Fortunately, organisers of "Les Méditerranéennes" Festival, held in Argelès-Sur-Mer in the south of France (6 - 8 September), stepped in to set the situation to rights. And on Saturday night Amina took to the stage to make her French comeback. Judging by the enthusiastic reception the festival crowd gave her in Argelès, the Franco-Tunisian diva should have no problem winning back the hearts of the French public when she performs the second stage of her charm offensive in Paris supporting Cheb Kader at La Cigale (19 October).
Since emerging on the festival circuit in 1996, "Les Méditerranéennes" has established itself as one of the leading rendez-vous for world music. In previous years the festival has been held in Céret, a small town nestled in the heart of French Catalonia which is home to a mere 7,000 people. But this year for the first time "Les Méditerranéennes" moved a few miles down the road to Argelès-Sur-Mer, a picturesque town which made the perfect setting for Mediterranean sounds. Perched on the grassy hills offering stunning views of the bay behind the stage, the audience were free to gaze out over the sea in between concerts. And out of the corner of their eye, they could make out the luscious vineyards surrounding the Château Valmy and its beautiful fountain-filled grounds.
As its name suggests "Les Méditerranéennes", organised by French production company Azimuth, is a festival devoted to celebrating the traditional music culture of the Mediterranean. And the sixth edition of the festival offered some brilliant musical highlights which included a breathtaking performance from Manu Chao's former collaborator Roy Paci. The Sicilian trumpeter and his group Aretuska brought the house down at "Les Méditerranéennes 2002", managing to keep their audience at the foot of the stage in spite of a freak thunderstorm and torrential rain!

The other undisputed highlight of the festival's sixth edition was Amina - who took to the stage before Simon Shaheen, Idir and Raï idol Khaled - and opened Saturday night's proceedings with a persuasive performance from her well-knit backing band. The festival crowd fell under the spell of the Franco-Tunisian diva's natural charm and impeccable vocals and gave a warm welcome to the new songs she served up at Argelès. We met up with Amina a few hours before her show and asked her exactly what she is up to these days:

RFI: Amina, does your film work take up more time these days than your singing career?
Amina: No, in fact I don't have any film projects on the go right now. I'd like to do more film work actually, but the thing is I've always put more effort into meeting people from the music world than the film world. My cinema work's always come about by accident really, by lucky accidents I should say. I've been fortunate in landing some great roles - the roles I've played have always brought me a lot and taught me a lot of things about myself. When I do decide to get involved with a film it's because I feel it's really important for me at the time and I'm willing to throw myself body and soul into the part. In Inch'Allah dimanche, for instance, I play this immigrant woman who lives on the street in a cardboard box and starts going crazy, imagining she's going to go home any moment. The film really shows the harsh reality of what it's like to live as an immigrant. You know, I went back to Tunisia this year - it was the first time I'd been back in three years and something really got to me this time. For the first time in my life I found myself crying when it was time to leave! I had this really strong impression that I was leaving my homeland and my roots.

RFI: We haven't seen much of you in France lately, but I believe you've been pretty busy touring abroad…
Amina: I haven't stopped for two years now - it's like I've had some sort of uncontrollable urge to tour! Last year, for instance, I did a really extensive tour of the U.S. during which I performed at a special peace concert in New York after 11 September. It was Simon Shaheen, a Palestinian musician living in the States, who invited me to take part. But I've also been busy doing gigs in the U.K. (Womad), Scandinavia, Mozambique, Sudan and Ethiopia. And this summer I also went out to perform in Lebanon. It was great - it was the first time I'd been back there in over ten years and there've been some really radical changes. You can see it on people's faces, everyone wants to go out and party now. They've got this incredible zest for life!

RFI: You recently released a compilation entitled Nomad which is more or less a summary of your career to date. But the compilation also includes two previously unreleased tracks…
Amina: Yes, there's Ederlezi, the title track from the film The Time of The Gypsies, which I sing in Arabic. And there's Ya Baba, a traditional Tunisian song. I'm not actually with a record label right now but I'm already looking ahead to my next album. I've started making a few demo tapes with Imothep and I've had meetings with various producers. I've been listening to a lot of different albums lately and I have to say I really like what the producer Philippe Eidel does. I feel that right now I'd like to go back to creating a much more acoustic sound.

RFI: In a way, you'll already be giving us a taste of what your new album holds in store with your concerts here at "Les Méditerranéennes"…
Amina: I'll be presenting three new songs here, yes. There's Saaddi ("One day the love of my life will come, I've got no money, only my heart to give him…"). That's a song I wrote in collaboration with one of the musicians from the group Nass el Ghiwane. It's basically a mix of Gnawi music from Morocco and capoera singing from Brazil. The second new song's Jungle Montmartre - it's a jungle track with me singing in Arabic, but it runs into a sort of Piaf-style waltz at one point and we also weave in Indian sounds. It's a very evocative song, like you've got a series of different film sequences running through your head. And then there's Ah-Ya-lieli, a song about a woman whose cousin has promised to marry her and she's just sitting there waiting and waiting for him. Lots of Arab women spent years and years waiting at home in their villages for their wedding day. But things have changed now. There's a new generation of women out there who are not prepared to sit and wait - and I say good for them!

Interview: Patrick Labesse
Translation: Julie Street

ALBUM: Nomad / Mercury