Laila El Khalifi ( ar, ليلى الخليفي; born 6 September 1971) better known by her stage name Leila K, is a Swedish

Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

singer and rapper of Moroccan descent.

Early life

El Khalifi's parents decided to send her to a school in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, but she did not fit into the system so after one year she returned to Sweden.

Musical career

Leila was discovered by the musical duo

Rob'n'Raz Rob'n'Raz were a Swedish people, Swedish music duet (music), duo of Robert Wåtz and Rasmus Lindwall. After some years of DJing in the late 1980s, they decided to start performing and composing together. They worked on record producer, production ...

when singing in a music contest. They liked her music and offered her a recording contract in 1988. Together with Rob'n'Raz she had her first

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from ''Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization in ...

in 1989 with the song "

Got to Get "Got to Get" is a song by Swedish electronic dance music duo Rob'n'Raz featuring singer-songwriter and rapper Leila K. Released in 1989 as her debut single, it was also the lead single from their only album together, ''Rob'n'Raz featuring Leila ...

" (first recorded within the UK as a pre-production demo by Pete Towns of P&P Productions) and released an album in 1990, ''

Rob'n'Raz featuring Leila K ''Rob'n'Raz featuring Leila K'' is the 1990 debut studio album by Swedish dance music duo Rob'n'Raz, featuring Swedish singer and rapper Leila K on vocals. It includes the single " Got to Get", which reached the top 10 of most European charts a ...

''. During the first years of her career she had many chart-topping hits and her music was played all over Europe. She broke up with Rob'n'Raz and went on her own to

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...

, where she set up concerts on her own. In 1990 she collaborated with Dr. Alban on his single " Hello Afrika". Her solo career started in 1991 with the single "Time" which she followed up with other singles, such as "Open Sesame" and a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of Plastic Bertrand's " Ça Plane Pour Moi". In 1995 Leila K was back on the music scene with the single "Electric". She kept releasing new music until 1997, but since then she has not released anything new. In 1998, SVT made a documentary about Leila K's claim for stardom called ''Fuck You, Fuck You Very Much''. The event focuses on an incident that happened during the 1996 Swedish Grammis awards. In 2000, she appeared on

Daisy Dee Desiree Rollocks (born 4 September 1970), better known by her stage name Daisy Dee, is a Dutch singer, actress, TV host, stylist, and television producer. She is well known in German-speaking German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly s ...

's "Open Sesame"

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

, a cover of her own 1992 hit. This mentioned song is sampled on U96's single "

Love Religion "Love Religion" is a song recorded by German dance music act U96, released in October 1994, as the lead single from their third album, ''Club Bizarre'' (1995). Unlike their previous songs, "Love Religion" is more trance-oriented techno and pop. ...

". Daisy Dee was the presenter of the show ''Viva Club Rotation'' at the time. In 2003, Swedish media reported that Leila K was living on the streets, stealing food for herself. The record company decided to help her financially by releasing a

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

titled ''Leila K's Greatest Tracks''. In 2005, the Swedish cartoonist

Martin Kellerman Martin Kellerman (born 1973 in Växjö) is a Swedish cartoonist, known for the comic strip ''Rocky''. He was influenced by American and Swedish underground cartoonists such as Peter Bagge, Max Andersson, Robert Crumb, Harvey Pekar, Joe Matt an ...

conducted an interview with Leila K for his own

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

magazine, ''Rocky''. In June 2007, Swedish media reported that she turned up as a surprise guest at a release party for the book ''Bögjävlar'', performing the songs " Ça Plane Pour Moi" and " Electric". In May 2011, Leila K appeared for the first time in years as a feature guest on a new track called "Legendary", by artist Wallenberg.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

External links

Leila K Tribute Myspace

Leila K on The Eurodance Encyclopædia
*
Horreurs Musicales – – Horreurs Musicales
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leila K 1971 births Living people Swedish people of Moroccan descent Swedish dance musicians Swedish women rappers Swedish women singers Eurodance musicians Singers from Gothenburg English-language singers from Sweden