anaïs

French folk-blues chanteuse Anaïs first surfaced fronting the popular rock band Opossum before mounting a solo career in 2003. Born Anaïs Croze in Grenoble on August 20, 1976, she grew up in Marseille and later studied English in Aix-en-Provence. Anaïs led Opossum from 1999 to late 2002, when the band dissolved in the wake of its debut effort Excuse-Moi, J’voulais Te D’mander. Her first solo tour began the following spring, and in January 2004 she recorded her live debut LP, The Cheap Show, which hit retail a year later. The album’s peculiar mélange of chanson, folk, blues, pop and rap struck a chord and it became a massive word-of-mouth success in France, entering the top ten and eventually selling over half a million copies – a sensational amount for a country in which no live debut album had ever been a success before. The album was reissued in 2006 with bonus tracks and a DVD. The following year, Anaïs collaborated with LA punks The Blood Arm, and wrote and performed a one-woman musical entitled The Amber Story. Her first proper studio disc, The Love Album, produced in collaboration with hip-hop legend Dan the Automator, dropped in 2008, but was not followed by another new record until 2012, when A l'Eau de Javel hit stores. ~ Jason Ankeny & John D. Buchanan