Award winning act MZAZA presents a show like no other, a show that will make your heart beat and your feet dance. Powerful, multilingual vocals matched with sounds and rhythms from faraway places take audiences on an unforgettable musical journey.
With a fascination for making something new from the old, MZAZA’s writers and musicians skilfully create their own set of traditions from a tapestry of richly woven influences from France, the Balkans, the Middle East and Sephardic Spain.
Driven by her French and Spanish Sephardic roots, front woman Pauline Maudy sings in French, English, Spanish, Ladino and Turkish. She is an enchanting stage leader who delivers powerful and inspired performances.
The impressive musicianship of Mzaza – deftly realised with accordion, violin, percussion, double bass and Flamenco guitar – embraces diversity, the old and the new, the familiar and the foreign, through timeless melodies. It is the timelessness of the music and stories that fuels an intense live show, an unforgettable musical journey, that has enraptured audiences at MONA FOMA, Queensland Music Festival, Cygnet, National and Woodford Folk Festivals, and visited airwaves internationally. Jaw-dropping technique, unique compositions and captivating shows have earned Mzaza supports for the likes of Yasmin Levy (Israel) and DJ Click (France).
In 2015 MZAZA return swith a brand new album titled Ghosts. A mix of originals and reworked traditional pieces, Ghosts perfectly illustrates Mzaza’s signature style: re-imagining the old to create the new. With much of the original material in French or English and inspired by Balkan music, Ghosts delves into stories of Mzaza’s ancestors and their migratory pasts. With first single ‘Enfants du Chemin (Children of the Road)' already a winner for Best Song [World] in the upcoming Queensland Music Awards, the response for Mzaza’s second LP Ghosts has been overwhelmingly positive.
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“MZAZA have been a real revelation for our SBS Chill audience. They are just Amazing!” - Christophe Mallet, SBS Radio, 2014
"Maudy and band darted across bright, asymmetrical rhythms with persuasive ease" - Jessica Nicholas, The Age, 2013
“Brisbane-based MZAZA sing in French & English but their music is as exotic as their family backgrounds, pulsing with Balkan and other Eastern rhythms. They say there's "fire in my blood" in one of their tunes and that's in the music too. Vocalist Pauline Maudy is of French and Jewish Sephardic descent, a people who escaped the Spanish Inquisition via Morocco. Enfant Du Chemin (Children of the Road), winner of best world music song at last month's Queensland Music Awards, is derived from traditional Macedonian roots, opening with Maudy's Gallic vocals and featuring a mix of violin & accordion.” - Noel Mengel, Courier Mail, April 2015
"If the utterly remarkable level of musicianship on display doesn’t pique your interest, then take a look at astonishing front woman Pauline Maudy, she's entirely captivating and her vocals soar!" - Ben Preece, Mucho Bravado, 2012
“Lead singer Pauline Maudy sings in enough languages to make a UN conference translator’s head spin.” - Josh Donellan, Rave Magazine, 2012
“These are serious musicians, and the blend of elements in their songs generate intricacies to which each of them must rigorously commit. Yet there are no pretensions in their manner, no studied pseudo-mystical facades. Mzaza is a band comprised not only of skilled instrumentalists but of consummate and generous performers, who truly relish a direct and celebratory connection with their audience. Pauline Maudy—a mighty talent, capable of raising the roof in four languages—could easily have assumed a primadonna role at the front of such a group, but such an idea clearly could not be further from her mind.” - Rob Rimmer, Weekend Notes, 2012
“Passionate, infectious, haunting, Turkish, Bulgarian, Andaloucian – words won’t express it.” - Tony Preece, Big Orange Chair, 2011
"Brisbane based Pauline Maudy, an expatriate French singer, heartbreakingly channelled Edith Piaf […] More, please." - Ken Lord, The Sunday Mail, 2008
"Mzaza have a unique style and incredible passion which echo through the transfixed audience." - Lisa Lamb, LifeMusicMedia, 25th April 2009
