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Fadela: The First Lady of Electric Raï

It is Fadéla who delivered a new raï to the world. In 1979, when she was barely 17 years old, Fadéla recorded a song in Oran — in Kassidy’s studio — with a sulfurous text taken from the poetry of the great West Algerian poet, Mustapha Ben Brahim. The music is charged with electricity; one can even hear a certain Mohamed Sahraoui drumming with conviction on the bongos. Fadéla’s voice reveals a fiery personality and Ana ma h’lali ennoum (“I Don’t Like To Sleep Anymore”) seduces young people with its lively aalaoui rhythm and lyrics about erotic games on a beach. The song shocked the Algerian government’s “guardians of good morals” with its chorus, where the teenager decreed she was not interested in sleeping anymore.

This song paved the way to modern raï which, until then, had not ventured beyond its native region. It allowed Fadéla to perform numerous times at the clubs of the Oranese corniche where, in principle, women weren’t allowed access. She defied this sexist ban, enacted under the iron regime of Colonel Boumediene, and performed with the support of Messaoud Bellemou, the trumpeter who made a link between sounds of the past and present.

Before all of this, Fadéla Zelmat — born to a modest family on February 5, 1962 in Sig, a small town east of Oran— made an encouraging stage debut playing the role of the sun in B’hira, a musical for children. She lived just across the street from the famous Regional Theater of Oran, where her brother and sister were members. Young Fadéla used to sneak into the institution directed by Abdelkader Alloula (assassinated in March 1994) to attend the rehearsals of the trendiest groups of the time, mostly Moroccan artists such as Hamid Zahir, Jil Jilala and the legendary Nass El Ghiwan. She often sang along with them, inheriting the nickname Rimitti S’ghira (“Little Rimitti”) from Alloula.

In 1976, the director brought her to the set of the TV-movie El Djalti (“The Left-handed One”). Directed by Mohamed Ifticène, this very successful work of fiction told the story of a gang of young delinquents. It showed Fadéla — sometimes in a miniskirt, sometimes in a bikini— drinking, smoking and stealing. She also performed on Essinia, one of Nass El Ghiwan’s hits. This role attracted the wrath of conservatives, who denounced her attitude as inconsistent with Islamic values.
This didn’t prevent her from continuing her career, singing choruses on tracks by the popular old schooler Boutaïba S’ghir. She learned a lot with S’ghir, and through a brief collaboration with Cheikha Djenia, the good witch of traditional, naughty raï. Several producers of what was still called “pop-raï” noticed Fadéla and took her to studios. In one particularly dilapidated and badly equipped studio called Afrah, she recorded the glorious Ana ma h’lali ennoum, mentioned above. The song led her not just to success, but to a loving friendship with Sahraoui, who she married on April 7, 1983.

The couple decided to form a duo and their project quickly took hold, thanks to a song recorded at the Rallye (a modern studio in Tlemcen) and cleverly arranged by Rachid Baba Ahmed (shot dead in February 1995). The hit, N’sel Fik (“You Are Mine”), was clearly different from previous, often poorly made, raï productions. It rapidly gained popularity, amplified by the duo’s presence at the Bobigny Raï Festival of January 1986. Before, Fadéla had marked a pause in her career, as she took a three-year break due to maternity leave (she would become the mother of three children).

Later, thanks to their powerful passport to fame N’sel Fik, the official couple of raï became the first singers of the genre to sign with a major label: Island Records. The company set up an extended European tour in 1988. Fadela’s voice, sampled by the house music band The 49ers, allowed raï break into the Top 50. The two vocalists then proceeded to enthrall fans on the tours that brought them here, there and everywhere between Europe and the United States.

In 1996, in the wake of an album partly arranged by Bill Laswell, Fadéla and Sahraoui took over the Zénith, a legendary Parisian music hall, with an impressive guest star: their “compatriot” Enrico Macias. But the show did not succeed in gathering the crowd of their glory days. It marked the beginning of disillusions and cheap concerts. The couple eventually separated, and Fadéla returned to her first love: solo singing — which had always suited her so well. This recording, made in 2006 in France with the help of experienced musicians, is a testimony to the power of her individual voice.