MATT POKORA

Matthieu Tota (born 26 September 1985 in Strasbourg, France) commonly known as M. Pokora or Matt Pokora, is a French singer and songwriter. Matthieu Tota, is the son of professional footballer André Tota and his mother is Brigitte Tota. His parents divorced in 1998 when he was just 13. As a child, he studied at an elementary school in Hohberg, and later at Collège Paul-Émile Victor in Mundolsheim, and Lycée Aristide Briand in Schiltigheim near Strasbourg. As a young man, football (soccer) became his first ambition and he wanted to be a professional player. But he opted for music. Matthieu Tota explained about the origin of his name Pokora in an interview during the documentary Mis à jour broadcast on 26 August 2010 about him on NRJ 12 television station. He said he was searching for an artistic name and happened to be talking to his grand mother of Polish origin and the importance of humility came up. So he asked her how do we say humility in Polish language and she said "pokora". So Matthieu immediately decided to call himself Pokora. Matt came form his name Matthieu. So he became to be known by his stage name Matt Pokora. He earned some public attention as a member of French R&B group, Mic Unity. In fall 2003, he participated in the third season of Popstars, a French talent reality television show broadcast on M6. The concept of the program was to present possible candidates the winners of which would take part in the formation of a boy band or girl band. He was a crowd and jury favourite, and became a member of a boy band called Linkup formed with Lionel and Otis, two other winners in 2003 Popstars. The female winners were formed into another group Diadems formed of Marylore, Angel, Pookie, Ophélie and Alexandra.