Discovered by a video that went viral, pianist and rapper Mourad recorded two albums before his death at the age of nineteen. Born to parents of Comorian origin in Marseille on September 29, 2004 in the Castellane district, Mourad Tsimpou Yssouf began by singing before being seduced by the piano during music lessons given by the president of the Vivier Opéra Cité association, Marianne Suner. In December 2018, when he played Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu on the self-service piano at the Timone hospital in Marseille, his performance was the subject of a video widely relayed by social networks. Such was his success that Mourad found himself playing at a pre-game concert at Marseille's Stade Vélodrome, performing a duet with Soprano on the track "Fragile". Signed to the Universal-linked Decca label, he released two albums: Prémices (2019), produced by Alain Manoukian, featured Manoukian's own compositions and improvisations on classical themes by Debussy, Bach and Chopin, while the following album, Petit Frère (2021), gave greater prominence to his rap songs with piano accompaniment, such as "Au cœur de mon hall " and "Main dans la main". Afflicted with a rare liver disease since childhood, young Mourad died at the Necker hospital in Paris on June 29, 2024, at the age of nineteen.
