Alabina

Alabina is a French-based group that performs a mix of world music: Middle Eastern, Arabic, French, Hebrew, and Spanish Gypsy music. Alabina consists of lead singer Ishtar, who does the female vocals, and the band Los Niños de Sara, who provide male vocals and music.

Although the name of the group is often written "Alabína", the accent on the "i" is an unnecessary addition. The mistake may be attributed to the group's use of the font Papyrus on its album covers. In this font, dotted i's look as though they carry accents.

Name

According to Alabina.org, the word is Arabic and Alabina has two meanings: "let's go" and "God is between us." The name comes from the title of Alabina's first song. It is also the name of the group's first album.

Group

Alabina consists of lead singer Ishtar, who does the female vocals, and the band Los Niños de Sara, who provide male vocals and music.

Ishtar

Ishtar was born and raised in Israel. Her parents are Jewish from Moroccan and Egyptian descent. She speaks and sings in Arabic, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and English; she also says she "half-speaks" "Moroccan." Ishtar began performing in clubs at age 15 and continued even in the Israeli army, where she served as a helicopter technician. Though she was born Eti Zach, she chose the name "Ishtar," a Mesopotamian goddess, because her grandmother called her Ester, which "with her Egyptian accent it sounded like Ishtar," she said.

Ishtar (singer)

Ishtar (born Esther (Eti) Zach, on 10 November 1968) is an Israeli pop singer who performs in Arabic, Hebrew, Bulgarian, French, Spanish, Russian and English. She is best known for her work as the front vocalist of the French-based band Alabina, and her solo pop hits such as C'est La Vie, Last Kiss, and Habibi (Sawah).

Biography

Early life

Eti Zach was born on 10 November 1968 in Kiryat Atta, near Haifa and was raised in Israel. She was born to an Egyptian-Jewish mother and a Moroccan-Jewish father, both of Sephardi-Mizrahi heritage, who had immigrated to Israel earlier.

She sings in Arabic, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Russian, and English. In addition, she says she "half-speaks Moroccan Arabic".

Ishtar began performing in clubs at age 14 and continued even while enrolled in the IDF. Though she was born Eti Zach, she chose the name 'Ishtar', a Mesopotamian Goddess, because her grandmother called her Ester, which "with her Egyptian accent it sounded like Ishtar", she said.

C. Jérôme

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Claude Dhotel (born 21 December 1946 in Paris, France; died 14 March 2000 of cancer), better known by his stage name C. Jérôme, was a French singer.

Biography

Raised by his grandparents, he grew up in Champenoux, a village of Meurthe-et-Moselle near Nancy, France. At 16 he starred in "The Storms", a rock'n'roll band. He then tried his luck in Paris where he attended the Golf-Drouot to mix with personalities of the music world. He finally met Jean Albertini who became his producteur.

Career

He had a musical career of three decades and sold 26 million records and was particularly popular in the 1970s.

In 1995, C. Jérôme became a radio announcer at Radio Monte Carlo where he presented a daily morning show entitled Les Années tubes with Claire Cardell. In 1996, he moved to TF1 for a daily oldies show La Chanson trésor. He also joined Michel Drucker in Vivement dimanche for presenting a section on oldies.

Discography

Bonnie Tyler

Bonnie Tyler (born Gaynor Hopkins; 8 June 1951) is a Welsh singer. She is known for her distinctive husky voice, resulting from an operation to remove vocal nodules in the mid-1970s. Tyler came to prominence with the release of her 1977 album The World Starts Tonight and its singles "Lost in France" and "More Than a Lover". Her 1978 single "It's a Heartache" reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, and number three on the US Billboard Hot 100.

In the 1980s, Tyler ventured into rock music with songwriter and producer Jim Steinman. He wrote Tyler's biggest hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart'", the lead single from her 1983 UK chart topping album Faster Than the Speed of Night. Steinman also wrote Tyler's other major 1980s hit "Holding Out for a Hero". She had success in mainland Europe during the 1990s with German producer Dieter Bohlen, releasing three albums. In 2003, Tyler re-recorded "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with singer Kareen Antonn. Their bilingual duet topped the French charts.

Patrick Hernandez

Patrick Hernández (born 6 April 1949 in Le Blanc-Mesnil, Seine-Saint-Denis) is a French singer who had a worldwide hit with "Born to Be Alive" in 1979.

Biography

Born to a Spanish family, Hernández grew up in the 1960s and was interested in music. He toured dancehalls and ballrooms of southern France with a number of groups over the next decade. Hernández met his music partner Hervé Tholance, an arranger, guitarist, and vocalist, during that period. The two formed a duo and started achieving local success backing French musicians such as Francis Cabrel, Laurent Voulzy, and the French group Gold.

In 1978, Hernández met the producer Jean Vanloo with disco music at its peak, and signed a recording contract. Hernández went to Waterloo, Belgium to work on songs.

"Born to Be Alive"

After working for about a year, the songs were released on the Aariana sub-label Aquarius Records (in France) in November 1978. The first single that was released was the disco song "Born to Be Alive". Its success was immediate, and in January 1979, Hernández received his first gold record from Italy. The song spread throughout Europe, where it hit #1 in France in April and remained there until July. By then, the United States had caught on, and after some remixing, the record was signed to the A-Tom-Mik label and later Columbia Records. The remixed version was released on a commercial 12" single, and it peaked in the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart at #1 and crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at #16. It sold over one million copies in the US. The track reached #10 in the UK Singles Chart. By year's end, Hernandez had racked up fifty-two gold and platinum record awards from more than fifty different countries.