JAIN session

Born in Toulouse to a French father and half-Madagascan mother, JAIN moved from Dubai to the Republic of the Congo in her mid teens. There she encountered "three-time" rhythms and a beatmaker named Mister Flash, who taught her how to use FruityLoops, and to find an audience for the songs that were always dancing in her head.

Cue globetrotting debut album Zanaka, radio love from Will Smith's DJ son Jaden, a support tour with Christine And The Queens, and a standing ovation at the French Grammys.

As JAIN reveals in this session, she was determined the album should move listeners physically. Her love of music goes back to the time she saw her parents dancing to a Manu Chao song. Her first instrument was the Arabic darbuka drum, which she learnt when she was seven. When she moved to Paris to attend art school (witness her inventive videos), she discovered techno too.

Here you can watch JAIN perform Come (from 02m 39s), her first song, which should please fans of Emiliana Torrini, and Makeba (08m 50s), a tribute to the South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba. Big rhythms sometimes come in small packages.