Natacha Atlas, Komedia, Brighton, April 9
9:00am Wednesday 9th April 2008
Lot of people dislike it but I'm not really too bothered. People in the music industry, and sometimes journalists, need to categorise it," says Natacha Atlas of the much-derided "world music" tag.
"I suppose it tells you it's probably not going to be in English and it's not rock music, blues, funk or soul. That's the good thing about it. But it's fairly vague, isn't it?"
Born to a British mother and a father of Moroccan, Palestinian and Egyptian ancestry, the singer's music has always fused Western sounds with Middle Eastern and North African influences.
She has a new acoustic LP due out next month, although this gig will be with her full electric band, and now divides her time between the UK, France and Egypt.
Atlas once famously described herself as "a human Gaza Strip" but has since come to appreciate the unique standpoint her background has blessed her with.
"I said that when I was going through a bit of an identity crisis in my very early 20s, not feeling that I could really express myself," she explains. "But now I'm older, I wouldn't say that was the case so much. "I still dream in two languages. You come to realise you have this kind of special advantage, which you begin to appreciate later in life."
Having grown up in Brussels, Atlas moved to Northampton after her parents separated and didn't reconnect with her Arabic roots until she reached her teens.
"I made a few visits back home and then got more interested. Before I was too busy trying to fit in in England, or Belgium or wherever I was at the time," she says. "As a kid, you're desperately trying to be accepted. But then as a teenager, you want to rebel, and in a sense I wanted to rebel against the English side of me, because I had another side I could go to."
She first came to the public's attention as part of Jah Wobble's acclaimed Invaders Of The Heart project, before joining 1990s dance act Transglobal Underground, with whom she continues to work occasionally.
"I learnt a lot from Jah Wobble, ie to avoid loonies in the future," she laughs. "You can put that, he won't mind. He's great. A unique character.
"I love Transglobal Underground. They've been part of my career for such a long time. They help me do what I do. They were the ones who pushed me into going solo when I was OK about just being their singer. I'll always back their corner."
Atlas still enjoys a higher profile abroad than in the UK, something she puts down to British audiences' reluctance to break through the language barrier.
"Things have always gone a little bit better for me in Europe than here. I'm an Arabic singer of Arabic origin and English people are not really that savvy with foreign languages," she says. "Anything in Arabic, it's not even European, it's Middle Eastern, and there's a lot of other stuff attached to that now. But in saying that, belly dancing is becoming really popular. So through that people are getting interested in Arabic culture beyond the "Oh, they're all terrorists" thing.
"Attitudes are changing because of the internet. People are realising a lot of lies have been told by the likes of George Bush and that governments in general lie to suit their own needs. People are waking up a little and things are getting a bit better."
- 9pm, £12.50, 01273 647100