Born in Paris of an Ivory Coast father and a Moroccan-Spanish mother, Laïka was raised mainly by women (her grandmother, mother, and aunt) in a Moroccan Jewish family. She leans towards her maternal Sephardic culture, open to different styles of music in the Mediterranean. It shouldn't be surprising that Jazz – which finds its universality in the fact of being an adopted language and culture – should have constituted the natural horizon of her curious personality, willing to take a strong stand.


Her schooling (Ariam Ile de France, Cim, IACP) would not give a true picture of her singing : a personal expression founded on authentic living of Jazz. It's not for nothing that she has a close rapport with the likes of Antonio Hart, Roy Hargrove, David Linx… that is, a school of musicians intent on a kind of mirror of the self : to be oneself by using a language established by great predecessors – who are not to be destroyed but respected and repaid with interest. Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Shirley Horn, Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln are Laïka's inspiration, not just models to adopt or discard on a whim.


She also made herself known through Claude Bolling's big band. She has collaborated with Sixun, Julien Lourau, Steve Williams, Antoine Roney, Michael Bowie, David El Malek, Richard Galliano, Toot Thielemans, Robert Glasper, Gregory Hutchinson, Peter Martin, Daryl Hall, Vince Benedetti... Laïka has taken to the stage in a different guise, that of theatre, and quite seriously: studies at the « Ecole du Théâtre de Chaillot » with Aziz Kabouch, master classes with Irina Brook at the Cartoucherie, with Philippe Adrien, and Jack Garfein of the Actors' Studio. Her participation in the musical comedy “A Drum is a Woman”, by Orson Welles and Duke Ellington, with Bolling and Jérôme Savary (Palais de Chaillot, 1996) was quite appropriately a synthesis of music and theater.


From then on she has lead a double career as musician/actress: Eva Kaczor's “Oli-Ola”, role of Oli-Ola in 1999; Jean-Luc Jeener's “Peau d'Ane”, at the Théatre du Nord Ouest, role of the fairy in 1999/2000; Xavier Lacouture's “Variations sur un Thème”, role of little prince in 2000; Antoine Campo's “L'Indien en Smoking”, music by Villa-Lobos, at the Conservatoire de Montreuil, role of Yara in 2000; “Los Sobrinos del Capitán Grant”, adapted from Jules Verne, staging by Paco Mir at the Zarzuela Theater, Madrid, role of the Maori's princess in 2001/2002/2003/2004/2006 ; “Tectonics Clouds”, opera/jazz of José Rivera & Laurent Cugny, staging by François Rancillac at the Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Vienne Jazz Festival, Comédie de Saint Etienne and The Grand Theatre (Nantes) role of Celestina del Sol in 2007, 2009. She has also played in Claude Lelouch's film "Hasards ou Coïncidences".


Yet it is as vocalist and leader of her quintet that her full personal expression soars and affirms itself. When fashion dictates turning our backs on Jazz classics, Laïka would rather make them her own, adding her singular touch: the well-trodden songs she interprets are completely made anew.