Cheikha Rimitti

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Cheikha Rimitti

Cheikha Rimitti (born May 8, 1923 in Tessala with Sidi bel Abbès ; † May 15, 2006 in Paris ; actually Bedief Saadia ) was an Algerian Raï singer.

Your stage name (also written Remitti ) comes from the French "Remettez", in German "Schenk nach!". Cheikha Rimitti was considered the most famous of the "Cheikhates" generation of singers after 1920 and was active until her death. Her music illustrated the change in content from the orchestral Medahates-Raï to the more individual Cheikha style, accompanied by the gasba (a rosewood flute ) and the guellal (a frame drum).

Life

Rimitti grew up in Relizane and lost her parents at an early age. She made her way through as a housekeeper in French families and then joined a group of traveling musicians. With this she lived through the severe typhoid epidemics of that time, she later said about this phase of her life “The dead were loaded onto carts ... [...] I cried and sang at the same time to shake off all the suffering that had ruined me . " .

Cheikha Rimitti made her first record in 1952 under the name Cheikha Remettez Reliziane for the French record company Pathé-Marconi, two years later she became famous under her current name through scandalous pieces with open feminist and permissive texts.

At the time of the Algerian War, Cheikha Rimitti had supported the resistance, but there was no place for the Raï in the prudish society that followed. Under Boumedienne she was banned from performing and, promoted by the emergence of new Raï styles, Cheikha Rimitti with her very traditional style was a bit forgotten.

In 1976 she undertook the Hajj , the pilgrimage to Mecca , in 1979 she made her first appearance abroad, in France . In the 1980s, with the worldwide success of the Raï, they were remembered again. She toured internationally and recorded several modern instrumented and arranged albums. Renowned Western musicians such as Red-Hot-Chili-Peppers bassist Flea also took part in these albums .

She died of a heart attack in Paris in 2006 at the age of 83. She performed regularly until shortly before her death.

Cheikha Rimitti's work comprises 55 shellac records , over 400 cassettes and around 30 albums on LP and CD .

Discography (selection)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rimitti, Cheikha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saadia, Bedief (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Algerian Raï singer
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Tessala at Sidi bel Abbès
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 2006
Place of death Paris