Diam's

Mélanie Georgiades (French pronunciation: [melani ʒɔʁʒjad]; born 25 July 1980, in Nicosia), better known by her stage name Diam's (pronounced [djams]), is a retired French rapper of Greek Cypriot origin. Mélanie Marie Georgiades was born on 25 July 1980, in Nicosia, capital of Cyprus. Her mother is French and her father is Greek Cypriot. After her parents separated, she arrived in France with her mother at the age of three. She spent her childhood in Paris, then in the department of Essonne, in Brunoy, until the age of thirteen.She studied for a while in Igny, in the private Saint-Nicolas college. Later, she moved to Massy then to Orsay in the suburban district of Mondetour, where she spent most of her adolescence. She discovered rap through the album The Chronic (1992) by Dr. Dre and the first song by the group NTM, Je rap (1990) (published on Rapattitude, the first French rap compilation). She chose Diam's as her pseudonym in 1995, a choice she explains as "I came across the definition of the word diamond and I learned that a diamond can only be broken by another diamond and that it is only made of natural elements".