Origins Raï is a type of Algerian popular music that arose in the 1920s in the port city of
Oran, and that self-consciously ran counter to accepted artistic and social mores. It appealed to young people who sought to modernize the traditional Islamic values and attitudes. Regional, secular, and religious drum patterns, melodies, and instruments were blended with Western electric instrumentation. Raï emerged as a major
world music genre in the late 1980s. In the years just following
World War I, the Algerian city of Oran (known as "little Paris") was a melting pot of various cultures, full of
nightclubs and
cabarets; it was the place to go for a bawdy good time. Out of this milieu arose a group of male and female Muslim singers called chioukhs and cheikhates, who rejected the refined, classical poetry of traditional Algerian music. Instead, to the accompaniment of pottery drums and end-blown flutes, they sang about the adversity of urban life in a raw, gritty, sometimes vulgar, and inevitably controversial language that appealed especially to the socially and economically disadvantaged. The cheikhates further departed from tradition in that they performed not only for women but also and especially for men. The music performed was called raï. It drew its name from the Algerian Arabic word ('opinion' or 'advice'), which was typically inserted—and repeated—by singers to fill time as they formulated a new phrase of improvised lyrics. By the early 1940s
Cheikha Rimitti el Reliziana had emerged locally as a musical and linguistic luminary in the raï tradition, and she continued to be among the music's most prominent performers into the 21st century. In the early 20th century, Oran was divided into Jewish, French, Spanish, and Native Algerian quarters. By independence in 1962, the Jewish quarter (known as the Derb), was home to musicians like
Reinette L'Oranaise,
Saoud l'Oranais, and
Larbi Bensari. Sidi el Houari (the old quarter where
Sidi El Houari has his shrine) was home to Spanish fishermen and many refugees from Spain who arrived after 1939. These two areas had active music scenes, and the French inhabitants of the city went to the Jewish and Spanish areas to examine the music. The Arabs of Oran were known for
al-Andalous, a classical style of music imported from Southern Spain after 1492. Hawzi classical music was popular during this time, and female singers of the genre included
Cheikha Tetma,
Fadila D'zirya and
Myriam Fekkai. Another common musical genre was ('Bedouin') or ('Western'), which originated from
Bedouin chants. Bedoui consisted of Malhun poetry being sung with accompaniment from
guellal drums and
gaspa Flutes. Bedoui was sung by male singers, known as s, who were dressed in long, white
jellabas and
turbans. Lyrics came from the poetry of people such as
Mestfa ben Brahim and
Zenagui Bouhafs. Performers of bedoui included Cheikh Hamada, Cheikh Mohammed Senoussi, Cheikh Madani, Cheikh Hachemi Bensmir and Cheikh Khaldi. Senoussi was the first to have had recorded the music in 1906.
French colonization of Algeria changed the organization of society, producing a class of poor, uneducated urban men and women. Bedoui singers mostly collaborated with the French colonizers, though one exception from such collaboration was Cheikh Hamada. The problems of survival in a life of poverty were the domain of street musicians who sang bar-songs called
zendanis. A common characteristic of these songs included exclamations of the word and variations thereof. The word implies that an opinion is being expressed. In the 1920s, the women of Oran were held to strict code of conduct. Many of those that failed became social outcasts and singers and dancers. They sang
medh songs in praise of the prophet
Mohammad and performed for female audiences at ceremonies such as weddings and
circumcision feasts. These performers included
Les Trois Filles de Baghdad,
Soubira bent Menad and
Kheira Essebsadija. Another group of female social outcasts were called , who were known for their alluring dress, hedonistic lyrics, and their display of a form of music that was influenced from meddhahates and zendani singers. These cheikhas, who sang for both men and women, included people such as
Cheikha Remitti el Reliziana, Cheikha Grélo, Cheikha Djenia el Mostganmia, Cheikha Bachitta de Mascara, and Cheikha Ouachma el Tmouchentia. The 1930s saw the rise of revolutionary organizations, including organizations motivated by
Marxism, which mostly despised the earlier generation of raï singers. At the same time, Arabic classical music was gaining huge popularity across the
Maghreb, especially the music of Egypt's
Umm Kulthum. (1923–2006) When first developed, raï was a hybrid blend of rural and
cabaret musical genres, invented by and targeted toward distillery workers and peasants who had lost their land to European settlers, and other types of lower class citizens. The geographical location of
Oran allowed for the spread of many cultural influences, allowing raï musicians to absorb an assortment of musical styles such as
flamenco from Spain,
gnawa music, and French cabaret, allowing them to combine with the rhythms typical of Arab
nomads. In the early 1930s, social issues afflicting the native population in the colony, such as the disease of
typhus, harassment and imprisonment by the colonial police, and poverty were prominent themes of raï lyrics. However, other main lyrical themes concerned the likes of wine, love, and the meaning and experiences of leading a marginal life. From its origins, women played a significant role in the music and performance of raï. In contrast to other
Algerian music, raï incorporated dancing in addition to music, particularly in a mixed-gender environment. Among the most prominent performers of the new raï were Chaba Fadela, Cheb Hamid, and
Cheb Mami. However, by the time the first international raï festival was held in Algeria in 1985, Cheb Khaled had become virtually synonymous with the genre. More festivals followed in Algeria and abroad, and raï became a popular and prominent new genre in the emergent world-music market. International success of the genre had begun as early as 1976 with the rise to prominence of producer
Rachid Baba Ahmed. The added expense of producing
LPs as well as the technical aspects imposed on the medium by the music led to the genre being released almost exclusively onto cassette by the early 1980s, with a great deal of music having no LP counterpart at all and a very limited exposure on CD. While this form of raï increased cassette sales, its association with mixed dancing, an obscene act according to orthodox Islamic views, led to government-backed suppression. However, this suppression was overturned due to raï's growing popularity in France, where it was strongly demanded by the Maghrebi Arab community. This popularity in France was increased as a result of the upsurge of Franco-Arab struggles against racism. This led to a following of a white audience that was sympathetic to the antiracist struggle. In the 1980s, raï began its period of peak popularity. Previously, the Algerian government had opposed raï because of its sexually and culturally risqué topics, such as alcohol and consumerism, two subjects that were taboo to the traditional Islamic culture. ,
Cheb Khaled, Cheb Hamid and
Cheb Sahraoui The government eventually attempted to ban raï, banning the importation of blank cassettes and confiscating the passports of raï musicians. This was done to prevent raï from not only spreading throughout the country, but to prevent it from spreading internationally and from coming in or out of Algeria. Though this limited the professional sales of raï, the music increased in popularity through the illicit sale and exchange of tapes. In 1985, Algerian Colonel Snoussi joined with French minister of culture Jack Lang to convince the Algerian state to accept raï. He succeeded in getting the government to return passports to raï musicians and to allow raï to be recorded and performed in Algeria, with government sponsorship, claiming it as a part of Algerian cultural heritage. This not only allowed the Algerian government to financially gain from producing and releasing raï, but it allowed them to monitor the music and prevent the publication of "unclean" music and dance and still use it to benefit the Algerian State's image in the national world. In 1985, the first state-sanctioned raï festival was held in Algeria, and a festival was also held in January 1986 in with Cheb Khaled, Cheb Saharaoui, Chebba Fadela, Cheb Hamid, Cheb Mami and the group Raï NaraÏ in the theater MC93 of
Bobigny, France. In 1988, Algerian students and youth flooded the streets to protest state-sponsored violence, the high cost of staple foods, and to support the Peoples' Algerian Army. President Chadli Bendjedid, who held power from 1979 to 1992, and his FLN cronies blamed raï for the massive uprising that left 500 civilians dead in October 1988. Most raï singers denied the allegation, including Cheb Sahraoui, who said there was no connection between raï and the October rebellion. Yet raï's reputation as protest music stuck because the demonstrators adopted
Khaled's song "El Harba Wayn" ("To Flee, But Where?") to aid their protesting. In the 1990s, censorship ruled raï musicians. One exiled raï singer,
Cheb Hasni, accepted an offer to return to Algeria and perform at a stadium in 1994. Hasni's fame and controversial songs led to him receiving
death threats from
Islamic fundamentalist extremists. On September 29, 1994, he was the first raï musician to be
murdered, outside his parents' home in the Gambetta district of
Oran, reportedly because he let girls kiss him on the cheek during a televised concert. His death came amid other violent actions against North African performers. A few days before his death, the
Kabyle singer
Lounès Matoub was abducted by the
GIA. The following year, on February 15, 1995, Raï producer
Rachid Baba-Ahmed was assassinated in Oran. The escalating tension of the Islamist anti-raï campaign caused raï musicians such as
Chab Mami and
Chaba Fadela to relocate from Algeria to France. Moving to France was a way to sustain the music's existence. France was where Algerians had moved during the post-colonial era to find work, and where musicians had a greater opportunity to oppose the government without censorship.
International success Cheb Khaled was the first musician with international success, including his 1988 duet album with jazz musician Safy Boutella album
Kutché, though his popularity did not extend to places such as the United States and Latin America. Other prominent performers of the 1980s included
Houari Benchenet,
Raïna Raï,
Mohamed Sahraoui,
Cheb Mami,
Cheba Zohra and
Cheb Hamid. International success grew in the 1990s, with Cheb Khaled's 1992 album
Khaled. With Khaled no longer in Algeria, musicians such as
Cheb Tahar,
Cheb Nasro, and
Cheb Hasni began singing
lover's raï, a sentimental, pop-ballad form of raï music. Later in the decade,
funk,
hip hop, and other influences were added to raï, especially by performers like
Faudel and
Rachid Taha, the latter of whom took raï music and fused it with rock. Taha did not call his creation raï music, but rather described it as a combination of folk raï and punk. Another mix of cultures in Arabic music of the late 1990s came through Franco-Arabic music released by musicians such as
Aldo. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a rise in female raï performers. According to authors Gross, McMurray, and Swedenburg in their article "Arab Noise and Ramadan Nights: Raï, Rap, and Franco-Maghrebi Identity," raï musician
Chaba Zahouania was forbidden by her family to perform or even appear in public. According to Gross et al., the raï record companies have pushed female artists to become more noticed. Sting was widely credited for introducing raï music to Western music audiences, and as such, the song was a success on many charts, reaching No. 2 in Canada, No. 3 in Switzerland, No. 4 in Italy, No. 15 in the
UK, and No. 17 in the
US. It also reached number 1 on
Billboards
Adult Alternative and
Hot Dance Single Sales charts respectively. ==Censorship==