Born in Marrakesh Jan. 10th 1950, Sapho spends her child and teenage years in Morocco until the age of 16 before leaving for France and Switzerland with her parents. At 18, she moves to Paris where she discovers the Quartier Latin and attends the classes of Antoine Vitez for a while. In parallel, she busks on the streets of the capital. A friends of hers, Hervé Cristiani - writer of hit 'Il est libre Max') - takes her to audition for Le Petit Conservatoire de Mireille.
Forsaking her theatre ambitions, she embraces the pseudonym of Greek poetess Sapho and starts visiting record companies which successfully results in a 1st album deal with RCA in 1977, Le balayeur du Rex. This 1st piece of work expresses all of her strong and singular personality. Three years later, she records in London a new album, Janis, where she delivers an alternative and revolted rock influenced by late 60s American music, fro The Doors to Janis Joplin. Follow Le Paris stupide in 1981, Passage d'enfer in 1982 and Barbarie in 1983, three album centred on the denunciation of racism and machismo.
With Passions, in 1985, the rock-labelled singer comes back to her roots in the Jewish-Arabic world she grew up in. She performs at the Bataclan in Paris and offers the audience rock music but also a tribute to Egyptian music with tunes by diva Oum Kalsoum. Her admiration for this great Arabic singer will see her perform her repertoire in the Holy City. In January 1987, she releases a new opus El sol y la luna (EPM). The themes developed there show once again her political commitment, her sensibility towards poverty and human (man and woman) rights issues. She then performs at Parisian mythical Olympia with a Gnawas (mystical fellowship descending from black slaves) group specially come from Morocco. Later she will bring into the light the Sheikhates, traditional Maghrebi artists usually singing at partis and weddings. Always up to new challenges, she takes part in an contemporary opera by Michael Levinas La conférence des oiseaux and will also play the part of Jenny in the Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill's opera L'Opéra de quat'sous.
"The singer of the world", as she names herself, is musically back in Oct 1991 with an album and a show (at la Cigale in Paris) titled La traversée du désir, sung in Arabic, French and English. A show reprised in 1993 with appearances at Eurockéennes de Belfort, Francofolies de la Rochelle and the Exposition Universelle de Séville. She then imagines a new album, released in May 1996, Jardin andalou. This « musical garden » includes various sonorities, often acoustic, with Arabic and Andalusian influences and a ouple of rock incursions. For many years a active campaigner for the Israel-Palestine peace process, Sapho performs in Gaza.
The situation is tense but the singer is determined. The success she gets on this occasion only comforts her feelings and opinions. Two years after Jardin andalou, Sapho bonds with the heat of Maghreb with a new album, La Route nue des hirondelles followed by a show at Auditorium Saint-Germain in Paris. In 2000, she performs the show through France, Netherlands, Switzerland and Morocco then commits herself to acting and reading. Indeed,, invited by la Maison de la poésie in Paris, the singer starts representations devoted to the texts and poems by 4 authors : Garcia Lorca, Rilke, Baudelaire and Michaux. She also offers her warm and bewitching voice with her perfect elocution to read the Tales from a Thousand and One Nights for publishing company Frémeaux & Associés (La Librairie Sonore).
In March 2002, the singer performs in Africa : Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea. Then she leaves for Middle east in May to perform in Baghdad and Nazareth. Meeting a huge success. A new album follows, Orients (Virgin), for which she gathers the Nazareth orchestra, big oriental orchestra mixing 20 Muslim, Jewish and Christian musicians with new technologies artists. Flamenco guitarist Vicente Almaraz completing the whole. Lebanese conductor and friend of hers Elie Askhar is entrusted with the engineering of the record released in February 2003.
Genuine multi-faceted artist, Sapho has always been leading both her artistic career and a battle for the causes she thinks are essential. Early 2004, she becomes an ambassador for the feminine cause for a month when interpreting Eve Ensler's play Les Monologues du Vagin. The show, compiling words of women from all around the world, presents the feminine organ in a comical but nonetheless frank light.
Sympathyzing with women's rights and definitely with the freedom of expression, Sapho takes part in 2005 at l'Olympia in a concert to support Florence Aubenas, Hussein Hanoun and Giulana, then held as hostages in Irak, next other international artists and personalities. Then she works at La maison de la Poésie de Paris to cover songs by Léo Ferré, with a flamenco touch (released by Basaata productions).
Multiple artist, Sapho also published numerous novels (Douce Violence ; Ils préféraient la lune ; Un mensonge ; Patio, Opéra intime) and a book of drawings (Sous la coupole). She is back on stage today with Universelle, a unique and rich album produced by Basaata productions and released by Frémeaux & Associés, announcing a tour organised by LPLC Productions with a promotion dealt with by Music Media Publishing.
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