Noted for her strong and textured voice, Elisabeth Kontomanou got her start as a jazz vocalist and composer in her native France. She had worked with the likes of Michel Legrand and toured internationally by the time she released her eponymous debut album in 1993. She spent the mid-'90s through the mid-2000s in New York City, a stretch that included 2004's Midnight Sun. Kontomanou made her Montreal International Jazz Festival debut in 2006, around the time she relocated to Stockholm. In 2009, Siren Song: Live at Arsenal was recorded with the Lorraine National Orchestra, and her tenth album, 2014's Amoureuse, was her first French-language set.