Malika Zarra is a Moroccan-born, American/Moroccan singer, composer, and music producer now based in New York City known for singing in Moroccan Arabic, Berber, French, and English. Her music has been on the JazzWeek Top 20 radio chart in world music.

Biography

Zarra was born in Ouled Teima to a Berber mother from the High Atlas and a father from Tata. Her family moved to Paris when she was a child.
She studied at the jazz conservatories at Tours and Marseilles and studied privately with Sarah Lazarus and Françoise Galais. On the Paris scene, she appeared at venues including Festival L'esprit Jazz de St Germain, Sunside/Sunset, and Cité de la Musique. She started to draw serious attention by singing jazz standards to her own Arabic translations.

Subsequently, she performed or recorded with John Zorn, Makoto Ozone, Tommy Campbell, and Will Calhoun, among others.

She moved to New York City, eventually settling in Jersey City, in 2010, where she was signed on the Motéma Music label.

She has appeared at Carnegie Hall (opening for Bobby McFerrin), the London Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Opera House Lincoln Center, the Apollo Theater, the Festival du Monde Arabe, the Salzburg Jazz Festival, Festival Nuits d’Afrique Montreal, the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, Brooklyn Maqam Festival, Blue Note Jazz Club and many more.

Music

Zarra's music is influenced by traditional Berber music, Gnawa music, Chaabi, French pop music, jazz, house, funk, dance, and traditional African music. Specific personal influences include Hajja Hamdaouia, Rais Mohand, Farid al-Atrash, Um Kalthoum, Warda Al-Jazairia, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby McFerrin, Thelonious Monk, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha Franklin. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.