The Limiñanas

Hailing from Cabestany, not far from Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), Marie and Lionel “Limiñana”—who met in high school—saw their careers take off late in life. Already well-known on the local garage rock scene—where Lionel Limiñana had played guitar in various bands for two decades—the duo had to wait until 2009 and a stroke of luck to start dreaming bigger. While most of his fellow musicians were on tour, he wrote two songs, played them for his brother, and adopted the name The Limiñanas. He then posted them on the social networking site MySpace and was approached two days later by a Chicago-based independent rock label, Trouble in Mind Records. Another label contacted the duo almost simultaneously, forcing them to write new songs at a faster pace. Their underground success across the Atlantic continued between 2010 and 2014, as the duo evolved their yéyé pop toward darker, even psychedelic, territory. Thanks to their friend Pascal Comelade, The Limiñanas eventually signed with the French label Because Music, which re-released their previously published albums and, in 2016, Malamore, their first release available in France that managed to rank among the country’s best-selling albums. This recognition grew with the release of the EP Istanbul Therapy (2017), a prelude to the album Shadow People (2018), produced by Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) and featuring Peter Hook, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Bertrand Belin. The following year, the duo took on a new challenge by composing the soundtrack for the film Le Bel Été, featuring Étienne Daho on one track, followed by the soundtrack for The World We Knew and a collaboration with DJ Laurent Garnier on the psychedelic track De Pelicula in 2021. After another collaboration with Pascal Comelade on Boom Boom (2023), Comelade was in turn invited to contribute to the album Faded (2025), which also features Bobby Gillespie, John Spencer, Bertrand Belin, Rover, and Anna Jean. A concert-happening held in October 2025 at the Centre Georges-Pompidou in Paris led to the experimental album Live at Beaubourg, released in June 2026.