Medeiros moved to Paris, France, at the age of 14, dropped out of high school a couple of years later and joined the punk band The Stinky Toys.
After the group disbanded, Medeiros joined another Stinky Toy member Jacno to form the electro-pop duo Elli et Jacno. Together they released several albums, one of them the soundtrack to an Éric Rohmer film Les Nuits de la Pleine Lune.
The singer went solo in 1986. The songs Toi Mon Toit and A Bailar Calypso were big hits in France and had a more Latin sound than her previous records.
She sang back-up vocals on several of pop star Etienne Daho's songs from his 1996 album Eden. She also helped co-write his song "Me manquer" from the same album.
A new album is to be released in September 2006.
Elli Medeiros appears in a number of French films and has worked with, among others, Olivier Assayas and Philippe Garrel.
