Kayna Samet
Encyclopedia
Kayna Samet is a French singer of soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, hip-hop and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

, born in 1980 in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...

.

Childhood

Born Malika Zoubir in Nice, France, in 1980, to Algerian parents, she grew up outside of neighbourhoods typical of Nice, by the will of her mother who refused to live in the ghetto.

During her childhood her parents divorced. Kayna first discovered her love of music, listening to Funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 records of her grandfather, but she also enjoyed classically known French singers, such as Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...

, Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...

, and Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré was a Franco-Monegasque poet, composer, singer and musician.Born in Monaco, Ferré mixed love and melancholy with moral anarchy, lyricism with slang, rhyming verse with prose monologues...

.

Malika really found her passion for music at the age of 10 when she started to participate in her school's chorus group.

At age 15, she decided to immerse herself in the musical world, joining local rap groups, at first as a singer, then as a rapper.

Debut

With her first manager Nabila JAADI, Kayna modeled, financed by doing odd jobs and performing as an opening act. Soon her manager received a phone call from Philippe Fragione
Akhenaton (rapper)
Philippe Fragione better known by his stage name Akhenaton is a French rapper and producer of French hip hop. He has also worked under the aliases Chill, AKH, Sentenza, and Spectre...

 who proposed to take Kayna to Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

 record a song for a compilation. Ultimately, those plans never fully actualized.

In 1999, Kayna came out with her first demo, "Le Parcours d'une Goutte d'Eau." Her manager and she were always had high hopes, and she sent the tape to several major labels. It was then that doors began to open for her. In 2000, she performed the track "Jeune Fille d'en Bas" on the soundtrack of the movie La Squale. The song was produced by Cut Killer and DJ Abdel
DJ Abdel
Lamriq Abdel better known as DJ Abdel is a French DJ of Moroccan origin and producer playing hip hop, funk and contemporary R&B on major French radio stations....

, and they reworked the song for an international R ‘n’ B compilation titled Vas-y Pars.

It was then that then Malika chose the name Kayna Samet, paying tribute to Kahina
Kahina
al-Kāhina was a 7th century female Berber religious and military leader, who led indigenous resistance to Arab expansion in Northwest Africa, the region then known as Numidia, known as the Maghreb today...

, the legendary Berber commander, and her maternal grandmother. She soon meets singer Matt Houston who offers her a part on the duet "Le Prix à payer", off of his second album. He further offers for Kayna to go on tour with him, which presented her first opportunity to meet Diam's
Diam's
Diam's is a French-language rap artist of French and Greek Cypriot origin. Her family moved to Essonne in 1984....

.

In July 2002, Kayna Samet came out solo with the song Blazée D'la Life. Booba
Booba
Elie Yaffa better known under his stage name Booba, is a French rapper from Paris. He is half Senegalese from his father's side and half French of Moroccan origin from his mother's side...

, after having heard said song, asked her to sing the hook on the track "Destinée", off of his album Temps Mort
Temps Mort
Temps mort is the debut album by French rapper Booba. For the song "Nouvelle école" exists also a remix which features American rap duo Mobb Deep.- Track listing :- Samples :...

.

In 2003, she collaborated with IAM
IAM
- Concepts :* Identity and Access Management, a concept that combines business processes, policies and technologies.* Innovation Access Method, a high-performance indexed access-method for IBM's z/OS and OS/390 operating systems that provides a transparent alternative to IBM's VSAM* Indo-Aryan...

 on their track "Nous," from their album Revoir un Printemps. She also got the chance to work with Rohff
Rohff
Rohff - « Rimeur Original Hardcore Flow Fluide » is a French rapper from Vitry-sur-Seine, in Val-de-Marne, south of Paris. Rohff was born in Comoros and immigrated to the Parisian suburbs in 1985.A fan of 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., NWA, Game, and others, Rohff began rapping around 1994...

on the song "Pétrole" from his album La Fierté des Nôtres.
In time, Kayna signed with the label Voix Publik and started working on writing her first album, working with various artists in the process.
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