How do you feel about being chosen to represent French music at the Barbican?
What's funny for me is that there aren't really any French artists performing at the Barbican. Most of the artists - people like the Orchestre National de Barbès, Sawt El Atlas and myself - are North African, although it's true they did have Juliette Gréco yesterday. It's good to see that people in the U.K. are interested in the kind of music we're playing, because it's pretty tough for us in France right now. Racism's definitely on the increase. There's more Arab music being played on the radio than ever before, but at the same time if you walk down the street and you're Arab, people look at you in a funny way. Things have got to a point in France now where it's practically impossible to rent an apartment if you've got an Arab name! I think there's a better relationship between different communities in the U.K. I've seen friends - Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian friends - who seem to be a lot happier here, a lot less paranoid than in France.

It must be amazing to find yourself performing at the same festival as a legendary chanson icon like Juliette Gréco…
Well, it wasn't a particular dream of mine, but at the same time Juliette Gréco is someone I respect and admire very much. Gréco is an integral part of the history of French music - she was a figurehead of the Saint Germain scene and she went out with Miles Davis and all that. In a way, the artists hanging out on the Saint Germain scene in the 50s and 60s exchanged a lot too. They experimented with their own kind of fusion.

You have an extremely eclectic approach to music - I know your musical tastes range from Billie Holiday to Egyptian diva Om Kalsom. Do you think your fusion sound stems from the fact that you came to France at the age of 13 with all your Tunisian influences?
You can't really help your influences - they're just a part of you. If you grow up in an Arab country, it's something that's always going to stay with you. The way you speak French or sing French songs is always going to be tinged with the flavour of your roots. You know, we shouldn't forget that Africa has been very open to all kinds of music for a long time. Europe and America have only started waking up to African and Arab music in the past twelve or fifteen years, but I remember when we were kids growing up in Tunisia we had this really extensive music culture. We listened to everything from James Brown and Tina Turner to Mozart, Brel and The Stones. So for us playing this kind of fusion is neither exceptional nor particularly new. What's exceptional is for Europeans to start wanting to create fusion with us.

After the huge success of French techno and electro sounds, music fans in the U.K. seem to be getting interested in French fusion now. Why do you think people are waking up to French fusion?
They're waking up because the world is waking up - I mean, these days we've got Internet and people can travel to the other side of the world at the drop of a hat. There's a lot of immigration too. But fusion isn't a 21st century thing. I remember the Rolling Stones got really interested in Gnawa music at one point and jazz musicians like Don Cherry were into playing with African and Arab musicians long before everyone else. I think after a while everything comes round and you have to open yourself up to the world. Music is the sound of the universe, the sound of the heart of the universe!

Why do you think France has been such a fertile breeding-ground for world music?
Because you have so many people of different nationalities in Paris - you've got Moroccans, Tunisians, Malians, people from all over Africa and the Maghreb. France has always been a big musical laboratory. There's this tradition of jazz musicians and other black musicians who weren't respected in their own countries coming to France. France really opened its doors to them. But the problem is the music industry in France isn't the same as the States or the U.K. We don't have the same structure and support when it comes to promotion and distribution. France is a great laboratory, but most of the time marketing's much better in the U.S., the U.K. or countries like Sweden or Germany.
Wre you happy with the label world music?
What can I say? Pigeon-holing things into neat little categories is a human instinct. You know, I'm used to being pigeon-holed as a woman, as someone who comes from Tunisia, as a second-generation immigrant … I'm always being asked about the condition of women in Tunisia, what it's like to grow up in a Muslim culture. And I have to admit, I do get a bit tired of it. I'd like people in France to see me as a woman who sings, not as an Arab woman who's against fundamentalism etc. etc. As for "world music" it's very much a marketing term dreamt up by people trying to sell this kind of music.

How would you describe your music?
I'd say my music is very open. For instance, on my new album, Annabi, I mix jungle and trip hop with Arabic strings and voices from Mali. It's got a real trance feel to it! "Annabi" is a very international album because I went back and forth between studios in the U.K., New York, France and Belgium while I was working on it. I even went to Mali to record the vocals for one track. Sometimes I sing in an Arabic way - like on my version of the Billie Holiday classic My Man - but at others I sing in an African way or experiment with vocals in French or English. I see my music as a kind of laboratory - I'm into broadening musical horizons. I mean, if someone came up to me tomorrow and offered me a song in Chinese I'd be happy to try it!

The world scene in Paris started taking off in the early 80s really. At the time you were involved with Radio Nova and world music producer Martin Messonier. What was it like being involved in the scene in the early days?
It was really hard. I was the first Arab woman to break through and things were definitely not easy. French radio stations didn't want to play my records because I sang in Arabic and everywhere I went I had to explain myself, you know, speak about my roots and what it was like to be an Arab singer. At the same time Vanessa Paradis could sing whatever she wanted - no-one asked her about her background! What really annoyed me was that even though I represented France at Eurovision I still wasn't accepted as French. At FNAC and Virgin my records were put in the Tunisian folk section, not the French one - and you can see for yourself, they're still there today! Maybe things will be better for the next generation. Maybe when France has a few politicians or bank directors with Arab names, and you start seeing Arab police on the streets … But the way things stand now, we're only allowed to be singers - or good footballers!

How did you come to be performing at Paris sur Scène with U-Cef?
I met U-Cef in Paris and when he said he wanted to work with me I was really over the moon! I felt really honoured. What's great about U-Cef is that he picks up on all these happening new sounds but he also knows traditional Arab music really well so you don't have to spend a lot of time explaining things to him. Basically, U-Cef is experimenting with the same 'collage' approach as I am. I'm really pleased to see an Arab guy doing this kind of music, because most of the time before we had to call on English or American or French producers. It's great to see there's a new generation of Arab musicians involved in this scene now. U-Cef and I teamed up together to perform at Paris sur Scène as a temporary thing, but I really hope we'll work together again soon.

Apart from working with U-Cef, do you have any other exciting new projects up your sleeve?
Well, I don't know when it's coming out but a couple of months back I went into the studio to work on a compilation tribute to Nick Drake. The producer called me and asked me to do Cello Song. I sang it in English but it sounds very different to the original because I was working with musicians from North Africa and Mali and we used African and Arabic arrangements. But if you asked me what my greatest dream was right now I'd have to say it would be to record a duet with Jeanne Moreau. She's such an incredibly smart woman, you know, so wise … I performed with Jeanne recently in Brussels. She invited all the artists she liked to do one of her songs and I did a version of J'ai la mémoire qui flanche. It was a really incredible experience and I'd love to go back for more!

Interview: Julie Street