festival in 2011 In 2001, she started her singing career in the blues band "Fifty Fingers". She sang in musical groups in
Angoulême, especially in a jazz quintet. She became one of the four singers of Izar-Adatz (Basque for "Shooting Star"), a variety band which consisted of sixteen people with whom she toured for two years, especially in the
Midi-Pyrenees and the
Basque Country. She worked in the studio as a backing singer in Toulouse and performed with many singers, including Maeso,
Art Mengo, Vladimir Max,
Jean-Pierre Mader, and Serge Guerao. In 2011, Zaz won an
EBBA Award. Every year the European Border Breakers Awards (EBBA) recognize the success of ten emerging artists or groups who reached audiences outside their own countries with their first internationally released album in the past year. In May 2010, French magazine
Télérama announced: "Rumor has swelled in recent weeks: Zaz is an extraordinary voice, and she will be the revelation of the summer!". On 10 May 2010, Zaz released her first album. It contains songs she wrote ("Trop sensible") and co-composed ("Les passants", "Le long de la route", "Prends garde à ta langue", "J'aime à nouveau", "Ni oui ni non"). Kerredine Soltani produced the album on the label "Play On" and wrote and composed the hit single "
Je veux". The pop singer
Raphaël Haroche wrote her songs "
Éblouie par la nuit", "Port Coton" and "La fée". In 2010, she signed a contract for her tours with Caramba and publisher Sony ATV. She was invited to make several television appearances (such as
Taratata or ) and was featured in several programs on the radio. On Sunday 6 October 2013, Zaz appeared on
BBC One's
The Andrew Marr Show in London and sang "Je veux" live. , London on 31 March 2022 in 2016. Zaz then toured
France (
Paris,
La Rochelle,
Montauban,
Saint-Ouen, Chateauroux,
Landerneau,
Fécamp...), performed at the
Francofolies of
Montreal (
Canada), and sang in
Monthey (
Switzerland),
Brussels,
Berlin, and
Milan. In autumn Zaz topped the charts in
Belgium, Switzerland, and
Austria. Matthieu Baligand, her manager and producer at Caramba Entertainment, explained to
Libération: ''"There's a lot about her right now and people want to see her tour... But despite the demand, it seems preferable for her to begin touring in fifty small places, which will make her more credible. Zaz is a popular, intuitive artist, who is familiar with music, who can sing, but doing a quality show is something else (...)."
In November 2010, the debut album Zaz
became double platinum and she was awarded "Revelation Song" by the Académie Charles Cros. Zaz also won the European Border Breakers Award: she was named the French artist most played abroad in 2010. According to a survey published by L'Internaute'', Zaz was the most popular French singer in the 2010 ranking. She is also featured on the song "Cœur Volant" for the soundtrack of the 2011 film,
Hugo. Her live CD and DVD
Zaz live tour Sans Tsu Tsou was revealed. Her song "
Eblouie Par La Nuit" was featured in the 2013 American neo-noir crime thriller, "Dead Man Down". In 2012, Zaz went on tour and held concerts in various countries around the world including
Japan, Canada,
Germany,
Poland, Switzerland,
Slovenia,
Czech Republic (
Colours of Ostrava),
Croatia,
Bulgaria,
Serbia, and
Turkey, among other countries. With her album
Paris she won the 2015
Echo award for best international female rock/pop artist. In 2016, Zaz was invited to perform in
Zacatecas City, Mexico as part of the Festival Cultural Zacatecas. In September 2018, Zaz released "Qué vendrá", the first track from an upcoming album titled
Effet miroir ("Mirror Effect"). The track's title and chorus are in Spanish. In 2019 Zaz took a career break in order to, "look after myself...There has to be a balance because it's Isa [a contraction of her real name] who feeds Zaz, not Zaz who feeds Isa." In October 2021 Zaz released her fifth studio album,
Isa. In September 2023, Zaz performed
Lucienne Delyle's "Mon amant de Saint Jean" at the opening ceremony of the
Rugby World Cup in the
Stade de France. ==Philanthropy==