To highlight a tourist destination, nothing beats a universally appealing music video. This is precisely what the renowned French-Algerian composer and musician, DJ Snake, did with his hit video, “Disco Maghreb.”
More than two years after the video’s release, DJ Snake revisits the behind-the-scenes of its filming, particularly discussing the decision to shoot in Algeria despite all the challenges he faced.
“I wanted to show the real Algeria, a 100% authentic approach.”
Through this video, DJ Snake first wanted to pay homage to a legendary place, the Rai music label, Disco Maghreb, nestled in an alley in Oran, which many thought had been forgotten. He also aimed to showcase Algeria to the world.
However, choosing Algeria to film his song’s video was not straightforward. In fact, he was suggested to film in Morocco, Tunisia, or even Dubai. But the global star of French-Algerian descent was determined not to do things halfway and decided to fully commit to his project.
“My label in the United States didn’t support me. They refused to allocate a budget for the video. They didn’t believe in it because they didn’t understand,” he revealed in a recent interview posted on social media.
Despite this initial setback, DJ Snake, whose real name is William Sami Grigahcine, decided to see his vision through, funding the video himself which paid tribute to Algeria.
“I was told to shoot in Dubai, Morocco, or Tunisia.”
“I decided to invest a significant amount into it, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of euros,” he further confided. Even after solving the funding issue, he encountered other difficulties.
“They told me to shoot in places where it’s easy to bring in the crew, especially concerning visas,” DJ Snake added. In Algeria, his team, comprised of foreigners, needed to apply for visas, often a challenging task for foreign visitors.
Yet again, the global DJ star overcame all these obstacles and indeed filmed his video in Algeria. “I wanted it to be in Algeria. My approach was 100% real. It had to be authentic,” he added.
“I wanted to show Algeria, even if it would cost me more money and time.” Moreover, DJ Snake notes that he could have just shown the most beautiful aspects of the country, like a travel documentary. “But no. I wanted to show the real Algeria: the streets, the culture, and the youth that are never shown.”
