French group created in 1981 and disbanded in 1990. Reformed in 2013.
Anaïd was created in the north of France by Jean-Max Delva, Emmanuelle Lionet and Christophe Delvallé, playing in small local bars and clubs. In 1983, when Delvallé left and guitarist Patrice Meyer and keyboardist Patrick Morgenthaler join, the band began playing bigger venues and festival, sometimes with prestigious guests like Didier Malherbe (ex Gong) and Frank Cardon (ex-Art Zoyd).
Their first recording in 1986 adds new members Sophia Domancich and Hugh Hopper, but in concert, they were trimmed down to a duo (Delva and Lionet), a trio (with Hopper) or a quartet (with Hopper & Pape Dieye). In 1988 Pierre-Marie Bonafos, Christian Hossaine and Jean-Marc Houssepian join the group, and record the album "Belladona".
In 1989, a new line-up is constituted, with core members Delva and Lionet with Rick Biddulph, J-L.Ditsch and P-M.Bonafos. They play a lot of concerts throughout 1989 and 1990 before disbanding.
In 2013 Emmanuelle Lionet and Jean-Max Delva start the band again in a trio form, with their son Alexis Delva on guitar. They soon expand to a quartet inviting bassists Laurent Feix then Jimmy Chauteau (in 2015), then Ludovic Métayer (in 2016) for the recording of their new album "Libertad". In January 2018, Métayer leaves the group and is replaced by a keyboardist Damien Thebaud. They record "I Have A Dream" in 2019 as a quartet, and tour soon after as a quintet, adding saxophonist Théo Ferrari to the line-up (album Live In Paris). They were down to a quartet again in 2021 after the departure of Damien Thebaud, and back to a quintet in early 2022 with the arrival of Enguerran Dufour on bass and trumpet. This line up recorded the album "Seven Lives", released in early 2023. But once again, the bassist's fate is short in Anaïd , as Dufour is replaced by Sébastien Husson in late 2023.
Since its birth in the 1980s, the band has resorted only to self-production to release their records, sometimes using crowdfunding systems, conducting their career fully independantly and out of the mainstream.
