Of Egyptian, Moroccan, English and apparently some Jewish background, she grew up Muslim in a Moroccan neighbourhood in Brussels, later settled in London, and is now moving to the south of France. She spends as much time as possible in Cairo learning more about the music and improving her Arabic. Natacha Atlas is a big star on the other side of the ocean, but this was only her second show in Toronto. The last one was about six years ago.

Although Natacha Atlas lived in London for many years, she seems to have made it bigger in France than anywhere else in Europe. Her version of Françoise Hardy’s “Mon amie la rose” from 1995 became a top ten hit in France. This was just a few years after the Algerian exile Khaled had the first hit song ever in France sung entirely in Arabic. Since then, they have both had tunes in the top ten at the same time. Natacha Atlas has even won Best Female Singer at the Victoire de la Musique awards, the equivalent of Canada’s Junos, or England’s Brits.

For this concert, I thought that Natacha Atlas would be performing mostly music from her latest CD, Mishmaoul (an Egyptian phrase meaning “Unbelievable!) and I wondered how it would sound without the electronics and production, and without the exotic Golden Sound Studio Orchestra of Cairo. She did perform some pieces from Mishmaoul but she performed a lot of other material as well. As for the pieces from the CD, live, they were at least as good and mostly better.

“Ghanwah Bossanova” as recorded on the CD is not one of my favourites, although I certainly like it better than “Feen”, a sort-of rap/hip hop/Arabic tune with high voices. While the novelty (for me, anyway) of hearing a bossanova sung in Arabic is interesting, I feel the instrumental underpinning on the CD is a bit thin and I am not fond of the use of the synthesizer in this piece, especially the slightly corny Bach-like run at the end. Performed live with the acoustic orchestra the tune was much better. It was more rhythmic, more entrancing, and received much applause. “Oully Ya Sahbi” was simply gorgeous, as I said, the more Arab material was generally the best.

Throughout the evening, the instrumentation was exceptional and much of it, I’m sure, was not easy to play. When Harvey Brough tuned up the guitar for a piece that Natacha co-wrote with guitarist Marc Eagleton, he said, “this one is in E flat minor. All of you guitar players out there will know what I have to contend with.” The string section was an essential part of the mix, at times sweeping downwards in a very Middle Eastern way and then shifting through odd tones into more western harmonies. Bass player Stephen Ieake kept the knit tight. The accordionist, Gamal Awad, is an exceptional musician, whether playing tango-style, arabesque or even on one tune, with an Irish lilt. On the second last tune, an Arab/rock/jazzy kind of fusion piece, he really got to stretch out with an extended solo. Percussive, fluid, lyrical, bittersweet, mysterious, the accordion is at his command. The audience loved it.