Ishtar turns up to our 3pm appointment dressed head-to-toe in fuchsia pink, sporting a glamorous sheepskin jacket, a long tartan skirt and trendy cowboy boots. She arrives on time, but her weary eyes betray the fact that she only managed to snatch a few hours' sleep before our interview. It soon transpires that Ishtar has been up most of the night recording a song for the soundtrack of La Vérité si je mens 2 (a French blockbuster due out on general release in February). Boosting herself with an espresso and a quick cigarette, Ishtar blinks open her big brown eyes and launches our interview with a friendly "OK, fire away!"

Ishtar, you'll be appearing at MIDEM this weekend at "France Influence", a showcase devoted to French artists who've managed to export their music abroad. How do you feel about being billed as a 'French artist'? Do you feel you belong to the French music world?
Today I do, yes. Lately I've been working with a lot of respected French songwriters and composers (Didier Barbelivien, Lionel Florence, Jacques Veneruso) and I've started singing in French now too. I've started singing much more personal songs where I'm keen to get my message across to French-speaking audiences. So, yes, I do feel I can turn round today and say I've got my place on the French music scene – and that's something I'm very proud of! (Ishtar gives a big smile).

Why are you particularly proud of this?
Well, firstly there's the fact that I'm expressing myself in French, a language I learnt fairly recently. I feel totally integrated in French culture now, but I've only been in contact with this culture for seven or eight years.
I can express myself and share my emotions in French, though. And that's been a big thing for me, being able to communicate my feelings to the songwriters I work with and talk about subjects that are dear to my heart. I've been closely involved with the songwriting process on my new album, going along to work on the melodies and talk about what I wanted to express in the songs. And the songwriters I worked with understood exactly what I was getting at - they totally respected my choice of words.

Your music revolves around fusion, the idea of mixing all kinds of disparate styles and creating a sound which crosses international borders …
Well, it's normal for my work to have an international edge - I speak five languages. And I also come from a 'young' country, a country of emigrants. I was surrounded by a rich mix of cultures from an early age and experienced different styles of music and different cuisines as I was growing up …
People always referred to the kind of music I did with Alabina as 'world' music. But 'world' is such a vague term, it doesn't actually mean anything. I love the idea of fusion, I believe it's a real way of getting a message across. For me, fusion is a way of putting an essential part of myself across, a part that's made up of a lot of different things. Basically, I've always been fascinated by cultural mixes.

Would you say your identity is more bound up with the music you play than any one particular country?
My identity is based on a whole mix of different things, a fusion of different religions and countries. (Ishtar has an Egyptian mother and a Moroccan father). I grew up in Israel but at the same time I've always felt very close to my mother's culture. I've been living in France for eight years now too. I love France and I feel completely French, despite the fact that there are certain barriers because of the language (Ishtar's French is actually near-perfect). France has become part of my habits and my routine – I've got my own flat here now and everything – so there's another kind of mix going on here too. I'd say my identity is more bound up with where I am spiritually. I'm a Jew, but I've also read the Koran and I take an active interest in Buddhism. I'm not a practising Buddhist, but I am curious about other religions and that gives me a kind of global view on things. I've come to realise that it's all a question of the way you interpret things. The way I see it, there's only one God and one truth. Religion is just a way of getting to the essential truth of the world.

When you're abroad, do people treat you as French? Do they come up to you and start talking about France?
All the time! It's funny, but very few people in France realise just how successful Alabina have been abroad. I mean, in the States we got to number 3 in the Billboard charts. People over there consider us as a French group even though I'm Israeli. But then the Gypsy musicians (Los Ninos) in the group are French.
What made you decide to break away from Alabina and start performing solo under your own name …
Well, there was always a bit of confusion as to whether the name Alabina referred to the group or me. Besides, I couldn't really keep on using the name Alabina, which had become associated with one particular style of music, when it came to launching my new solo album which is really much more French variété. I think people can tell the difference between me and Alabina now.

When I performed at the Olympia in Paris my Gypsy music friends came on stage with me, but now I really feel it's time to branch out on my own. But, who knows, maybe I'll get together with Los Ninos again some time in the future?

What kind of music did you listen to growing up in Israel?
Well, music culture in Israel is a very mixed bag. I was brought up by my grandmother really, because my parents were out at work all day, at the bank or the university. My grandmother's a real Egyptian woman (Ishtar gestures with her hands, suggesting the typical Egyptian 'mama'). The thing with my grandmother was she had this whole secret world of mystery and Egyptian legends which she'd open up to me when I got to her house and close like a book when I left. Apart from that, when I was growing up I'd listen to a lot of pop and rock, the music everyone else from my generation listened to – things like Barbra Streisand, Pink Floyd and Madonna. At my grandmother's house, it would always be traditional Egyptian music, but things were much more mixed at home. My father used to listen to French chanson. He'd listen to Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf and a lot of Aznavour, but my mother preferred listening to classical Egyptian music and the poets.
There's not really any traditional Israeli music. When you look at it, Israel's traditional music comes from central Europe or it's music played on 'uds and derboukas. It's made up of a vast amount of different styles and I think that's why I have a problem with pinning myself down to one particular style. The thing I'm most sensitive to in music is the melody, but once I like the melody I can enjoy a whole range of different styles, everything from FM rock and pop to funk. I like techno too sometimes, but only when there's a real melody. If it's just a bunch of machines pumping out a beat I can't get into it at all.

Did you always think you'd end up as a singer?
Well, I don't believe in things happening by chance. You know, when I was eight years old, I'd sit in the bath and conduct these imaginary interviews with me in the role of the singer - and when I was 12 or 13 I started doing the same thing in English! My biggest dream was being up there and performing live on stage. I always wanted to be up there on a big stage doing my own show with my own songs in front of my fans. And I'm really proud that I've managed to turn that dream into reality.
But don't get me wrong, it's not all been a fairytale. Alabina's success was the result of a lot of hard work. We played hundreds and hundreds of concerts. Sometimes we'd play gigs in three different countries within 24 hours! I've been lucky though. I've had my work and my faith and I've always been surrounded by a group of people who've given me a lot of love and support.

Do you feel you could have got your career up and running somewhere other than France?
I don't feel I had any choice in the matter. I left Israel because of personal problems. I was meant to be making this album, but I was beginning to feel a bit fed up with having to sing other people's songs, which was exactly what I'd been doing since the age of 15. I felt that the conditions weren't right to start working on an album, so I decided to take some time off. I went out to Australia because I wanted to get as far away from things as possible! I ended up staying there for nine months and I don't think it's any coincidence that nine months corresponds to a period of gestation and pregnancy …
Anyway, I was ready to go back to Israel after that, but I stopped off in Europe on my way home to visit Italy and this Australian friend of mine suggested I should go to Paris and spend a month with her. I really had no reason to stay on in Paris after that – I had no money, no family, no friends, nothing, not even a bed to sleep in! But I started going to auditions and trying to get work. It was a really tough period for me and I've never forgotten it. It's because I went through that that I can really appreciate the good things in my life now. Even though it was very tough for me in Paris, I listened to my inner voice - and it wasn't wrong!
You were brought up straddling two languages (Hebrew and Arabic) and two cultures which have frequently clashed throughout their history. And yet your songs have never really tackled this issue …
It's a very natural thing for me – it's like I grew up with two maternal languages. I felt my ability to speak Arabic was practically innate. I mean, I grew up reading and writing Arabic, but I'd never sung it. When I did start singing in Arabic I found it really strange that people would point at me and say "There's an Israeli singing in Arabic!"
The thing is, in Israel we're still living in peace with the Arabs. What people see on the television news is only part of the story. Israel's not just about what's happening in Gaza. Day-to-day life in Israel is a big mix – you can have Jews and Muslims living in the same apartment block and everyone gets on perfectly well.
I know what it's like to live in peace in Israel and I'd like to share that experience with people who don't know what it's like. Now, I can do that through my songs – as I did recently in concert at the Olympia – or I can do that by singing with Idir or Cheb Mami. Maybe I'm a bit naïve, but I really believe peace is possible.

Have you ever been asked to take sides?
I'm always ready to sing against racism.

But what about with regard to what's happening in your country at the moment?
No, no and no again! I hate politics. I just don't get involved with it. I was invited to sing for the king of Morocco and in Saudi Arabia, which I did – and I'm often in contact with President Moubarak's son. But I don't want to create any kind of problem. I don't want to be seen as making any kind of provocative gesture, because what we have is fragile and there are a lot of stupid people out there. I don't want to be used by anyone – I'm a singer and that's that!

You're a major star in the Arab world these days. Isn't it a bit of a problem being an Israeli sometimes?
No, but it's not always easy travelling on an Israeli passport. Sometimes I have to use diplomatic passes. I've performed for some very important people in the Arab world and there's always been a lot of respect on both sides.

There's no doubting Ishtar's sincerity, but she reaches the end of our interview without making one direct reference to the current conflict between Israel and Palestine. Ishtar seems determined to focus exclusively on her music - and who are we to blame her? After performing at "France Influence" in Cannes, Ishtar is set to resume her whirlwind schedule, jetting off to the United States, India, Australia, Hong Kong and other countries where her export sales are booming.

Ishtar performed two successful Parisian concerts at the Olympia in December 2000 and her new album, Ishtar (released on Sony/Columbia), has a deliberately Francophone feel. But while France has undoubtedly acted as a springboard for Ishtar's international career, her music has failed to take off in her 'adopted' home. The fact that Sony's Paris press office refused to confirm sales figures for Ishtar's new album leads us to suspect that, four months after its release, sales of Ishtar have not lived up to expectations.

In short, Ishtar has followed a similar route to the Indonesian-born pop diva Anggun, who has also used Paris as a springboard to launch an international career. Like Anggun, Ishtar has found her fanbase on the other side of the world rather than in her 'adopted' home (which explains why she is currently working on an album in English). Joining Anggun, Rachid Taha and Les Nubians at Midem's showcase "France Influence", Ishtar proves that the best-selling French export sounds of the moment are those which fuse music, languages and cultures from the four corners of the world.

Interview: Catherine Pouplain

To get the complete line-up of "France Influence" concerts (Sunday, 21 January), access midem.com