Background
Zahra grew up with her Moroccan mother, a dancer and actress, in Khouribga, Morocco.
Zahra grew up with her Moroccan mother, a dancer and actress, in Khouribga, Morocco.
When coming up with a stage name, she simply inverted her birth name. Her songs are mostly in English but some lyrics as in the song "Imik Si Mik" are in the Berber language. Influenced by singers like Cheikha Rimitti, Hindi Zahra has drawn comparisons with Beth Gibbons of Portishead, Manu Chao, Billie Holiday, Patti Smith, and Norah Jones.
At the age of fifteen, she left school and moved to Paris to live with her father, who had been a soldier.
At age 18 she worked at the Louvre. Besides that she wrote her first lyrics and melodies.
Hindi Zahra is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist. The video to the opening song Beautiful Tango was made by French director Tony Gatlif.
In June 2010 she collaborated with French musician Blundetto on his debut album Bad Bad Things.
In 2014 she had roles in the films The Narrow Frame of Midnight by Tala Hadid and in The Cut by Fatih Akin. In April 2015 her second studio album Homeland was released.
By 2005 she had written about 50 songs of which Beautiful Tango, Oursoul, Try, and Stand Up were first released on the European Parliament Hindi Zahra in 2009 and eleven songs were recorded on Hindi Zahra"s first album which was released in January 2010 at the Jazz label Blue Note Records. The song Stand Up was chosen for a commercial campaign by Western Union.