Natacha Atlas was born in Belgium, the daughter of an Egyptian father and an English mother. Natacha grew up in the Moroccan suburbs of Brussels, becoming fluent in French, Spanish, Arabic and English, immersing herself in Arabic culture, Egyptian "shaabi" pop and learning from childhood the raks sharki - belly dance - techniques that she uses to devastating effect on stage today. Even more striking than Natacha's dance moves, though, is her voice, which swoops and soars, blending unfettered talent and the complexities of Arabic musical theory into a burst of sound that is thrilling, immediate and evocative.

Natacha moved to England as a teenager and became Northampton's first Arabic rock singer. Since then has involved herself in a wide variety of musical projects. Dividing her time between the UK and Brussels, she sang in a variety of Arabic and Turkish nightclubs, and spent a brief stint in a Belgian salsa band called Mandanga. As she shuttled between Northampton and Brussels, however, she began to attract the attention of the Balearic beat crew ¡Loca! and Jah Wobble, then assembling his Invaders of the Heart. Wobble was looking for an eclectic Middle Eastern singer and fell in love with her voice.

In '91, both these projects bore fruit. Timbal by ¡Loca! started out as a track on Nation Records' Fuse Two compilation and became a massive club hit, while Wobble's Rising Above Bedlam - five tracks which Natasha co-wrote - attracted much critical acclaim and a Mercury award nomination. The success of Timbal cemented Natacha's relationship with the ground-breaking Nation Label, who introduced her to TransGlobal Underground (TGU), at that time enjoying Top 40 success with the anthemic Templehead. 

First guesting with them in 1991, she became, two years, later, a member of the core quartet of Transglobal, as lead singer and belly-dancer (the latter not some kind of limp tourist-pleasing wiggle but the real raq sharki). A couple of years later, it was the band's Tim Whelan, Hamid ManTu and Nick Page (a.k.a. Count Dubulah, now of Temple of Sound) who helped her to make her first solo album, Diaspora.

In parallel with the success of her solo albums she remained a full-time TransGlobal member, and TransGlobal constituted her backing band, until they left Nation in 1999, and they have remained allies throughout her subsequent career. Atlas has appeared on most TGU albums and its members are usually involved in the production of her solo albums.

Diaspora was released (in the UK by Beggars Banquet/Mantra, as are all her albums) in 1995. It combined the dubby, beat-driven global dance approach of TransGlobal with the more traditional work of Arabic musicians, and the result was a critically acclaimed collection of songs of love and yearning.

1997's Halim followed, and then Gedida in 1999 , both intelligently and naturally fusing Middle Eastern and European styles, and delighting an ever-increasing audience in both territories.

2000 saw the release of The Remix Collection, in which material from the first three albums was given the treatment by a variety of remixers, including Talvin Singh, Banco de Gaia, Youth, 16B, Klute, the Bullitnuts, TJ Rehmi, Spooky and TransGlobal.

Natacha's fourth album Ayeshteni was released in 2001. It bears, as its only English-language song, a particularly splendid example of how this singer can take on a classic and cast new light and excitement on it - a mighty rendering of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You."

2002's album, The Natacha Atlas and Marc Eagleton Project's Foretold in the Language of Dreams, was a considerable departure. No beats; a calm, shimmering album, involving a slightly smaller cast than usual, including Syrian qanun master Abdullah Chhadeh, whom Natacha married in 1999.

Apart from her own projects, Natacha remains very much in demand as a guest singer for the recordings and performances of a remarkably wide range of musicians, including Nitin Sawhney, Jocelyn Pook, the Indigo Girls, FunDaMental, Ghostland, Abdel Ali Slimani, Toires, !Loca, Musafir, Sawt El Atlas, Franco Battiato, Juno Reactor, Dhol Foundation, Jah Wobble, Jaz Coleman, Apache Indian (on his chart hit Arranged Marriage), Mick Karn, Jean-Michel Jarre's Millennium Night spectacular at the Pyramids, Jonathan Demme's new film The Truth About Charlie, and David Arnold's film scores including Stargate and Die Another Day.

The success of her earlier work, both in the Middle East and in the West, including a top ten hit in France, has shown just how alluring a musical bridging of the divide can be; the exotic Arabic scales, rhythms and textures open up new horizons for 4/4-entrapped western pop and create possibilities for the enormous and varied Middle Eastern music scene to communicate outside itself.

For a while, at least, there were signs of that happening in France when, alongside crossover success for Rai singer Khaled and others, Natacha Atlas had a top ten hit with her Arabicised version of Mon Amie La Rose, and won Best Female Singer at the Victoire de la Musique Awards.

Natacha Atlas has been spending more and more time in her father's homeland, Egypt. There, she works with members of TransGlobal Underground and Egyptian musicians. Her album, Ayeshteni, was recorded and composed there.

In 2003, she released Something Dangerous, a solo album of contrasts and collaborations, in which she zips Middle Eastern music straight to the heart of current UK pop, pulling in as she does so dance music, rap, drum'n'bass, RandB, Hindi pop, film music and French chanson.

On the Arabic side, Atlas used Abdullah Chhadeh and one of Egypt?s finest shaabi trumpet players, the late Sami El Babli (deceased in a car crash shortly after the recording), to whom the track is dedicated. Atlas and Sin?ad O?Connor, who last recorded together on John Reynolds?, Justin Adams? and Caroline Dale?s 2002 Ghostland album, trade aphorisms in 'Simple Heart".

With Mish Maoul (MNTCD 1038), released in April 2006, Atlas' career came full circle to touch base with her roots. The new album harked back in its sound and traditions to the music she grew up hearing in the Moroccan suburb of Brussels, particularly when the Golden Sound Studio Orchestra of Cairo makes its entrance. It also reunited her again with Temple of Sound's Nick Page (aka Count Dubulah), with whom she first worked in TransGlobal Underground  and who helped produce her very first solo album Diaspora.

Diaspora (Beggars Banquet/MCA, 1995)

Halim (Beggars Banquet, 1998)

Gedida (Mantra/Beggars Banquet, 1999)

The Remix Collection (Mantra/Beggars Banquet, 2000)

Ayeshteni (Mantra/Beggars Banquet, 2001)

Foretold in the Language of Dreams (2002)

Something Dangerous (Mantra/Beggars Banquet, 2003)

Best of Natacha Atlas (Mantra/Beggars Banquet, 2003)

Mish Maoul (Mantra/Beggars Banquet MNTCD 1038, 2006)

Frank Abraham
F-Cat Productions GmbH
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Fax. +49-(0)30 26 103 29 99
mail: frank@f-cat.de

Articles:

• World Beat at its Best
• New Natacha Atlas Album in Late April 06
• Natacha Atlas' Something Dangerous?
• Natacha Atlas: Lifting The Veil