Raï, a popular song from Algeria, which became world famous in the 1990s thanks to stars like Cheb Khaled, was listed on Thursday as an intangible heritage of humanity by Unesco.
“New inscription on the List of Intangible Heritage: Raï, a popular song of Algeria”, announced the organization on its Twitter account, adding: “congratulations! “.
A means of conveying social reality without taboos or censorship, raï addresses themes such as love, freedom, despair, and the fight against social pressures.
Appeared in the 1930s, it was originally practiced in rural areas by deans who sang poetic texts in vernacular Arabic, accompanied by a traditional orchestra, according to Unesco.
It was in the mid-1980s that raï exploded: under the influence of “Chebs” (young people), this traditional Algerian music from the region of Oran (west) was modernized.
After the first raï festival in Oran in 1985, this musical genre arrived in France on the occasion of a festival in Bobigny, in the Paris region, in January 1986.
With this festival, the French public also discovered the voice of Cheb Mami, who, alongside Cheb Khaled or Cheikha Rimitti, would later become a world star.
In a few years, raï widened its audience and interested the major record companies. Cheb Khaled becomes the first North African to enter the Top 50 in the early 90s with his hit “Didi”.
During the black decade (1992-2002), several raï singers were assassinated, including the most famous of them, Cheb Hasni, considered the king of “sentimental raï”, killed in Oran in September 1994 in Oran by armed Islamists.
During the 2000s, raï gradually disappeared from the major television sets and regained its confidential early audience.
He was also the victim of road trips, such as the conviction of Cheb Mami for violence against his ex-girlfriend, and the rise of urban music (rap and Rhythm’n’Blues).
Raï was brought up to date this summer by the phenomenal success of the latest title by the planetary Franco-Algerian star, DJ Snake, “Disco Maghreb”, named after the emblematic Oran record company, to which the title of the song pays homage.
