Amina Annabi

Amina Annabi
Background Information
Origin	Carthage, Tunisia
Birth date	5 March 1962
Death date	N/A
Age	63
Eurovision Song Contest
Country	France
Year	1991
Song	C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison
Semi Position	N/A
Semi Points	N/A
Final Position	2nd (Tied 1st place, lost on countback)
Final Points	146

Amina Annabi is a French-Tunisian singer-songwriter and actress.

Amina was born into a family of musicians. Her father is Tunisian and her mother is French. Her grandmother was a musician and one of her uncles was involved in the in setting up the Tabarka Festival in Tunisia also. It was at the Tabarka music festival that Amina would get to meet the young Senegalese star Wasis Diop, who helped her compose her Eurovision song. They became friends and they had the opportunity to work together some years later. In 1975, Amina and her mother, a talented musician and composer, moved together to Paris. 

Three years later Amina formed her own group, after showing her talent in singing and dancing a variety of music styles, from soul to traditional aigypt songs. The group made appearances in many local schools but it was in 1982 when Amina started to build her solo career. By that time she got involved with Radio Nova, Paris' leading radio station in world music. One of the producers of the station was Martin Meissonnier. He started to work with Amina and soon they became a couple, and their daughter was born in 1986. In 1983 she won a music contest with a rap song, "Shehérazade", influenced by Arab rhythms. It was released as a CD single. Amina began performing in Paris around this time.

Amina released her debut album, Yalil, in 1989. It became a hit, released in 22 countries and even coming in #5 on the Billboard World Music Charts in the United States.

In 1991, Amina won Le prix Piaf as Best Female Singer of the Year, then she went on to get involved in Peter Gabriel's peace project during the Gulf War.

Joining a host of international stars in the studio, Amina took part in the recording of an EP which featured a new version of Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance". The same year she participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 held in Rome with one song of her own, entitled Le Dernier qui a parlé... . She tied with the Swedish participant for the first place but due to EBU's rules on a tie, the French entry ranked 2nd and the award went to Sweden. Had the current voting system been in place, she would've won.

The following year, she released her next album, Wa di yé, which featured collaborations with the co-writer of her Eurovision song, Wasis Diop. Despite the success of the album, she retreated from the music scene for a bit, starring in movies such as La Nuit sacrée and The Hour of the Pig. Occasionally, she would venture back to music, such as with Malcolm McLaren's Paris, but it wasn't until 1999 where she released her third album, Annabi.

She read the French jury's votes during the final of Melodifestivalen 2010.