Wifa will unveil her new album “Louken” on its digital release April 28, 2023, CD release June 2, 2023 and vinyl June 30, 2023 on Karam Prod / InOuïe Distribution. This new work will be presented live on stage on Wednesday May 31, 2023 at Studio de L’Ermitage (Paris).
Biography
Her brothers all musicians, Wifa grew up to the sound of the Beatles, the Scorpions, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Queen… and all the French Chanson classics. At age 10, she started discovering the pioneers of Middle Eastern Arabic music: Om Koulthoum, Abdelhalim, Warda, Najet Saghira, Fairouz, among others.
In 2003 she enrolled in the Higher Institute of Music in Sousse. Over six years of study, she discovered an instrument she has always loved, the guitar, with Emilio Saev. She also cultivated her classical Arabic music, its vast richness and its characteristic modals and rhythms, in contact with Khaled Slama, Sonia Mbarek, Senda Zinelabidine… She specialized in Western music and performance, and studied harmony and forms with Hafedh Makni, Fakher Hkima, Mohamed Garfi, Mehdi Trade/si… all renowned professors. At the same time, Wifa took up an interest in Latin American music, and Brazilian music in particular. She wrote one research paper on Villa-Lobos and another on the Brazilian influence on Arabic music.
In 2010, Wifa decided to move to France to further her musical training, guitar studies and research. In Paris she met excellent teachers and pedagogues, such as Geneviève Chanut and Michel Rolland, with whom she perfected her classical guitar playing. She began to perform in duets. To complement her studies at the Conservatoire Régional de Cachan, she enrolled at the CFMI d’Orsay, at the University of Paris Sud to become a contributing musician. She learned how to create artistic projects with children and choirs, to practice staging while also developing her voice through a variety of singing and vocal technique courses (Christine Bertocchi, Anne Lafilhe, Valérie Philippin, Solange Panis, Frédéric Ligier, among others).
After losing her mother in 2014, Wifa began writing and composing her own songs in Tunisian (and French) in a pop/folk/Middle Eastern style. She is a guitarist yes, but at that time, singing took over. Singing became a vital need through which to share her sorrow, her hopes and her dreams.
“The album Louken is for me an extension or deep dive, an echo, of my project Entre deux released in 2018. Since I have always felt like I’m somewhere between Tunisia, my homeland, of civilization and encounters, and France with everything it has taught me, between the East and the West, between the ego and my inner self. Though also between joy and sorrow, confidence and doubt, security and fear. I embrace all emotions. It is within this movement that I grow…“ Wifa
Wifa (lyrics, compositions, arrangements and voices) surrounded herself with:
Ratchopper (arrangements), Arno de Casanove (arrangements), Daniel Malet (guitares), Arno de Casanove (keyboards and trumpet), Goulven Kervizik (cello), Souhayl Guesmi (Ratchopper) (keyboards and beats), Skander Ben Abid (clarinet) Nidhal Jaoua (qanun), Momén Mahri (guitars), Mohamed Ben Salha (Kawala) et Damien Fleau (saxophone).
