Anaïs Croze

Infobox Musician
Name = Anaïs

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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Anaïs Croze
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Born = birth date and age|1976|8|20
flagicon|France Grenoble, France
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Occupation = Singer
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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.

Biography

Anaïs, who grew up in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône and studied English in Aix-en-Provence, was the lead singer, lyricist and bass guitarist 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 (March 2003) with personal songs full of wit and energy.

She is also famous for imitating or simply paying live tributes to well-known and established Francophone singers like Francis Cabrel, Eddy Mitchell, one-off 80s trio Bandolero, France Gall, Toulouse-based Occitan group Fabulous Trobadors, Italian-born Carla Bruni or French Canadian Lynda Lemay, and poking fun, among others, at teenage flirts ("Mon cœur, mon amour"), Scottish 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 and treason ("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, blues, chanson, rap and even raggamuffin and heavy metal.

Her self-acknowledged influences are quite eclectic: Judy Garland for her music hall artistry; Jerry Lee Lewis for his rough side; Brenda Kahn for derision; Canadian Peaches for minimalism; Chris Isaak and other country music singers; 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". Although Anaïs did learn musical theory and the violin as a little girl, and later the clarinet, she now confesses she can only play the guitar for her own songs and doesn't even know the names of chords and tunings! This relative innocence is undeniably part of her charm and talent, and only adds to the magic of her songs. Her irresistible sense of humour and interactive stage performances make Anaïs a promising and original "chanteuse", whose self-produced album and refreshing TV appearances have been praised by the public and professionals alike.

Her band Opossum was the "Découverte" (best newcomer) of the 2003 Printemps de Bourges, to which Anaïs returned two years later to be awarded two more trophies, 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. But 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.

While "The Cheap Show" has already sold more than 40,000 (as of March 2006) with word of mouth its only publicity, Anaïs released a studio version of her first album on February 27, featuring five new tracks, three of which were recorded during Lenoir's Black Session on French radio station France Inter. She was Alain Souchon's supporting artist at the Olympia in Paris in the early days of March.

Discography

Albums