Artist.......: Cheikha Rimitti
Album........: Le world...Rai Rimitti
Label........: Suave
Genre........: Ethnic
Catnr........: 6942 009
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Jun-30-2006
str.date.....: Sept-25-2001
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. Jablia 05:52
02. Rijal Ouahran 06:04
03. Drahmi jabouni 06:03
04. Bghani bghani 06:04
05. Dellala 05:21
06. Sayada 06:02
07. Mabaad bladi 05:53
08. Chab Rassi 06:20
09. Ainiya Ainiya 05:09
10. Debri debri 05:09
11. Kirani maghboune 03:15
Runtime 61:12 min
Size 85,9 MB
Release Notes:
The unrivaled queen of Algerian rai music, Cheikha
Rimitti was one of the most beloved and
controversial singers of the Islamic world,
challenging deeply ingrained notions of sex,
politics and femininity with such candor and
ferocity that she was ultimately forced into exile.
Born May 8, 1923 in the western Algerian
countryside of Tessaa, she was orphaned as an
infant and given the name Saadia, spending her
adolescence working as a domesticùat age 15, she
joined a troupe of traveling musicians known as the
Hamadachis and became an accomplished dancer. In
time Saadia became a singer (or "cheikha") as well,
and though illiterate, she possessed a remarkable
gift for wordplay, updating traditional Algerian
folk songs with contemporary dialogue and slang.
Sometime during World War II, she began billing
herself Cheikha Rimitti, adapting the surname from
a conversation with a French bartender during which
she proved unable to pronounce the word "remetezz."
As Rimitti's fame grew, so did her notorietyùher
songs captured in vivid detail the struggles faced
by Algerian women, with a recurring theme of escape
by any means necessary, whether emigration,
drinking or sex. In 1952 Rimitti signed to the
Pathe Marconi label to cut her debut single "Er-Ra∩
Er-Ra∩" and quickly emerged as a superstarùwith the
1954 release of "Charrak Gattα," she became a
lightning rod for controversy throughout North
Africa for openly advocating sexual liberation and
encouraging young women to lose their virginity.
When Algeria's first independent government
ascended to power in 1962, Rimitti's songs were
denounced as "folklore perverted by colonialism,"
and she was banned from appearing on television and
radio. The censorship forced her to relocate to
France, where she continued writing and recording
to the delight of the fast-growing Algerian
immigrant culture. During a brief Algerian tour in
1971, Rimitti was critically injured in an
automobile crash that killed three of her backing
musicians the experience resulted in a 1975
pilgrimage to Mecca, after which she abandoned
cigarettes and alcohol but continued her musical
career. By the 1980s rai was the music of choice
for a new generation of disenfranchised Algerians,
and Rimitti was hailed as "La Mamie du Rai" i.e.,
the mother of modern Algerian pop. As artists
including Cheb Khaled and Rachid Taha covered her
classic compositions, Rimitti's international
profile grew exponentially, and she toured as far
as Japan and Canada, in 1994 teaming with producer
Robert Fripp for the LP Sidi Mansour, widely cited
as a watershed in rai's creative evolution. In the
summer of 2001, she made her U.S. debut at New York
City's Central Park Summerstage, and in 2005 made
her first trip back to Algeria in more than a
quarter century to record the acclaimed N'ta
Goudami. Just two days after performing a sold-out
Paris date, Rimitti died of a sudden heart attack
on May 15, 2006; she celebrated her 83rd birthday a
week earlier.