Matthieu Tota (French pronunciation: [matjø tɔta]; born 26 September 1985), artistically known as Matt Pokora and later M. Pokora (), is a French pop singer, songwriter and dancer. He is known for his catchy melodies and smooth vocals. Pokora mostly sings in French but he has also recorded a number of songs in English. In 2016, 2017 and 2025 he served as a coach for The Voice Kids France. He was also a coach in the sixth season of The Voice: la plus belle voix in 2017 alongside Florent Pagny, Mika and Zazie, where his finalist Lisandro Cuxi went on to win the season.
Early life
Matthieu Tota is the son of professional footballer André Tota and Brigitte. His parents divorced in 1998 when he was 13 years old. As a child, he studied in an elementary school in Hohberg, Germany, and later at Collège Paul-Émile Victor in Mundolsheim, and Lycée Aristide Briand in Schiltigheim near Strasbourg. When he was younger, football was his first ambition and he wanted to become a professional player. However, he later opted for music.
Tota explained the origin of his stage name, Matt Pokora, in an interview during the documentary Mise à jour, broadcast on 26 August 2010 on NRJ 12. He said he was searching for an artistic name, and happened to be talking to his grandmother of Polish origin when the importance of humility came up. He asked her "How do we say 'humility' in Polish?", and she replied "pokora". Tota immediately decided to adopt the word as his stage name.
He earned some public attention as a member of French R&B group Mic Unity.
In Popstars and Linkup
In the fall of 2003, Tota 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. Tota was a crowd and jury favourite, and became a member of the boy band 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. In the final showdown, the boy band including Tota won the series over the girl band Diadems, who ended up runners-up.
Linkup's first single, "Mon Étoile", was very successful, topping French charts, while their debut album, Notre Étoile, was moderately successful. However, their second single release, "Une seconde d'éternité", was much less successful despite good sales.
The band then collaborated with the British boy band Blue, making a bilingual English/French version of the latter's song "Bubblin'". This new version was entitled "You & Me Bubblin". Soon afterwards, Linkup disbanded due to poor performance of sales on releases.
Solo career
Matt Pokora / M. Pokora (2004/2005)
In 2004, soon after the break-up of Linkup, Tota started preparing for his solo career, collaborating with the producers Kore & Skalp.
Under the stage name Matt Pokora, he released his first eponymous solo album originally entitled Matt Pokora. In 2005, he was forced to change his chosen name after a lawsuit from French R&B singer Matt Houston. As a result, he changed his stage name to M. Pokora and re-released the album as M. Pokora.
The debut single from M. Pokora, called "Showbiz (The Battle)", was a Top 10 hit in France, and also charted in Belgium and Switzerland. The second single, Elle me contrôle, featuring Sweety, reached no. 6 in France, and Pokora received two NRJ Music Awards for the single. Yet a third successful single was released called "Pas sans toi". The album, released with Universal, was certified gold.
He also started collaborating with Hakim Ghorab, who became his long-time choreographer and took part in many of his music videos. He also developed a close collaboration with music video director Karim Ouaret, who directed most of his successful videos.
Player (2006/2007)
In January 2006, his second album, Player, was released, topping the French chart. For its production, he collaborated with Belgian producers Bionix, Rachid Mir and Christian Dessart and artists Red Rat and Zoxea, and geared it toward the younger and feminine fan brackets. He also enjoyed great popularity with gay audiences. The first single from his second album was the successful "De retour" featuring Tyron Carter, followed by the single "Oh la la la (Sexy Miss)" with Red Rat.
During a concert organized by NRJ Radio in France, he met Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin, who asked him to collaborate on Martin's hit "It's Alright". The result was a bilingual French/English release also entitled "It's Alright" that sold more than 100,000 copies. Finally, a last single from the Player album followed, called "Mal de guerre", which was a relative success. M. Pokora released Player in a second edition in March 2006 with the duet with Martin added as a bonus track.
To promote the album and capitalize on its success, M. Pokora engaged in a tour of more than 30 French venues, entitled Player Tour, which culminated in a big sold-out concert at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy. At the end of the tour, a DVD containing materials from the shows was marketed under the name Player Tour Live. The DVD also included a photo book and memories from the tour.
Pokora also created his own label, M2theP Entertainment, signing his protégé, the rapper Tyron Carter. In addition to being featured on "De retour", Carter released "Ne me dis pas", featuring M. Pokora, a Top 30 hit, followed by an album, Mon hold-up.
MP3 (2008/2009)
After end of the Player Tour, Pokora left Universal and signed with EMI France. Also desiring a more international profile, he went to New York and created contacts most importantly with producers Ryan Leslie and J. R. Rotem. The result was his third album MP3, which was released on 24 March 2008, containing 14 tracks, including 12 in English. The title of the album was a play on his name Matt Pokora (MP) and the number 3 (his third album), but also referring to the popular MP3 audio format for consumer audio storage. M. Pokora promoted the launch of the album with a prerelease of the single "Dangerous" featuring American hip hop artist Timbaland and Sebastian, Timbaland's brother. The timing of the release was picked to coincide with the NRJ Music Awards of 2008.
The album reached no. 7 in France, with estimated physical sales of 200,000 copies and additional downloads of 151,000, and was certified gold. The album also did well internationally, charting in Finland, Germany, Mexico, Belgium, and Poland, where he won the Polish Eska Music Awards as the "International hip hop Artist of the Year".
After the success of "Dangerous", Pokora released a second single, "They Talk Sh#t About Me", featuring the English rapper Natalia Kills, credited on the release by her stage name, Verse. Unlike "Dangerous" (which had reached no. 1), this single was not played heavily on French radio because of its English lyrics and managed to reach only no. 24. A third release from MP3, "Catch Me If You Can", was made with the music video featuring Julie Ricci. She is known for her appearances on Top Model in 2007 on M6 and in Secret Story in its 4th season on TF1. The single failed to make it to the French charts, but was successful in Poland, reaching no. 11. The follow-up, "Through The Eyes", was also a relative success in Poland, reaching no. 31 in the country's charts.
To coincide with MP3's release, M. Pokora launched his Catch Me Tour 2008, ending with a concert in Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy on 18 November 2008. He also toured Belgium (6 December), Switzerland (13 December), ending with a final concert in Lyon, France, on 14 December 2008.
Mise À Jour / Updated (2010/2011)
M. Pokora's fourth studio album, titled Mise à jour, was released on 23 August 2010. The lead single, "Juste une photo de toi", was released on 7 June 2010 and reached no. 4 in the French Albums Chart. It includes collaborations with Wayne…