If the name Amina Annabi isn’t instantly familiar to you, then y’all should probably be brushing up on your Eurovision history. In all the close calls in voting history at Eurovision, Amina is perhaps the unluckiest second place finisher – as, in 1991, she tied for points with eventual winner Carola, who only won on a countback system. Twenty four years later, Amina is still making music and has released her latest EP, “Unveil”, a collaboration with British musician MaJiKer.
Tunisian-born, Amina’s background has long been an influence in her music. Her 1991 Eurovison entry, “C’est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison” fused more traditional African sounds with a stripped-back Western tone too.
The Unveil EP is strikingly similar too, with Amina and MaJiKer’s backgrounds being used to blend their styles of music together, to create a “home-made melting pot”. The driving force behind the collaboration also plays a key part in the EP too though, with both artists stating their love of Swedish music and culture and the influence this has had on the EP.
One thing cannot be denied: Amina’s vocal performance is an enchanting now as it was back in Italy in ’91. The EP might not be something that everyone loves: it definitely fits in to a broader “world music” category and certainly isn’t the type of music you hear from most ex-Eurovision stars.
The album has a real charm to it though. Amina flawlessly changes between languages on “Unveil” and “Nour Reborn” and it’s a real testament to her skill (as well as MaJiKer’s production) that you are kept so enthralled as a listener. It’s great to see this new music coming from such a prestigious artist and it’s another success for Amina.
You can watch the official video for the single “Nour Reborn” below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP1ybfx4K08
Back in 1991, she was heart broken even though she smiled when victory was given to Sweden via count back where Sweden received more 10 points then France, of course it was unfair when both artist worked with their best to compete and both received 146 points where they awarded one of them as winner, ok life is unfair, Amina knew that and there was nothing she could do, but I watch one program about eurovision 1991 they interviewed people and asked their opinion about 1991 result, these people included both Carole and Amina, Carola in her interview said “that… Read more »
BTW, Amina was initially intended to sing ‘Putnici’ with Dino Merlin for Bosnia in 1999, but she withdrew right before the nation final where Beatrice took her place.
@Charles – Eurovision will always have a strong euro-trashy element (and BTW, I didn’t write eurotrash as criticism, but rather as an observation) and I think it’s part of the fun. But you can ignore the nineties were a hotbed for world music, with songs like France ’91, France ’92 Norway ’93, Norway ’95, Denmark ’95, The 1996 top 3 and many other Celtic and ethnic songs doing quite well on the scoreboard despite not being what would be considered “Eurovision material” in earlier decades.
France from 1990 to 1992 try somethnig new at Eurovision, word music with sound from teritories from was in past was part of french colonia….
That year when I watched preview for Eurovision 1991 my favorite was Sweden, Israel, United Kingdom
When I watched Eurovision my favorite was Israel, Iceland, Portugal, no Sweden, because many songs include swedish ruined the worst orchestra in Eurovision history for me, orchestra of RAI television, they ruin Yugoslavia, Greece, Sweden… only few song sound good with tham France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Iceland
In 2015 when I was odler, my favorites are now are Israel, Portugal, Greece,Spain and than France….
Carola’s ridiculously catchy song has been stuck in my mind since I read this article yesterday. Thanks Wiwibloggs (or not)! 🙂
@Maya G: There was far more aggravating and disturbingly bad eurotrash and pure rubbish during the first ten or eleven years of pure televoting from 1998 up until the shady slut lady or the still-a-mystery-to-me-overrated Fairytale … the eurotrash you really refer to came with Gina G in 1996 and never left ever since … because in Eurovision trying to be in sync with music trends does not mean it’s actually doing any favour to the world of great music.
Her song was really beautiful… <3
Yes she truly deserved to win instead of Carola that her song was inferior compared to Amina's.. 🙂
Carola was totally robbed the real true all deserved victory in the Vision of 2006 with her gay ultimate pop anthem *Invincible*! <3
The fact that the finnish monsters stole her precious trophy was really pathetic..!
Her song from 1991 was beautiful, and she fully deserved the win! Sweden’s entry was AGAIN a dance/bubblegum/fake/plastic/europop song, the same thing they’ve been giving us for the last 30 years (more or less successfully, I admit). Amina’s song was more authentic, beautifully sung and very moving.
Must be frustrating for the French 1) placing second two years in a row in 1990 and 1991, and 2) knowing that they would have been the winners in 1991 under the current rules (especially given their poor results since then).
Loving the new music!! I wish I could see Amina perform live sometime. She was the one who introduced me to the world of Eurovision and I will be forever grateful to her. 🙂
(She was robbed in 1991!)
What’s more, if the current tie-breaker rule was implemented back then, Amina would have won as she received points from more countries than Carola.
France should have won IMHO, but back then the competition was still euro-pop oriented, and Amina’s success surprised me, as it wasn’t a catchy upbeat tune nor a touching dramatic ballad. Her second place was the first sign of the juries’ new found openness to world music, which later contributed to the success of non-eurotrash entries during the mid to late nineties.