Taïro

Emerging from the Paris reggae scene, Taïro has forged a distinctive path between chanson and sound system culture. Born in Paris in 1978 as Ismaël Jolé-Ménébhi, he first appeared on screen in Mehdi Charef’s film Le Thé au harem d’Archimède before turning to music in the mid-1990s, contributing to numerous mixtapes and making his mark on the French dancehall circuit. Over time, Taïro established himself, in French, as a songwriter and performer of reggae shaped by rub-a-dub, dancehall, and urban pop, with lyrics focused on romantic relationships, everyday life, and social issues. His debut album, Chœurs et âme, was released in 2009, followed by Ainsi soit-il in 2013 and Reggae Français in 2016, which cemented his place in the Francophone reggae landscape. In parallel, Taïro pursued numerous collaborations with artists from reggae and rap, and he regularly performs with a band on French and European stages - from clubs and concert halls to festivals - maintaining a strong connection to the sound system aesthetic that has shaped his writing and performance.