Zaho de Sagazan

Less than a year after the release of her first album, Zaho de Sagazan has already reached dizzy new heights, becoming the first artist to win four French Music Awards in a single night: Album of the Year, Best Original Song, Best Female Newcomer, Best Newcomer Live Act.

The Best Live Newcomer has indeed been busy these last 12 months with 116 concerts and two sold- out Zenith Arenas while she currently prepares to grace a score of summer festivals and headline major venues in France, not forgetting to also visit non-French-speaking parts of Europe. Despite adding to that with two of the most coveted prizes at the Music Moves Europe Awards - the Jury Prize and the Audience Award - Zaho isn’t looking back. Who could have predicted such an unprecedented first tour? The record sales tell the same story, with her debut album certified gold on Christmas Day and platinum on its first anniversary.

Upon its release on March 31, 2023, La Symphonie des éclairs only confirmed the fast-growing buzz – her first shows, emerging talent at the Printemps de Bourges festival, an artist residence at the Francofolies de la Rochelle, the Chorus des Hauts-de-Seine prize, the TransMusicales de Rennes…

The first cohorts of fans are already telling their younger siblings in Zaholatry how they felt when they encountered her remarkable voice for the first time. If it were a type of material, it would be a metallic velvet; the texture both bouncy and rough; the movement somewhere between a silk-lifting breeze and the ripple caused by skimming stones…While Zaho de Sagazan’s voice has a peculiar character to it, it’s one that soon feels familiar before becoming powerfully intimate: That of a sister, a best friend, a shaman, a therapist?

The young artist surprises with her repertoire at the unlikely crossroads of Barbara and alternative electro artist Koudlam or Christophe and Cold Cave, where French introspective chanson meets the rightful heirs of Kraftwerk. Her voice cuts through the emotions, tearing apart the peacefully seductive girl-song blueprint. This very voice had made her feel uncomfortable during her childhood: "It made me self-conscious because many things about me were the opposite of the feminine and I couldn't hide my voice."

But Zaho harnessed it as she did her music, by working relentlessly and finding great pleasure in doing so. At first, her piano lessons were associated with the chocolate doughnuts she got as rewards during the classical training she started in 6th grade. While she eventually got sick of playing, she rekindled her love for it a few years later. Her obsessive and self-taught passion is reflected in her current writing as she launches the steady melodies, repeating the same two chords to the point of hypnosis.

She developed a passion for classical French chanson during her teens, admiring Maurice Fanon’s and Barbara’s wordplays respectively on “L’Écharpe” and “Du bout des lèvres”, songs that touch on the most intimate truth of emotions. She also passionately explored the type of dark electronica that seeps deep into the soul and thumps through the body with great fury.

It took her some time to admit to herself that her calling was to be an artist. At one time, she was tempted by working in healthcare, eventually channelling that kind spirit to bring her closer to her current work as a singer – "I'm the friend you call when you want to talk for three hours." But an almost natural law took precedence: her family is anything but ordinary since her father used to travel a lot with his spectacular artistic performances. Of his five daughters, three are in the artistic world. Everything came together at once: Zaho, always the great dreamer, grew up guided by the maternal insight of ‘putting herself in others’ shoes’, which was both a charitable virtue and a wonderful way to hone her observation skills. Whether her songs are written from the “I”, ”you” or “he” perspective, the subject never changes: a person who loves, suffers, is hesitant, looks at themselves in the mirror, and seeks to explore themselves further… Throughout the album, Zaho de Sagazan alternates between spleen and ecstasy, elated highs and sobering lows, desire and sublimation as she dives into couple relationships, romantic fantasies, daring self-portraits, troubling dreams and meditation or simply invites you to follow her into her liberated and ardent world. Zaho is truly a unique and distinctive artist, one of today’s timeless voices.

In one year, this unique artist has established herself as a phenomenon in the long story of French Chanson, as evidenced by her many professional accolades (The Sacem Revelation Prize, French Music Publisher Association Prize...) and the media whirlwind, not least on social media. She recently completed her collection with a few welcome musical offerings such as a radiant EP of covers released right before Christmas, – including M’s La Bonne Étoile, Brigitte Fontaine‘s La vie est belle and 99 Luftballons by Nena. Or her performance of David Bowie’s Modern Love, that won over the heart of jury president Greta Gerwig in front of an audience of international movie stars during the Cannes Film Festival opening ceremony.

Looking back at the road traveled since the release of La Symphonie des éclairs as Zaho de Sagazan collects the glorious and stellar moments one after the other, we are not just witnessing a dizzying spell, but history in the making.