TAL

Described as France's answer to Rihanna, urban-pop diva Tal was born in Israel in 1989 to a guitarist father and professional singer mother before she emigrated to the Le Marais district of Paris with her family as a child. She learned to play the piano and guitar and enrolled in modern jazz dance lessons at age 12, and after a brief stint in a theater group called Les Sales Gosses, began performing covers in several of the city's piano bars, where she was discovered by songwriter/producer L'Aura Marciano. The pair spent two years working on her debut album, Le Droit de Rêver, which contained collaborations with dancehall star Sean Paul and French-Algerian rapper L'Algérino, and went on to chart inside the Top Ten upon its release in 2011. ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi