Born Léa Folli on December 1, 1988, in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, she made her recording debut in 2006 on the various-artists rap compilation Block Life, Vol. 4 with the song "Dernière Chance," a collaboration with Soprano of the rap group Psy 4 de la Rime. In 2007 she was featured on several additional rap albums, including Soprano's Puisqu'il Faut Vivre ("La Famille"), Black Marché's Black Marché ("Amour Impossible"), L'Algérino's Mentalité Pirate ("Entre 2 Flammes," "L'Enfant de Marseille"), and Mino's Il Était une Fois... ("Mariah"). The following year Castel made her full-length solo album debut with Pressée de Vivre on the Universal Music-distributed label Street Skillz. Featuring the hit singles "Dernière Chance" (a new version of her aforementioned collaboration with Soprano) and "Pressée de Vivre" (a Top 20 hit on the French singles chart), the album proved commercially successful, peaking at number three on the French albums chart during its first week of sales. ~ Jason Birchmeier