and masculine, with cropped schoolboy hair and moves like Michael Jackson.

Christine and the Queens posing with host Tom Power in the q studio in Toronto, Ont. (Vivian Rashotte/CBC)

Letissier, who was once Christine and is now Chris, joined Tom Power in the q studio to talk about the latest evolution of her on-stage persona.

The new Christine and the Queens album Chris is out now.

Produced by ​Saroja Coelho


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