Natacha Atlas

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Natacha Atlas
Background information
Born	March 20, 1964 (1964-03-20) (age 44)
Origin	Brussels, Belgium
Genre(s)	World music, Arabesque music
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Years active	1991–present
Label(s)	Nation Records (1993–1997), Mantra Records (1998–present)
Associated acts	Mandanga, Transglobal Underground
Website	www.mish-maoul.com

Natacha Atlas (born March 20, 1964) is a Belgian singer known for her fusion of Arabic and North African music with Western electronic music. She once termed her music "cha'abi moderne" (an updated form of Egyptian pop music). Her music has been influenced by many styles including Arabesque music, drum 'n' bass and reggae.

[edit] Early life

Atlas was born to a father of Moroccan, Egyptian, and Palestinian ancestry ^[1] who was born in Jerusalem and a British mother who had converted to Islam. Her paternal grandfather was born in Egypt but grew up in Palestine, immigrating to Europe at age 15.^[2] However, there has been some disagreement about the origins of Atlas's parents. David Bennun of Melody Maker, in an article on Nation Records's website about Transglobal Underground, reports that Atlas is "a Sephardic Jew on her father's side." Atlas has confirmed that her great great grandfather was Jewish, but she considers herself to be Muslim.^[3]

Atlas learned several languages, including Arabic, French, English, and Spanish, and has used them all in the course of her career. She grew up in a Moroccan suburb of Brussels, Belgium. After her parents separated, Atlas went to live in Northampton, England with her mother.^[4]

[edit] Early career and Transglobal Underground

She returned to Belgium at age twenty four and began her career with two jobs as a belly dancer and the lead singer of a Belgian salsa band. In 1991, she recorded the track "Timbal" with Balearic Beat on the album ¡Loca!. Atlas also worked with Jah Wobble composing five tracks for the LP Rising above Bedlam. Through the recording of ¡Loca!, Atlas met British labelmates Transglobal Underground (TGU), who at the time had a Top 40 hit, "Templehead." She became the lead singer and belly dancer for the group, which focused on mixing Eastern and Western sounds as well as other styles.

[edit] Solo career

Most of Atlas' albums have been produced by TGU. She continues to focus on her Middle Eastern 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 1999, Atlas collaborated with David Arnold on the song "One Brief Moment." The single featured a cover version of the James Bond theme song from the film You Only Live Twice; two years earlier Atlas had collaborated with Arnold on the album Shaken and Stirred, recording the song "From Russia with Love" for the eponymous film (originally performed by Matt Monro). 2000 saw her collaborate with Jean Michel Jarre for the track "C'est La Vie" on his album Metamorphoses. The track was released as a single. Due to her French-language tracks, Atlas is now quite popular in France. In the U.K., on the other hand, she has not experienced the same amount of success. Atlas hoped that this will change with her version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You".^{[citation needed]} 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."^{[citation needed]} In 2005, Atlas contributed the song "Just Like A Dream" (from Something Dangerous) to the charity album Voyces United for UNHCR. Her music has been used in a number of soundtracks. Her song "Kidda" was featured in the 2005 video game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories on Radio del Mundo. Additionally, her song "Bathaddak" is one of the songs included in the 2007 Xbox 360 exclusive video game Project Gotham Racing 4. Atlas was originally billed to star in and provide the soundtrack to the film Whatever Lola Wants, directed by Nabil Ayouch. However, shooting delays caused Atlas to only be involved in the film's soundtrack. Her song "Gafsa" (Halim, 1997) was used as the main soundtrack during the Korean film Bin-Jip (also know as 3-Iron) (2004) by Kim Ki-Duk. She participated in the piece "Light of Life (Ibelin Reprise)" for the soundtrack of Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. In 2007, Atlas collaborated with Belinda Carlisle for Belinda's 7th album Voila. She contributed additional vocals on songs "Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp," "La Vie En Rose", "Bonnie et Clyde" and "Des Ronds Dans L'Eau." Voila was released via Rykodisc in the U.K. on 5 February, 2007 and in the U.S. the following day. The 2007 film Brick Lane features 4 songs with vocals by Atlas, "Adam's Lullaby", "Running through the Night", "Love Blossoms" and "Rite of Passage". On May 23, 2008 Atlas released a new album, Ana Hina.^[5]

[edit] Personal life

Natacha has been married to the Syrian Kanun player Abdullah Chhadeh since 1999.^[6]

[edit] Music Themes

Atlas, the lead singer in Transglobal Underground and solo artist, uses her multi-ethnic background when singing lyrics a hybrid of culture and the Arabic world. She personally calls herself a “human Gaza Strip,” reflecting her diverse background and thoughts relating to the Muslim and Jewish world.^[4] For example, her lyrics say “Why are we fighting/When we’re all together/Let’s return to peace/Let’s make peace, we are brothers” (from her song “Laysh Nata’arak”). In her music, Atlas makes many political statements regarding Islam and Judaism and often takes a middle ground approach advocating for peace and harmony. Moreover, she personally considers herself a Muslim and phrases from the Quran are intertwined in her lyrics. Even her fan website reflects Atlas’s personal identification with Egypt and the Arabic culture. During an interview with Muslim Wake Up! Online magazine, Atlas talks about her identification with her European and Arabic roots by saying “There will always be two identities living within me: Arabic and European. When I was very young, I tried to ignore the Arabic side, my father’s side, because I saw it as foreign. But something happened in my late teens. I was at a nightclub in Brussels and I heard Arabic music, and I knew then that there was something inside of me that I wanted to go back to. So I ended up going to the other extreme. But as you mature, you realize that you have both inside you. That’s how God made me. These days I dream in two languages, and not a day goes by when I don’t end up using Arabic” ^[7] In 2001, Atlas was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Conference Against Racism.^[8]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

• 1995: Diaspora
• 1997: Halim
• 1999: Gedida
• 2001: Ayeshteni
• 2002: Foretold in the Language of Dreams (Marc Eagleton Project)
• 2003: Something Dangerous
• 2006: Mish Maoul
• 2008: Ana Hina

[edit] Compilations

• 2005: The Best of Natacha Atlas

[edit] DVDs

• 2005: Natacha Atlas: Transglobal Underground

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• World music
• Arabesque-pop music

[edit] External links and references

• Official promo website
• Authorized Natacha Atlas fan site
• Natacha Atlas: Last.FM Group
• Mantra Recordings Natacha Atlas label website
• Beggars US Natacha Atlas label website
• Fly Interview with Natacha Atlas
• Starfrosch Interview with Natacha Natacha Atlas
• TGU Transglobal Underground website