- Najoua Belyzel
-
Najoua Belyzel 
Background information Born 15 December 1981 Origin Nancy, Lorraine, France Genres Pop rock, electronic Occupations Singer Years active 2005–present Labels Scorpio Music, Sony Music Entertainment Website Official site (in French) Najoua Belyzel (born Najoua Mazouri 15 December 1981 in Nancy, France) is a French pop rock/electronic singer of Moroccan-Egyptian descent.
Contents
Biography
Najoua was born in Nancy, and grew up in a large family with three sisters and two brothers. Her father is Morrocan and her mother is Egyptian. Since childhood, she had shown an interest in music, and by age 14, had begun writing her own songs.
Najoua originally studied law beginning in 2001 at the University of Nancy, but left for Paris to pursue a career in music. She met some success after a casting call when she joined the group Benoît, who had a successful single called "Tourne-toi Benoît", which touched on the subject of homosexuality. The later singles from the group, however, only met moderate success, and eventually the group parted ways.
She kept on working with the group's songwriter Christophe Casanave, whose work had already been performed by popular French acts Steeve Estatof and Marc Lavoine. The two worked together on a song called "Stella", which would later appear on her debut album.
The song "Née de l'amour et de la haine" was Belyzel's first demo in 2002.
In 2005, Najoua released her first single, titled "Gabriel", an electric-pop dance track. The song became a huge hit in France, and peaked at number three on the Top 40 charts in France. It dealt with both homosexuality or even bisexuality and the impossible and pure love for an angel. The video was shot in an abbey. On 29 May 2006, she released her debut album titled Entre deux mondes, which debuted at #7 on the French charts and at #1 on the iTunes France music store. In late 2006 and early 2007, she embarked on a tour with other artists across France and Francophone Europe to promote her album. Two other singles were released, "Je Ferme les Yeux" in June 2006, which was also an electro-pop title but it met with less success than "Gabriel". The theme was a prayer to God to make this world better. The third single was "Comme Toi" a song about duality and schizophrenia. The video clip featured two Najoua, a warrior-like blond and a trapped brunette. The album is mainly electro-pop with some ballads. It deals with many different themes such as love, friendship (Stella), war, pedophilia (Docteur Gel) her distress and disappointment when Najoua came to Paris (Bons Baisers de Paris)
Najoua Belyzel released a new single, "Quand revient l'été", on 10 September 2007.
She has been compared[by whom?] to Mylène Farmer, mainly because the video clip for "Gabriel" was shot in the same abbey as one of Mylene's clip "Je te rends ton amour") and because they write about similar themes, but Najoua says she never wanted to copy Mylene and that they both have their distinctive universes.
During the Summer 2008 she released on the Iinternet a cover song of Marie Laforêt "Viens, Viens", but it was not meant to be a single. Najoua returned with the new single "La Bienvenue". Some excerpts of the video clip were shown to the fans in December and the final clip was shown on TV in February. The single became available on legal donwloading platforms on 13 February. The song is about a girl who feels rejected in this world and who does not see the good in her. The video features a mannequin becoming alive (played by Najoua) but who is then disappointed by the cruelty of the world and finally decides to return to her previous state.
Najoua's new album Au Feminin was released on 23 November 2009,[1] three years after the first one. It includes a duet with Marc Lavoine called "Viola" as well as songs called Hey Hey Hey, Ma Sainte-Nitouche, La Trève. Her song "Née de l'amour et de la haine" is also included.
Discography
Albums
- 2006 – Entre deux mondes (Also known as Entre deux mondes en équilibre), #7 France, #46 Switzerland, 160,000 sales.[2]
- 2009: Au Féminin #66 France 10,000 sales[3]
Singles
Year Single FR QUE BEL/Fr RUS GER SWI Album 2002 Tourne-toi Benoit (with Benoit) 16[4] - - - - - - Comme Casanova (with Benoit) 79[5] - - - - - 2005 Gabriel 3[6] 1 1 8 62 20 Entre deux mondes 2006 Je ferme les yeux 13[7] 5 21 43 - 90 Comme toi 16[8] - 37 - - 92 2007 Quand revient l'été 10 - 25 - - - Au féminin 2009 La bienvenue 9[9] - - - - - M (Hey, Hey, Hey) 20[10] - - - - - 2010 Ma Sainte-Nitouche - - - - - - References
- ^ Au Féminin: Najoua Belyzel, Marc Lavoine: Amazon.fr: Musique. Amazon.fr. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
- ^ – Najoua Belyzel – Entre deux mondes. Lescharts.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
- ^ "Au féminin", le retour de Najoua Belyzel. Chartsinfrance.net. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
- ^ – Benoit – Tourne toi Benoit. Lescharts.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
- ^ – Benoit – Comme casanova. Lescharts.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
- ^ – Najoua Belyzel – Gabriel. Lescharts.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
- ^ – Najoua Belyzel – Je ferme les yeux. Lescharts.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
- ^ – Najoua Belyzel – Comme toi. Lescharts.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
- ^ Tops : seule Najoua Belyzel se dιmarque. Chartsinfrance.net. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
- ^ Najoua Belyzel – M (hey hey hey). lescharts.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-04.
External links
- www.belyzel-najoua.com (in French)
Categories:- French female singers
- French-language singers
- French people of Moroccan descent
- French people of Egyptian descent
- French people of Arab descent
- Living people
- 1981 births
- People from Nancy
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
