Biography

Natacha Atlas (born March 20, 1964) is a singer born in Belgium. She is known for her fusion of Arabic and North African music. She once termed her music "cha'abi moderne" (i.e. an updated form of Egypt's pop music). It includes also many influences from styles like hip hop, drum and bass, reggae and so on.

While "Option" magazine explained, "(Atlas) has a beautiful voice, which sounds curiously like a blend between traditional Middle Eastern singers and Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins", "The Wire" wrote, "buoyed by her devotional calling and the chatter of programmed beats, she swoops, glides and goes reaching for the heavens in a way that needs no translation". "CMJ New Music" praised her for having "explored the far reaches of the ethnotechno spectrum".

The daughter of an English mother and a Sephardic Jew father, Atlas grew up in a Moroccan suburb of Brussels and was heavily influenced by the Arabic culture. In addition to learning to speak French, Spanish and Arabic, Atlas was trained in the traditional techniques of raq sharki or belly dancing. Moving to England as a teen, Atlas quickly attracted attention as the first Arabic rock singer in Northampton.

Dividing her time between England and Brussels, Atlas sang in Arabic and Turkish clubs and appeared briefly with a Belgian salsa band, Mandanga. In the early 1990s, Atlas became involved with England's alternative rock scene, appearing on Loca!'s single, "Timbal," Apache Indian's single, "Arranged Marriage," and Jah Wobble's album, Rising Above Bedlam, which included five songs she had co-written. Accepting an invitation to join Transglobal Underground, as lead singer and belly dancer, Atlas was featured on the band's albums, Dream Of 100 Nations and International Times. 

Atlas continued to work with Wobble, as well, co-writing and singing on three tunes from Wobble's album, Take Me To God, in 1994. Atlas' debut solo album, Diaspora, released in 1995, featured accompaniment by Tunisian singer-songwriter Walid Rouissi and Egyptian composer and oud player Essam Rashad. Halim followed in 1997 and Gedada in 1999. 

Atlas worked with soundtrack composer David Arnold on the score of the Kurt Russell film, Stargate. In 2000 she released a collection of remixes of her life's work thus far. Ayeshteni appeared the following spring. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide

Early Life: People tend to disagree about the origins of Natacha Atlas's parents. She has denied claims that her father is a Sephardic Jew; she admits to being "maybe 10 percent or something." She says: "[The claim that my father is Jewish] is one of those things where someone had a grudge against me and wanted to hurt me. My great-great-grandfather was Jewish. But Jews have always been part of Arab society, so its not so unusual for someone to find out that they have Jewish blood. At the end of the day, we really are so connected".

Her mother is said to be an English Muslim. Natacha herself is Muslim. Natacha referred to herself as a "human Gaza Strip" conflicts between my European and Arabic sides will continue, my genetic code almost inevitably made me a nomad" Natacha grew up in the Moroccan suburb of Brussels, where she was introduced to the art of raqs sharki (belly dance) and cha'abi (modern Egyptian pop music).

Natacha learned several languages, i.e. English, French, Spanish and Arabic – in the course of her career, and she uses all of them. After her parents separated she went to Northampton with her mother and became the first Arabophone rock singer. Later on, she had two jobs – belly dancing on the one hand, and being the lead singer of Belgian salsa band. In 1991 she recorded the track "Timbal" with Balearic Beat (¡Loca!). She also worked together with Jah Wobble, composing five tracks for the LP "Rising above Bedlam." Thanks to Nation Records, which recorded ¡Loca!, Natacha met labelmates Transglobal Underground who at the time had a Top 40 hit, "Templehead."

Transglobal Underground: She became lead singer and belly dancer of the very eclectic crew TGU who focuses on mixing Eastern and Western sounds as well as other styles. Count Dubulah of TGU says about former TGU head: "Nat is not an ordinary human ... Natacha is a special talent, being, she is a supremely and she doesn't even seem talented weirdo. She's a lovely to realise it - she's got the person; she's just got a few same phrasing and fluency character traits that need as Frank Sinatra ... kicking the shit out of. Like her Jah Wobble temper - she came at me with a knife once."

Solo Career: Now TGU has a new lead singer, it also focuses on African sounds rather than the East. Nevertheless, TGU continue producing tracks for Natacha Atlas. Most of all of Nat's albums have been produced by TGU. Nat always focused on and continues to focus on her Eastern roots, as the titles of her albums imply: "Diaspora" (1995), "Halim" (1997) (in honour of Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez), "Gedida" (1998) and "Ayeshteni" (2001). 

In an interview with French mag "L'affiche", Natacha stated that she's very interested in her roots; and that's why she sings in Arabic, to find her identity and to reconnect with her roots. 

Nevertheless, she also likes modern music like Salsa or Reggae. ("Je m'interesse énormément à mes origines. C'est pour cela que je chante en arabe, pour trouver mon identité et me reconnecter avec mes racines. D'un autre côté, j'aime les musiques modernes: la Salsa, le Reggae...")  

Her father is quite pleased about that, and – Natacha continues – he even claims that the Atlas mountains gave their name to his family. ("(mon père) est fier de moi parce que je m'interesse à notre famille, d'où elle vient. Ce qui est mignon et marrant, c'est qu'il croit – ou du moins il rêve – que notre nom est lié à un ancien roi de Mauritanie. C'est celui qui d'une chaine de montagnes est c'est dejà ça!")

Due to French-language tracks – especially her adaptation of Françoise Hardy's "Mon ami la rose" – Natacha is now quite popular in France. In the UK, on the other hand, she hasn't had her breakthrough yet. Natacha hopes that this will change with her new version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You". 

She is not very happy about the way her music is perceived in the UK: "Someone from the NME rang us about a feature we're to do with them and said 'We don't want it to be about the multi-cultural angle'. In other words that fad is over. And I'm personally insulted... what other... angle is there for us? I get sick of it all.

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