Malika Ayane

Malika Ayane was born in Milan in 1984, the daughter of a Moroccan father and an Italian mother. Her musical training began at the ‘Giuseppe Verdi’ Conservatory in Milan, where she studied cello from 1995 to 2001. In the same period she joined the Voci Bianche Chorus of La Scala, contributing not only as chorus member but frequently also as soloist.
In 2007 Malika met Caterina Caselli, who was immediately impressed by her fresh, original and “spicy” style. This was the expression used by Paolo Conte to describe Malika’s voice. "The colour of this voice is a deep orange with a bitter and rare spicy flavour", he said. Malika’s very first recording project, entitled ‘Malika Ayane’, was released in the autumn of 2008. The album, based on a project by Caterina Caselli Sugar, is a melting pot of talents: producer and arranger Ferdinando Arno (author and composer of all the music and all the lyrics except for ‘Fandango’), Pacifico (who wrote two of the songs – ‘Sospesa’ and ‘Contro vento’), Giuliano Sangiorgi (author of ‘Perfetta’) and ‘maestro’ Paolo Conte, who wrote for Maliki a previously unreleased track, ‘Fandango’. Malika is co-author of two tracks: ‘Briciole’ and ‘Il Giardino dei Salici’.
The album features the artistic contributions of several important names from the international music scene: Tom Elmhirst (Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lily Allen, Moby, Maroon5, Mary J. Blige) who mixed most of the tracks, Tony Cousins (Massive Attack, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Williams), who mastered the album at the Metropolis Studios in London, and Vincent Mendoza (Björk, Joni Mitchell), who supervised the arrangement of the orchestra in the tracks ‘Il giardino dei salici’ and ‘Perfetta’.
The release of the album followed the radio success of the single ‘Soulwaver’, and its even more popular Italian version ‘Sospesa’, featuring Pacifico.
Malika Ayane’s popularity took firm root with the release of ‘Feeling Better’ (which remained one of the most frequently played songs on the radio for over 4 months: a true record for a new artist) and the enthusiastic reviews of the music critics. ‘Feeling Better’ became a smash hit, with its video clip widely circulated on all the major music networks.
In March 2009 Malika Ayane took part in the Sanremo Festival with the song ‘Come foglie’ (music and lyrics by Giuliano Sangiorgi, produced and arranged by Ferdinando Arnò). This track, which is included in the re-edition of the album of the same name released on the Sugar label, remained at No. 1 of the Nielsen Music Control charts of the songs most frequently played on the radio. A year after its first release, the album ‘Malika Ayane’ went platinum.
Malika Ayane was also the musical protagonist of the soundtrack for the film ‘Generazione 1000 Euro’, contributing three tracks - ‘Feeling better’, ‘Moon "and ‘Soul Waver’ – from her self-titled debut album. The film, directed by Massimo Venier, produced by Andrea Leone Films and Rai Cinema and distributed by 01 Distribution, featured a cast of promising young artists of Italian cinema: Valentina Lodovini, Alessandro Tiberi, Francesco Mandelli and Carolina Crescentini, with special guest star Paolo Villaggio.
On June 21, 2009 Malika took part in ‘Amiche per l’Abruzzo’, a fund-raising concert at the San Siro Stadium in aid of the survivors of the Abruzzo earthquake.
Malika Ayane’s first tour, made in 2009, was a great success. The show combined old-fashioned artistic elegance with sophisticated rock, effectively alternating unreleased songs by the artist and exquisite cover versions of songs by prominent international artists.
After a summer tour consisting of more than thirty concerts held throughout Italy, in November 2009 Malika won over the audience of Blue Note, a famous jazz club in Milan, accompanied by the band that in recent months had achieved a perfect alchemy with her voice, thanks also to the talents of its members: Luca Colombo (guitars), Giulia Monti (cello), Charles Gaudiello (keyboards), Marco Mariniello (bass) and Leif Searcy (drums).
In January, Malika performed the cover version of the song ‘La prima cosa bella’ to accompany the closing credits of Paolo Virzi’s new film of the same title, starring Stefania Sandrelli, Valerio Mastandrea, Claudia Pandolfi and Micaela Ramazzotti.
Malika took part in the 60th Sanremo Festival with the song ‘Ricomincio da qui’ - music by Ferdinando Arnò, lyrics by Malika Ayane and Luigi De Crescenzo (Pacifico), string arrangements by Vincent Medoza and produced by Ferdinando Arnò. The song won the Critics Prize and the Radio and TV Prize and stayed for 3 weeks at #1 on the official radio single and #2 for 2 weeks in the Album chart.
In September 2010 the European launch of Malika will be developed by Sugar Music and distributed by Universal Music, in Germany, France, Belgium and Holland. Together with the European launch, Malika Ayane will tour in these countries around the realease date of the album.