Amina Annabi (; born 5 March 1962) is a French-Tunisian singer-songwriter and actress. She finished second in the tied 1991 Eurovision Song Contest, held in Rome, after a countback, scoring equal 146 points alongside Carola from Sweden.

Early life

Amina was born into a family of musicians. Her father is French and her mother is Tunisian. Her grandmother was a musician and one of her uncles was involved in setting up the Tabarka Festival in

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, so Amina got the chance to see a number of music stars, going along to concerts by

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

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.

Career

Music

After recording an album with the Japanese musician Yasuaki Shimizu, she became extremely popular in Japan where she even toured in 1987. She did lead vocals on a track by

Haruomi Hosono , sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop f ...

and she launched a career in cinema. The same year she recorded her debut album, ''Yalil'' (''Night'') produced by Martin Meissonnier. The album received excellent reviews and it was released in 22 countries around the world. It was also released in the USA where it peaked at No. 5 at the ''Billboard'' world music charts. In 1991, Amina won 'Le prix Piaf' as Best Female Singer of the Year, then she went on to get involved in

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

's peace project during the Gulf War. Joining a host of international stars in the studio, Amina took part in the recording of an EP which featured a new version of

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

's "

Give Peace a Chance "Give Peace a Chance" is an anti-war song written by John Lennon (originally credited to Lennon–McCartney), and recorded with the participation of a small group of friends in a performance with Yoko Ono in a hotel room in Montreal, Quebec, C ...

". The same year she participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

held in Rome with one song of her own, entitled " Le Dernier qui a parlé...". She tied with the Swedish participant for the first place but due to

EBU The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

's rules, the French entry ranked 2nd and the award went to Sweden. Right after the Eurovision Contest, Amina recorded her second album, ''Wa di yé'' (''Love is Unique'') and she toured around France to promote it. In 1994

Malcolm McLaren Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English fashion designer and music manager. He was a promoter and a manager for punk rock and new wave bands such as New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and ...

asked Amina to guest on his album, ''Paris'', along with

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress. She is considered one of the greatest European actresses on film. In 2020, ''The New York Times'' ranked her as one of th ...

and

Françoise Hardy Françoise Madeleine Hardy (; 17 January 1944 – 11 June 2024) was a French singer-songwriter, actress, and author. She was known for singing melancholic, sentimental ballads. Hardy rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a leading figure in F ...

. After that Amina took a long break travelling to her homeland and she was back in 1999 with new albums and concerts around the globe. She read the French jury's votes during the final of Sweden's Eurovision qualifier Melodifestivalen 2010.

Cinema

Amina's first film credit was as a supporting role in the 1990 film ''Maman''. Later that same year she joined an international cast led by

John Malkovich John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and ...

and

Debra Winger Debra Lynn Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress. She starred in the films '' An Officer and a Gentleman'' (1982), '' Terms of Endearment'' (1983), and '' Shadowlands'' (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Awa ...

, where she played the role of a naked prostitute in the

Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci ( ; ; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved inte ...

movie '' The Sheltering Sky''. In 1992 she took part in Claude Lelouch's great fresco ''La Belle Histoire'', where she played a sister to

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

. In 1993 she appeared in Nicholas Klotz' ''The Sacred Night''. In 1993 Amina got her first lead female role opposite Spanish star

Miguel Bosé Miguel Bosé (born Luis Miguel Dominguín Bosé; 3 April 1956) is a Spanish-Italian Pop music, pop singer and actor. Early life Bosé was born in San Fernando Hospital in Panama City, Panama, the son of Italian actress Lucia Bosè (1931–202 ...

in ''La Nuit sacrée''. Later that year she got involved with an English film entitled ''

The Hour of the Pig ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' (released in the US as ''The Advocate'') where she plays a Moor that strips naked to offer herself to the movie's main character, the lawyer defending animals accused of witchcraft, in order to save a pig that is their only source of food for the coming winter. Russian director

Andrei Konchalovsky Andrei Sergeyevich Konchalovsky (; né Mikhalkov; born 20 August 1937) is a Russian film and theatre director, screenwriter, and producer. His filmmaking career spans over 60 years in Cinema of the Soviet Union, Soviet, Cinema of the United St ...

chose Amina to play in his film ''Ulysse'', which was broadcast on US networks.

Discography

Albums

* 1990, ''Yalil'' (

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

) * 1992, ''Wa di yé'' (Philips) * 1999, ''Annabi'' ( Mercury) * 2001, ''Nomad - The Best of Amina'' (Mercury) * 2015, ''Unveil'' ( EP) * 2022, ''La Lumière de mes choix'' (29 Music)

Songs

* 3ada El Ghazal * Allah Ya Moulena * Atame * Belly Dancer * Le dernier qui a parlé * Dis moi pourquoi * Ederlezi * Ezzayakoum * Habibi 2 * La mauvaise graine * Lirrili * Mektoubi * My Man * Waadileh * Ya baba * Zahra

Soundtracks

* '' Princesse Shéhérazade''

Filmography

* Maman (1990) * The Sheltering Sky (1990) * La Belle Histoire (1992) * La Nuit sacrée (1993) *

(1993) * Dead Man Walking (1995) *

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

(1999) * La Mécanique des femmes (2000) * Philosophale (2001) *

Inch'Allah Dimanche ''Inch'Allah Dimanche'' (, ) is a 2001 in film, 2001 French/Algerian film written and directed by Yamina Benguigui. It is the director's first feature-length fiction film, and the story is centred around the life of an Algerian immigrant woman in ...

(2001) * Dreams of Trespass (2002) * Les Marins perdus (2003) * Once Upon a Time in the Oued (2005) * Comme tout le monde (2006) * Cairo Time (2009)

References

External links

Profile from Radio France International
*
myspace page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Annabi, Amina 1962 births Living people Tunisian people of French descent Eurovision Song Contest entrants People from Carthage Tunisian emigrants to France French film actresses Tunisian film actresses 20th-century Tunisian actresses 21st-century Tunisian actresses 20th-century Tunisian women singers 21st-century French women singers