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"Her name sounds like Italy, like Calibria. When she surges onto the stage, the impression is confirmed and her latinness becomes as obvious as the sun in Palermo. A warm voice, as rocky as a path in Sicily. On stage she is in a state of urgency and emotion.

"Zaniboni sings the blues and rock in her own way, a tad urban, a tad Italian. Whatever the stage, she invades it, sets it on fire" (La Revue du Spectacle , April-May 1991)

Despite her name, Zaniboni is French, but as the daughter of immigrants, she carries her Italian heritage with pride and passion. With very little mainstream media attention she has forged for herself an audience both in France and abroad, due both to her powerful and expressive voice and to what she chooses&endash;or is driven&endash;to express with that voice. Hers is a personal universe, as Frank Tenaille wrote in Le Monde de la Musique: "Zaniboni, between Artaud and Magnani, has a universe, a style..." Its depth and strength are immediately evident in her presence on stage: "Zaniboni is first of all a vocal powerhouse [...] Contrasting voices: maternal and warlike, bluesy and realistic, tender and sardonic, wounded and healing, French and Italian, brutal and reflective. But she is also an earthy presence, a solid stance on stage, a universe of dark sophistication and a "signature" audience which has made an icon of this artist neglected by the media" (Hélène Hazéra in Libération).

An artist rich in contradictions, as Pascale Bigot notes in Paroles et musique, "Zaniboni disturbs, unclassifiable. You think she's sombre, sad, a kind of beautiful black bird for sleepless nights, yet she has eyes full of laughter, of luminous sparks..." Discover her for yourself.

A few dates...

1987 First Prize at the Rencontres de la Chanson Françaises en Ile de France at l'Elysée-Monmartre. Selected for the Découvertes at the Printemps de Bourges festival, where she is elected "Coup de cœur" (Heartthrob). She is also nominated for the first "Piaf" award.

1988 Show at the Théâtre du Tourtour in Paris, accompanied by four musicians, unanimously acclaimed by the Parisian press. Numerous tours and festivals follow in France and abroad: Irak, Qatar, Germany, Switzerland.

1992 Three-week show at the Théâtre de la Trévise for the release of her first album, Chassé-Croisé.

1993 Tours in France and abroad: India, Pakistan, Nepal with the Alliances Françaises

1994 Zaniboni is co-produced by the Théâtre de Vesoul, where she records a second album, Zaniboni en public, after having participated in the operation "Chanson à domicile" organized by the Thé'V.

1996 Zaniboni settles into the Tourtour for six weeks for the creation of her new show (where Brian Thompson "discovers" her in early 1997)

1997 Festival Les Voix So, Les Voix La in Mâcon. Reprise in Paris at the "Ailleurs". Fête de la Musique at the Trois Pierrots in Liévin. Fall tour in the east of France and her American debut at L'Air du temps festival in Boston, where she played at Wellesley College's Jewett Auditorium, at Brookline High School and at Mistral..

 

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