Cheb Mami

Born in 1966 in Saïda, Algeria, Cheb Mami first gained recognition in the early 1980s on the Oran raï scene, recording cassettes for the Disco Maghreb label and performing in local cabarets. After settling in France, he became part of Paris’s Maghrebi music milieu and developed an urban raï that blended traditional melodies with pop arrangements and funk influences. This direction is evident on albums such as “Du Sud au Nord” (1990), “Saida” (1994), “Meli Meli” (1999) and “Dellali” (2001), where his high, highly ornamented voice rests on danceable rhythms and lyrics focused on exile, love and everyday life between Algeria and the diaspora. His collaboration with Sting on “Desert Rose” in 1999 significantly expanded the international circulation of his raï, sung in dialectal Arabic and sometimes mixed with French. Cheb Mami’s trajectory was also marked by a 2009 conviction in France for complicity in violence that resulted in a termination of pregnancy, which interrupted his career for several years before a gradual return to the stage and studio in the 2010s, notably between France, the Maghreb and various European tours.