00:00My name is Christine. I'm a French writer, singer, dancer, and my project is called Christine and the Queens.
00:07Christine and the Queens is not the name of a band, properly speaking.
00:11It's more the name of a meeting I've had that actually changed me.
00:15The Queens in question are drag performers I met in London.
00:19They actually inspired me to start this whole stage character thing.
00:23For me, Christine as a stage character was first a way to accept myself.
00:27So I guess it's a musical project of course because it's about writing songs.
00:31But this comes along with this idea of self-acceptance.
00:34I felt the narrowness of what a younger is supposed to be.
00:39Thinking of identity as a performance, for me it's just like explicitly saying I can be a little boy if
00:45I want to.
00:45I can feel like an old woman. It's just for people to actually start to see me differently.
00:51It's weird how people always have to define themselves. This is something I don't get.
00:55Like I don't know how to do it. I have no idea like who I am now. I mean look
00:59at me.
01:00I could be Willy Wonka if I wanted to.
01:02I think the fact that I have a hard time to define myself actually is the main thing that fuels
01:06my whole work.
01:07It used to feel painful not to know who I was.
01:09But since I started this project it actually feels like a strength.
01:12Because I love aesthetics that can mix really different things.
01:16So I'm always working with like conflicts, contradictions.
01:18Not being sure and always searching is the best way for me to work.
01:22I think when I'm dancing I just feel in charge of everything.
01:25When I was like around four years old I just insisted on starting classical ballet lessons.
01:30So I've been dancing basically my whole life.
01:33This is just something I love to do and it's the best way to own my body.
01:38I never wrote a song in my life before that idea of having Christine as a stage character.
01:41It was like discovering a new way to talk to people.
01:44But it's still really mysterious to me. I'm still learning.
01:47I always fantasized about this idea of being a woman in men's clothing.
01:51Annie Hall vibe, Patti Smith.
01:53Those figures that could actually be as well writers like really creative people.
01:58With Christine I decided that I could actually be one of those voices.
02:03I stopped caring about other people's opinion because I was into what I was doing.
02:07So I think before Christine I was like a spectator.
02:10I was like waiting and with Christine I became an actor.
02:13I became a doer you know and that was the best thing that could happen to me I think.
