She began composing guitar-based songs with a political message when she was a student in the mid-aughts. Shortly thereafter, in 2008, she had already been censored on her country’s radio stations by government decree. She left for Paris, from where she released her debut album, Kelmti Horra (2012), which mixed her folk origins and rock understood in the natural North African and Middle Eastern way, with an electronic touch inspired by Björk and Massive Attack. The result: a major success that spread unofficial anthems from France to Egypt, turning hers into the voice of the Arab Spring, just as she had already been the voice of Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution. She is a sort of contemporary granddaughter of Cheikha Rimitti, the pioneer who made the Maghreb go electric with messages of liberation and fearless resistance that have led her to tour the world.

In 2015, the performer represented her country at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. The award went to four Tunisian civil society organizations. Two years later came her second album, Ensen, acclaimed by international critics. In it she delves deeper into the creative freedom afforded by electronics. Produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson (Bjork, Sigur Rós), Emel mixes sounds recorded from traditional Tunisian instruments like the bendir (percussion) or the Arabic oud, along with forceful synthesizer rhythms. In 2019, her third LP came out: Everywhere We Looked Was Burning, a continuation of the trip-hopper path she set out on in her previous album. Last of all, in October 2020, she came out with the double album The Tunis Diaries, recorded in the spring of 2020, steeped through and through with a sense of nostalgia and memories. It is an intimate project that captures how she spent much of her time during the lockdown, a work created with her voice and an acoustic guitar alone, divided in two parts, Day and Night: in the first she includes former songs of her own revisited, sung in English and Tunisian, plus the new song Holm (Dream), while in the second part you can find versions of songs by artists including Leonard Cohen, David Bowie and Jeff Buckley.

The Tunisian singer will be performing on Friday, October 29 at 8:30 p.m. at Conde Duque.