Jenifer was born in Nice, in the south of France, on 15 November 1982, and grew up in the Quartier des Musiciens. Living on the Côte d’Azur with her younger brother, Jonathan, her Jewish Algerian father (Michel Dadouche) and her half-Corsican, half-Belgian mother (Christine Bartoli), Jenifer came to inherit her family’s love of music. Her father got her listening to James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Janis Joplin while her mother introduced her to the ‘chanson’ classics of Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour and Serge Gainsbourg. Meanwhile, Jenifer’s maternal grandmother initiated her into the art of Corsican polyphonic music.

When Jenifer turned seven, her parents treated her to her first course of singing lessons. And the budding young singer took whatever opportunity she could to exercise her vocal talent, singing in the shower, with street buskers and at all the talent contests organised in the region. In 1993, Jenifer got to support C.Jérôme in concert when the latter performed at a Bastille Day firemen’s ball in Corsica (where the family holidayed every summer). By the age of thirteen, Jenifer had vowed to become a professional singer one day. And the following year she took her first step towards fulfilling that ambition, taking part in the TV talent show "Graine de Star" (broadcast on the French channel M6) and ending up as a semi-finalist on the show.

As soon as Jenifer turned 16, she left school and moved up to Paris to try her luck in the capital. Here, she survived through a series of odd jobs, working as a waitress, a PR girl and occasionally singing in local bars or at weddings. Meanwhile, Jenifer did the rounds of all the major record labels, demo tape in hand. In 2001, one of her friends and colleagues encouraged her to sign up for auditions for the first French edition of "Star Academy" (a reality TV show broadcast on TF1). Jenifer made it through several auditions, beating off stiff competition from hundreds of other contestants, and ended up landing a coveted place in the much-hyped Academy on 22 October 2001.

Jenifer and the other academy trainees spent the next four months living in a château in the Paris suburbs, having their every move scrutinised by TV cameras as viewers tuned in for regular updates of their progress in singing and dance classes as well as their extra-curricular romances. The brunette with the pretty smile soon proved to be a big hit with the public – indeed, she won 60% of the vote when 14 million viewers called in to decide the outcome of the show’s final in January 2002. Jenifer came out the clear winner, netting herself instant fame, a 1-million euro contract and a deal to record a debut album released on Universal.

The Star Academy winner’s debut album, simply entitled "Jenifer", was released in March 2002, just a couple of months after her much-mediatised exit from the château. The entire album took just one month to make from start to finish, Universal striking while Jenifer’s Star Academy popularity was still hot. Jenifer chose a dozen songs from a pre-selected list that her record label gave her (including a song written by Marc Lavoine and another by Hocine Hallaf, guitarist with the group Astonvilla).

Jenifer’s first singles, "J’attends l’amour" and "Au soleil", proved to be instant chart hits, the first selling an impressive 650,000 copies, the second spending four months in the French Top 10. In the spring of 2002, Jenifer kicked off a marathon 70-date tour with her old colleagues from Star Academy. She followed this up with a gruelling solo schedule in October, presenting songs from her debut album to fans. Jenifer’s mammoth solo tour included 110 dates across 77 towns, with the majority of her shows sold out well in advance. The tour, which attracted a total of 260,000 fans, was a huge success.

Jenifer had to cancel the last few dates of her tour in April 2003, however, after she became pregnant by her boyfriend, a musician by the name of Maxim Nucci whom she had met a few months earlier. The couple’s son, Aaron, was born on 5 December 2003.

In January 2004, Jenifer - who had been dubbed the French Betty Boop because of her diminutive size (1,59 m) - triumphed at the NRJ Music Awards, walking off with the trophy for Female Artist of the Year. She went on to earn a diamond disc when sales of "Jenifer" topped the million mark.

Jenifer’s second album, "Le passage", hit record stores on 24 May that year. The album, which had much more of a rock vibe than her pop-formatted debut, gave the singer newfound street cred, featuring as it did contributions from Calogero, the group Kyo, her boyfriend Maxim Nucci and best-selling novelist Marc Lévy (who penned the song "Pour toi"). Bob Clearmountain (famous for his work with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and INXS) supervised the album’s final mix. Jenifer’s single "Ma Révolution" went on to score a big hit - a reviewer in the hip French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles even going so far as to compare the young French singer to America’s White Stripes!

In October 2004, the ex-Star Academic kicked off a new tour which kept her on the road until the end of summer 2005. The tour was a less grandiose affair than her first mega-show (which had relied on Kamel Ouali’s choreography and spectacular stage effects). The tour based on Jenifer’s second album was more of a "classic" rock concert affair, involving six musicians, sound-light-and-video effects but no set choreography. Jenifer still managed to pack out Le Zénith four times in a row and performed twice at the legendary Olympia. Her first live album, simply entitled "Jenifer Live", hit record stores on 3 October 2005.

Later that same year, Jenifer triumphed at the NRJ Music Awards once again, carrying off the trophies for Best Francophone Album and Female Artist of the Year.

2006 was a quiet year for Jenifer, the singer making only a few public appearances at award ceremonies, “Enfoirés” concerts and other charity fund-raising shows. That summer, she dubbed the female lead in the French version of the animated film “Over the Hedge”, posing for a series of promotional photos with the American actor Bruce Willis who was involved in dubbing the American version.

Jenifer’s third album, "Lunatique", a vibrant mix of pop, reggae, ska and ‘60s rock, hit record stores on 12 November 2007. The 24-year-old singer was joined in the studio by two VIP collaborators: the French actor Guillaume Canet (who guested on "Nos futurs") and her friend, the singer and musician M who added his famous pink guitar to "Touche-moi" and the album’s title track.

November 2007