Released: 2011 Tracklist: 1. First Love 2. Maybe Just a Flu 3. I Want to Spend a Day Away 4. I Like Her 5. Caribbean Boys 6. How Could I Believe 7. I Love You 8. Before a Drink 9. Sad 10. Si j'avais su que notre amour (Dreamt Duet With Chris Isaak) 11. Farniente 12. Who's the Girl In the Photograph 13. J'sais Pas 14. Qui C'est La Fille Sur La Photo *Anaïs, full name Anaïs Croze, is a French singer. She was born in Grenoble, Isère, France on August 20, 1976. Her first album, called The Cheap Show, was recorded live in January 2004 and released in 2005. The Cheap Show, a pun on "peep-show", is titled such as she is the only musician on stage and makes extensive use of her JamMan pedal. Anaïs, who grew up in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône and studied English in Aix-en-Provence, was the lead singer, composer and lyricist in Opossum from 1999 to late 2002 when the renowned band split after about 200 gigs in France, Switzerland and even Germany, and a seven-track CD called Excuse-moi, j'voulais te d'mander (Sorry, I Wanted To Ask You). Anaïs then went on a successful solo tour in March 2003 with personal songs and characters full of wit and energy. Her show, the Cheap Show, was based on raw rock energy, minimalism and stand-up, a guitar and a loop pedal she used for voice only. She is also famous for her elastic voice, imitating or simply paying live tributes to well-known and established Francophone singers like Francis Cabrel, Eddy Mitchell, Latin (Shakira), American (N.E.R.D, Kelis), Italian-born Carla Bruni or French Canadian Lynda Lemay, and poking fun, among others, at teenage flirts (Mon cœur, mon amour), Scottish or New Orleans folklore, and various accents ranging from typical Scots to Québécois. Anaïs, who started singing as a child in a choir and has always wanted to be an actress and more recently a film director, could be described as a modern trobairitz inasmuch as she not only sings about herself and the world around her but also acts and plays the parts of caricatured stereotypes of our times. Although her main concerns seem to be love (Christina), she also tackles more serious problems, but on a light and funny note as ever, like racism (Elle sort qu'avec des blacks), depression and solitude (La vie est dure). Her musical style is a happy mixture of folk, pop blues, chanson, rap and even raggamuffin and heavy metal. Her self-acknowledged influences are quite eclectic: Judy Garland and Bette Midler for their music hall artistry; Jerry Lee Lewis for his rough or/and country music side; Brenda Kahn for derision; Canadian Peaches for minimalism; Chris Isaak and others like Etta James; the Beach Boys; Marie Dubas, a French interwar cabaret entertainer whom she quite resembles and describes as "a true hurricane of a woman"; and the White Stripes because "they understood everything about blues and rock". Her band Opossum was a Découverte (nominee as a newcomer band) of the 2003 Printemps de Bourges, to which Anaïs returned two years later to be awarded two trophies this time, the Attention Talent Disque for best new album and the Attention Talent Scène for best new stage artist, which made her a most remarkable winner in this festival. The Cheap Show, live in Marseille, was her first album. The auto produced recording of her show ended up selling 500,000, after first starting with word of mouth its only publicity. Anaïs released a studio version of her first single on February 27, The new edition of "the cheap show" featuring five new tracks, three of which were recorded during Lenoir's Black Session on French radio station France Inter. The Cheap Show is an exception in the French music industry since it was the first time an artist achieved success with a live album as a first album. She was Alain Souchon's supporting artist at the Olympia in Paris in the early days of March 2006. Though she was shortlisted for the 2005 Prix Constantin and more recently the 2006 edition of Victoires de la musique as Révélation scène de l'année (best new stage artist of the year), she failed to win either of the much-coveted accolades this time around, nevertheless, her fresh performance on TV at the Victoires de la Musique put her album on top of the French charts. In 2007, she worked with L-A band the Blood Arm for a duet version of their song "do i have your attention". She wrote a song for French actress Karin Viard in Maïwenn musical film, "le bal des actrices". She appeared lately in the French channel canal + short TV series "Rien dans les Poches" by Marion Vernoux with Emma De Caunes. She wrote a whole pop show for indie festival lfsm in 2007 called "the Amber story" in which she played and sang all characters. Her 2nd album The Love Album, her first studio album released on November 3, 2008, is produced by Hip hop master Dan the Automator to whom she confessed having a crush on his Lovage album with Mike Patton and Jennifer Charles), his "organic" groovy sound, and sense of humour.

• published: 11 Jan 2014
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