Amina Annabi
| Amina Annabi | |
|---|---|
| Born |
5 March 1962 Carthage, Tunisia |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, actress |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Website | www |
Amina Annabi (Arabic: أمينة العنابي, Amina Al-Annabi) (born 5 March 1962, Carthage, Tunisia) is a French-Tunisian singer-songwriter and actress, most famous for finishing second in the tied 1991 Eurovision Song Contest, held in Rome. Amina finished second after a countback, scoring equal 146 points alongside Carola from Sweden.
Amina was born into a family of musicians. Her father is Tunisian and her mother is French. Her grandmother was a musician and one of her uncles was involved in setting up the Tabarka Festival in Tunisia, so Amina got the chance to see a number of music stars, going along to concerts by Joan Baez, James Brown and the famous Algerian diva Warda. It was at the Tabarka music festival that Amina would get to meet the young Senegalese star Wasis Diop. They became friends and they had the opportunity to work together some years later. In 1975, Amina and her mother, a talented musician and composer, moved together to Paris.
Three years later Amina formed her own group, after showing her talent in singing and dancing a variety of music styles, from soul to traditional aigypt songs. The group made appearances in many local schools but it was in 1982 when Amina started to build her solo career. By that time she got involved with Radio Nova, Paris' leading radio station in world music. One of the producers of the station was Martin Meissonnier. He started to work with Amina and soon they became a couple—their daughter was born in 1986. In 1983 she won a music contest with a rap song, "Shehérazade", influenced by Arab rhythms. It was released as a CD single. Amina began performing in Paris around this time.
After recording an album with the Japanese musician Yasuaki Shimizu, she became extremely popular in Japan where she even toured in 1987. She did backing vocals on an album by Haruomi Hosono and she launched a career in cinema. In 1989 she played a supporting role in the film Maman and in 1990 she worked with Bernardo Bertolucci for his movie The Sheltering Sky.
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