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Cheikha Rimitti joins the music pantheon in the sky
The Grandmother of Raï dies on 15 May
Paris
17/05/2006 -
On Saturday 13 May, less than a week after celebrating her 83rd birthday, Cheikha Rimitti was up on stage performing at the "100% Raï" festival where she headlined with other major stars such as Khaled, Zahouania, Cheb Abdou, Houari Dauphin and Khalass. The 83-year-old "Mamie" (granny), as she was affectionately known by all belied her age, impressing both the audience and her fellow artists with her dynamism and on-stage energy.
The Raï diva, who released what would be her last album – N’ta Goudami – in December 2005, appeared to defy her age and time itself, assuring a hectic schedule. Her diary was already packed with concert dates for the summer of 2006 with performances lined up across France and appearances scheduled at festivals in Stockholm, Amsterdam and Rome. Marie-José Justamond, in charge of organising the musical line-up at the "Suds" festival in Arles was to have been honoured with a visit from Cheikha Rimitti on 12 July. She mourns the fact that Cheikha Rimitti's sudden death will not only leave a void at the heart of the festival, but send wider shockwaves through the music world. "Cheikha Rimitti was a great lady, an amazing woman who for over half a century made a huge impact on the Algerian collective unconscious and thrilled audiences way beyond her own community. This is a huge loss for us all and we'll obviously be organising some kind of tribute," continues Marie-José, although at present it is not clear what form this homage might take. "Knowing that she was up on stage singing 36 hours before she died is a comforting thought in a way."
And an appropriate end given that Cheikha Rimitti was a singer who lived for her live performances. The cheikha started out performing at family get-togethers and local village festivities, but her talent soon catapulted her into the spotlight. She went on to cement her reputation as a singer and dancer, giving a number of memorable performances on the cabaret circuit. It was during one of these famous nights in a cabaret in Relizane that the Raï diva earned her nickname, ordering another round of drinks by shouting out "Remettez moi-ça" ("Same again!") at the top of her voice. The young orphan born Saâdia Bediaf on 8 May 1923 in Bouni, a tiny village in western Algeria, was henceforth known as Rimitti.
On her first record, a three-track single released on Pathé in 1952, the singer was actually billed as Cheikha Remettez Reliziana. This was not to be the record that launched her career, however. That came two years later when Rimitti – a woman notorious for her straight talking and explicit lyrics – scored her first hit with Charrak Gattà, a song that cultivate the art of double entendre as is so often the case with Raï. Rimitti's reputation as risqué singer, outspoken rebel and general subject of scandal was born. Over the years, Rimitti was often reproached for singing about love, sex and alcohol – reproaches to which she would always give the same answer: "My songs are merely the reflection of what I see around me and what I've lived!"
Rimitti's vocals, so full of passion, vivaciousness and cheerful banter, gave voice to another Algeria and in the years following independence she would be censored on numerous occasions. In the 1980s, Cheikha Rimitti moved to Paris, loosening her ties with the Algerian authorities but never cutting herself off from the Algerian people, her first fans. While her death only merited a three-minute slot at the end of the 8pm news on Algerian television (without either footage of the star or the slightest musical extract!), on the other side of the Mediterranean Cheikha Rimitti's demise has been treated as a full-scale drama.
Rimitti, a truly historic figure in the Raï world, did more than her fair share when it came to providing future generations with material. And nothing angered her more than what she referred to as the tribe of plagiarisers and pillagers who plundered her repertoire without giving her any credit in return. Rimitti, capable of flying into veritable tantrums, was outraged and, at the same time, secretly proud to be the victim of such theft. After all, they owed it all to her. What would Khaled have been without Rimitti? A simple cheb singing himself hoarse! What would Raï production itself have been without the audacious grandmother ready to take the greatest risks, even at the cost of regretting it afterwards! What would the Raï world have been without this eternally free spirit who, in the mid-90s gave her songs and her vocals to a pair of independent producers and to Robert Fripp (founder of King Crimson) and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers?
While Cheikha Rimitti kept a somewhat lower profile in recent years, she nevertheless re-emerged at the turn of the century with Nouar, an album that won the prestigious Prix-Charles-Cros and, more recently, N’ta Goudami, an album many consider to have been the best of her long career. The only question that remains is did they really listen to all 400 cassettes, 300 singles, 50-something 78rpms and the handful of CDs the First Lady of Raï left in her wake?
Cheikha Rimitti N’ta Goudami (Because music) 2005
Squaaly
Translation : Julie Street
15/12/2005 -
04/04/2000 -
