Mirwais Ahmadzaï
Mirwais Ahmadzaï (born 23 October 1960), known mononymously as Mirwais, is a French electronic dance music record producer and songwriter. Born in Switzerland to an Afghan father and an Italian mother, Ahmadzaï was a member of the defunct 1980s group Taxi Girl. He met Madonna in the late 1990s, when he submitted a demo to her then record label, Maverick Records. Career. Early life. Mirwais Ahmadzaï was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. As his surname suggests, his Afghan father was a Pashtun of the Ahmadzai tribe. His mother was Italian. The family lived in Kabul, Afghanistan for a while  before relocating to Paris. Taxi Girl and Juliette et les indépendants. Resultantly becoming known in France for this reason for the better part of two decades, Mirwais was a guitarist in the punk group Taxi Girl for eight years, before forming the acoustic outfit "Juliette et les Indépendants" with his then-girlfriend Juliette. Taxi Girl's first EP, "(S.O.S Mannequin)", was released in early 1980 on Pathé Marconi/EMI. "For a teenager, the late 70s were a strange mixture of disco music and punk, and it was okay to like them all," he says. Taxi Girl captured the punk rock  power of The Stooges, the techno futurism of Kraftwerk and the disco euphoria of Giorgio Moroder and molded the diametrically opposed styles into an electrifying new-wave sound that entertained and inspired a generation of listeners bored by the complacency of 80s French pop. Even the current darlings of the French electronic music scene, such as Daft Punk and Air, continue to namecheck Taxi Girl as a major influence on their artistic directions. Solo career. In 1990, Mirwais released his eponymous debut solo album "Mirwais" which contained nine tracks and was performed by Mirwais exclusively in French; he had not  yet learned English. In 1998, he signed to French independent record label Naïve Records and released the single "Disco Science". This single was a success as a club dance hit and appeared in the soundtrack for the Guy Ritchie film, "Snatch" and the 2006 Luc Besson film Arthur and the Invisibles. In August 2000, he released the album "Production", which included the single "Paradise (Not For Me)" made in collaboration with Madonna. It also included two minor chart hits in the UK Singles Chart: "Disco Science" (2000, #68) and "Naive Song" (2000, #50). Naive Song went to number 2 on  the US Dance Club Charts in 2001. Madonna. Madonna recruited him for writing and production collaboration on four of her studio albums: "Music" (2000), "American Life" (2003), "Confessions on a Dance Floor" (2005), and "Madame X" (2019). He also co-wrote a song that would later appear on her greatest hits album "Celebration" as a previously unreleased track. Mirwais contributed the following tracks to the Madonna albums: The "Music" album was nominated for three Grammy Awards including Record of the Year. "Music" won several MTV Europe awards. He was also involved in the writing and production of the title track  to the movie "Die Another Day", co-written and performed by Madonna. The song was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 2003. Fischerspooner. Mirwais also co-produced two tracks "Cloud" and "Never Win" on Fischerspooner's second studio album "Odyssey", released in 2005. Y.A.S.. He worked on a project called Y.A.S. The official website stated: "YAS is the name of Mirwais' new project with the singer and composer Yasmine Hamdan. The album was released in France on 8 June 2009. All songs are performed by her. It is 'Arabic Avant-Garde Music'". In an interview on  13 January 2007 published on lecourrier.ch, Mirwais said, "At the moment I work with Yasmine Hamdan (one half of Lebanon electro-duo Soapkills). The idea is that today, in Western culture, we hear about Arabs everyday - in a bad way, because of terrorism, etc - but we lack of cultural representations coming from those countries that could mix with the western culture, whereas this youth is eager to. I don't want to do world music, but a good western production with a real Arab identity." Y.A.S.' album, "Arabology" was released in May 2009, with the first single, "Get It Right , following in June that year. Uffie. After remixing Pop the Glock", Mirwais became one of the producers of Uffie's album "Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans", for which he produced four songs "ADD SUV", "Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans", "Illusion of Love" and "Hong Kong Garden", one of which featured Pharrell Williams ("ADD SUV") and one which featured Mattie Safer ("Illusion of Love"). THE RETROFUTURE (Third Album — 2021). Mirwais announced on early January 2021 via his instagram page that the release of his third album called "THE RETROFUTURE" will take place in 2021. A music video of his first single  2016 - My Generation has been premiered on Nowness on April 19, 2021. The music video has been directed by Ludovic Houplain/ H5paris based from an original idea by Mirwais. 2016 - My Generation has been released through all DSP platforms on April 21, 2021.This is the first song Mirwais has released for 20 years. He, himself describe it as "the description of a world that is already there, but in an accumulated form." Each song is preceded by the name of a year like for 2016 - My Generation Discography. Film music. Songs that Ahmadzaï composed and wrote that are featured in  films: Remixes. Remixes that Ahmadzaï contributed: