CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS

I've always been the one who is more enthusiastic about Christmas than my family. I regress to a child state, chanting carols.

The character I've created, Christine, is mainly the first attempt for me to escape all the secret injunctions we have as girls all the time. Like, be pretty but be polite. Don't take too much space. All those things that didn't mean anything to me. I just decided to turn them around with my character.

I'm kind of an obsessive person, and touring is repetitive in the best way.

I love trying to match a really hard expectation.

I love the idea of constantly altering yourself.

I always knew I wanted to be a woman in men's clothing because I just feel good like that. I feel like I'm taking a different space: I move differently; I'm more at ease.

If I want to say I'm a man for three minutes, then be it: I'm a man for three minutes.

The gender question has always obsessed me.

When I have to take phone calls, I start to sweat and panic. Being on the phone is so weird - hearing a voice without seeing the face so you can't really know the intention behind the voice.

Typically, in France, someone in my position should keep their mouth shut. I'm an entertainer, operating in the realm of pop, and it's often looked down upon for a pop artist to take a stand, to have convictions or opinions. But I don't think the two are incompatible or mutually exclusive.

No matter what you eventually become - free, empowered - the lingering feeling of 'once an outsider, always an outsider' is very vivid for me.

Sometimes when I travel, I like to find things that relate to where I am.

I'm terrified of dying because of everything being too unfinished. I would be happy being a ghost.

I know that a song is working when I can properly dance on it.

When I was young, I took classical ballet lessons, but I wasn't very good at it. It was really frustrating because I wanted to be good at it. When I stopped having lessons, I began to dance and improvise, and I felt more comfortable.

Tapping into a more masculine, macho culture, I got in touch with my femininity, but differently. Macho culture is also pride of the body and showing it off - a relationship to theatricality, to construction. It's about owning your narrative again.

I'm not trying to brag, but if I did expose my life, it would be a good YouTube series.

I've always been obsessed with being on stage and putting shows together.

I'm a huge pop music lover. I do love the immediacy, the organic fever that happens when a pop track is so infectious.

I invented Christine as a survival technique. I was inspired by the idea that everyone could have a Christine inside to wake.

I love people that are question marks. I love people that don't have answers and are just trying to cope with it. I love people that just don't tick boxes. There is a grace in them I can't really find elsewhere.

I'm not a pop star. I don't feel like one. I'm always joking that I'm actually an eight-year-old boy dreaming about being a pop star.

That's pretty much how I feel on stage, like I can let go of all kinds of baggage, or even disappear and change outfits. I want to remind people that they can grant themselves the license to do the same.

Christine was me wanting to break free. I was tired of being prissy and shrinking and apologising all of the time, so I created a character that could be daring for me.

When you write, you don't really think of how honest you are being - it's only when you record that you understand how much of yourself you're giving.