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Keren Ann
Biography
Singer/songwriter Keren Ann Zeidel, who records under the name Keren Ann, was born in Israel in 1974 to a Dutch-Javanese mother and a Russian-Israeli father. She was nine when her parents bought her a guitar, on which she learned to play songs by Joni Mitchell and Serge Gainsbourg. In the years to come, she would also learn to play the harmonica and the clarinet. Zeidel and her family, including a brother and sister, lived in Israel and Holland before settling in Paris, France, when she was 11.

In the 1990s Zeidel met musician/arranger Benjamin Biolay, with whom she would form a fruitful partnership. In 1997 she had a small part (as Judith) in Alexandre Arcady's K, and in 1998 she released a couple of singles (including "I+I+I") as a member of Shelby, but they attracted little attention.

Zeidel released her full-length debut, La Biographie de Luka Philipsen, in 2000. On it, she combined trip-hop, folk, and French pop to sublime effect. Lyrically and thematically, she was inspired by her family history; the name Philipsen, for example, comes from her maternal grandmother. Biolay assisted with the writing and arranging. As influences on her unique sound, Zeidel has cited Russian literature, Jewish folk music, French poetry, Bob Dylan, and Suzanne Vega, whose "Luka" is also referenced in the title (in 2001, Zeidel would open for Vega in France).
Selected Discography