Cheikha Rimitti

The Diva of Raï

Paris 

04/04/2000 - 

Cheikha Rimitti, the First Lady of Algerian Raï, is currently back in the music news with a new album entitled Nouar. Released on the Musisoft label, Nouar has been hailed as a major event in the Raï world - and rightly so, Rimitti has released only a couple of albums in the course of her long career! Up until now the Raï diva's famously husky tones have been confined to gala performances and cassettes circulating on the local market. But now, thanks to her new album, Cheikha Rimitti's looks set to assume her rightful place at the forefront of the Franco-Maghrebin music scene.

Cheikha Rimitti, the diva from Oran who immortalised the song Remettez-moi ça, patronne..., has long been a star on the Raï underground. For years Rimitti's husky vocals have been like some delicious form of contraband, smuggled around on cassettes in record shops known only to a select group of committed fans. With the exception of two or three albums released on major labels, Rimitti's best work has circulated on cassette on these "parallel circuits" which originally helped to build up the Raï movement.

As the traditional Raï sound has modernised - with a dash of electronic keyboards here and a spot of 'world' fusion there - the movement has slowly filtered through to the musical mainstream. What's more, the international media has eagerly picked up on the success of new Raï kings such as Cheb Khaled and Cheb Mami. Raï, which now boasts a fast-growing following of fans outside the Maghreb, is currently a best-selling phenomenon and more than one major record label has jumped on the commercial bandwagon. Needless to say, modern Raï has come a long way from its bastard peasant roots and the music played in contemporary urban Algeria has little to do with trab (the traditional Raï of the movement's origins).

Once threatened with reprisals from Algerian authorities suspicious of its anti-establishment stance, Raï has now found a second home in France where many of the movement's greatest stars are currently based. However, these days adepts of old-style Raï are few and far between, most singers having succumbed to the dictates of the modern music scene and invented their own brand of world-pop-Raï fusion. Others have followed a harder path, accepting a lower profile and performing out of the public eye in local Arab cafés and at private festivities. This is the path Cheikha Rimitti has chosen to follow and in the process the Algerian diva has built up a strong following of adoring fans who inundate her with requests to perform at wedding parties.

Embracing her bohemian lifestyle with unremitting passion and commitment, Rimitti has never complained about being consigned to the musical underground. Ironically the singer's old-style Raï, accompanied by the gasbas (reed flute), the guellal (darbuka) and the bendir (tambourine), has been proving increasingly popular with younger Raï fans. What's more, several leading stars on the modern Algerian Raï scene have publicly acknowledged her influence, while mainstream media and "politically correct" showbizz folk hail her as the First Lady of Raï.
Rimitti accepts her newfound popularity with a quiet smile, ignoring opportunistic gestures and describing many of her most ardent flatterers as "pompeurs" (plagiarists). The singer prefers to reminisce about the nights she spent singing and dancing in local cafés for a handful of dinars, back in pre-World War Two days when she was already causing a stir with her provocative anti-establishment lyrics. These would culminate in "Charak, geta" (Tear and Lacerate), a song which openly denounced the hypocrisy surrounding the cult of virginity in Muslim countries and spread her fame to France. By the time modern Raï exploded on the Algerian music scene in 1985, Cheikha Rimitti had been performing for more than forty years. (The Raï diva's first recording was actually released on Pathé-Marconi in 1936).

Rimitti, who recently turned 75, has always remained true to her roots, occasionally throwing an odd bit of accordion into her compositions, but apart from that always respecting the traditional Raï sound. Music fans will discover this on Saïda, the first single release from Rimitti's new album, where traditional rhythms beat loud and clear supported by a healthy chorus of youyous. Other highlights on the new album include the title track Nouar (arranged by Mohamed Maghni) and Hak hak (which features an amazing performance by trumpet-player Messaoud Bellamou). Filled with warmth, emotion and authenticity, this album presents the Grandmother of Raï at the very top of her form.

Soeuf  Elbadawi