Raja Meziane

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Raja Meziane ( Arabic رجاء مزيان, DMG Raǧāʾ Mazyān ; * 1988 in Maghnia ) is an Algerian singer and rapper , songwriter , lawyer and activist . With the song "Allo le Système" the Algerian is a political influencer .

Life

Meziane was born in 1988 in Maghnia, a city in the Tlemcen province in northwest Algeria, and grew up in the city of Chouhada . Her father Ahmed ("H'mida") Meziane, a college professor of science, died young of heart disease when she was eight years old. As a child, Meziane took her first steps in theater and music in the ranks of the Boy Scouts in Maghnia. At the age of 14 she recorded her first album of nursery rhymes.

As a law student at Abou Bekr Belkaïd University in Tlemcen, she appeared in the talent show Alhane wa chabab (the Maghreb version of Star Academy, also known as Fame Academy ) in 2007 , in which she then appeared as a finalist. After releasing two albums in 2013 with some songs criticizing the regime, she tried to make a feature film for which she wrote the script and the music of the soundtrack. Since she could not finance this project, she decided to devote herself to her work as a lawyer. However, the Bâtonnier of Algiers refused to issue her a lawyer certificate without giving any reason.

After her success in “Alhane Wa Chabab” in 2007, Raja Meziane experienced the worst blockages an artist can suffer. Her career has been jeopardized, as has her legal profession. From then on she decided to leave Algeria and go to the Czech Republic, where she prepared her comeback in Prague with a new single. The political music video by Meziane Allo le Système! was viewed more than 35 million times on YouTube by the end of 2019. She had published other anti-government songs in exile that deal with social injustice, alleged corruption and inequality. For tens of thousands of young people in Algeria, she became one of the spokesmen for the protests against the Algerian regime.

Awards and honors

She was selected for a portrait in the BBC 100 Women series in October 2019 .

Discography

Albums (selection)

2010: Ya Hasra 3lik Ya Denya
2013: Mrayti

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elisabeth Nöfer: Algeria in transition: a call to the system . In: The daily newspaper: taz . 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de ).
  2. ↑ Alhan wa chabab: Les oncles de Raja Meziane indignés. In: djazairess.com. Djazairess, accessed January 1, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Raja Meziane: Une artiste révoltée poussée à l'exil - El Watan. In: elwatan.com. Accessed January 1, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b BBC 100 Women 2019: Who is on the list? 2019 ( bbc.com ).
  5. ^ Video experience headlines. In: bbc.com. BBC News, accessed January 1, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Meziane, Raja
ALTERNATIVE NAMES رجاء مزيان (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Algerian singer and rapper, songwriter, lawyer and activist
DATE OF BIRTH 1988
PLACE OF BIRTH Maghnia