Mirwais Ahmadzaï
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Mirwais Ahmadzaï, more commonly known as Mirwais, is a Paris-based record producer and songwriter. He was born in Switzerland to an Afghan father and an Italian mother. He is a leader in the French style of progressive electronic dance music/progressive electronica. A former member of the defunct 1980s group Taxi Girl, he was re-discovered by Madonna in the late 1990s when he submitted a demo to her then-record label Maverick Records.
He signed to Sony for the 2000 studio album release Production which included the Madonna collaboration "Paradise (Not For Me)". It also spawned two club hits, "Disco Science" and "Naive Song". The former appeared in the Guy Ritchie film Snatch. In 1996, he contributed to Quebecois singer Carole Laure's electronic-oriented album Sentiments Naturels.
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[edit] Taxi Girl & Juliette et les independents
Known in his homeland France for the better part of two decades, Mirwais was a guitarist in the seminal punk group Taxi Girl for 8 years before forming acoustic outfit Juliette et les Independents with his girlfriend Juliette.
[edit] Solo career
Production is a full-length solo effort album released in August 2000. Prior to this, he released another solo studio album, named Mirwais (1990).
[edit] Madonna
Madonna recruited him for writing and production collaboration on her three latest studio albums; Music (2000), American Life (2003) and Confessions On A Dance Floor (2005). Credits include the title tracks from Music and American Life and the songs "Impressive Instant", "Don't Tell Me", "Hollywood", "Nobody Knows Me", "Love Profusion", "Nothing Fails" and "Paradise (Not for Me)". "Nobody Knows Me" is clearly one of Madonna's personal favourites, being given full remix treatment, prominently performed on her 2004 Re-Invention Tour and included on her I'm Going To Tell You A Secret live album. From Confessions On A Dance Floor, Mirwais co-produced Future Lovers, which Madonna chose to open her 2006 Confessions Tour with.
Mirwais contributed the following tracks to the Madonna albums;
- Music (2000): "Music"; "Impressive Instant"; "Nobody's Perfect"; "Paradise (Not For Me)"; "Don't Tell Me"; "I Deserve It".
- American Life (2003): "American Life"; "Love Profusion"; "Hollywood"; "Nobody's Know Me"; "Mother And Father"; "I'm So Stupid"; "Intervention"; "Die Another Day".
- Confessions On A Dance Floor (2005): "Future Lovers"; "Let It Will Be"; "Fighting Spirit".
He was also involved in the writing and production of the title track to the movie Die Another Day, co-written and performed by Madonna. The Music album was nominated for three Grammy awards including Record of the Year. "Music" won several MTV Europe awards. The song "Die Another Day" was nominated for a Golden Globe for Mirwais, best music producer of the year.
[edit] Fischerspooner
Mirwais also co-produced 2 tracks "Cloud" and "Never Win" on Fischerspooner's second studio album Odyssey, released in 2005.
[edit] YAS
He has recently been working on a project called YAS. An update was posted on the official website saying: "YAS is the name of Mirwais new project. The album will be out at the beginning of 2008.All songs are performed by Yasmine Hamdan. Is it some"Arabic Avant Guarde Music"? "
In an interview on the 13th of January 2007 in lecourrier.ch, Mirwais said "At the moment I work with an Arab singer called Yasmine Hamdan (one half of lebanon electro-duo Soapkills). The idea is that today, in Western culture, we hear about Arabs everyday - in a bad way, because of terrorism, etc - but we lack of cultural representations coming from those countries that could mix with the western culture, whereas this youth is eager to. I don't want to do world music, but a good western production with a real Arab identity." [1]
[edit] In popular culture
- The song "Naive Song" from his album "Production" was featured as the opening theme for the French television series Clara Sheller.
- The song "Naive Song" was used in an Apple iMac commercial.
- The song "Disco Science" was used in the Victoria Secrets commercial staring Gisele Bunchen.
- The song "Disco Science" was used in the film Snatch starring Brad Pitt in 2000.
- The song "Love Profusion" was used in the Estee Lauder commercial to promote the perfume, "Beyond Paradise".
- The song "Hollywood" was part of a medley with Madonna's hit song "Into The Groove" for a Gap commercial staring Madonna and Missy Elliott.
[edit] Trivia
- In a Dazed & Confused interview by Danny Corvini:
| “ | I ask him who else he’d like to work with in the future?
"Björk… I love her, she’s really talented," he quips without hesitation. "I like to work with people from a different side. I’m really intrigued to meet exceptional people." |
” |
