In the 1930s no respectable Algerian woman dared to make music about sexual pleasure, alcohol consumption, poverty, oppression. Cheikha Rimitti sang anyway. The artist, whose pioneering recordings ...

Every bit the people's music as much as punk or hip-hop, raï has been flourishing for decades, even after post-colonial Marxist governments pushed it underground. Sublime Frequencies' vinyl-only ...

In the 1980s, Algeria experienced a tumultuous social context which reached its peak during the riots of October 88. This wave of protest, with youth as its figurehead, echoed the texts of raï singers ...

Earlier this week in Rabat, Unesco examined applications featuring the French baguette, Algerian raï, Serbian “slivo” and Tunisian harissa to decide whether they should be included on the list of ...

This issue is preventing our website from loading properly. Please review the following troubleshooting tips or contact us at [email protected]. The Middle East Channel: Khaled and the myth of rai ...

“World music” is an impossibly vague and imprecise term that raises more questions than it answers. But for vocalist, keyboardist and producer Lamine Fellah, “world music” neatly sums up the ...

The recent death of French Algerian superstar Rachid Taha brought to mind the musical genre called raï, so I decided to feature it this week by highlighting a few raï artists.… It’s not hard to ...

Performances in N.Y.C. Advertisement Supported by Esraa Warda, who grew up in Brooklyn, takes the North African dances she learned as a child and brings them to the stage and dance studio. By Madison ...

For the Algerian band Democratoz, getting audience members up and dancing isn’t the only goal. They want a revolution. Known for their eclectic mix of Algerian rai, rock and reggae, the seven members ...