Khaled wins BBC music award

[Lotfi-dk]

WINNER 2005
KHALED (ALGERIA)


by Garth Cartwright

Khaled is a phenomenon and one of the few artists working in the region we call world music that can wear the title "superstar". As Algeria’s heavyweight champion of rai music, Khaled has gone on to enjoy astonishing success across much of continental Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Hadj-Brahim Khaled was born in 1960 and grew up in the port city of Oran. The son of a mechanic he was crazy about music and proved himself a gifted multi-instrumentalist. By the age of sixteen had been expelled from school and released his first single "Trig Lycee". His early recordings were strongly influenced by Algeria’s raw throated female singer Chieka Remitti, legendary Moroccan chabbi group Nas El Ghiwane and The Jackson 5!. Khaled and his collaborators went on to add synthesisers and drum machines and the influence of everything from Elvis to flamenco so shaping rai into the future of North African music.

Called Cheb Khaled - Cheb meaning 'young' and the tag given to all aspiring rai singers – his beautiful voice and strong stage presence soon found him the most popular singer in Algeria. Khaled moved to France in the 1980s and became the first Algerian to be signed to a major French record label. Many music industry insiders wondered if the French public would accept an Algerian singing in Arabic over ethno pop grooves yet almost instantly Khaled was selling huge numbers of CDs. His warm, friendly manner helped him win over the general public and Khaled is now considered one of the most popular musicians in France.

Khaled's 2004 album "Ya-Rayi" (Wrasse) has been hailed as an exceptional return to form. On "Ya-Rayi" Khaled forsakes the electronic backings he normally favours to recreate the classic Algerian music of the 1950s and '60s. "People were forgetting where the music came from, what its roots were," says Khaled, "I feel good making natural music again, playing accordion and other instruments." Khaled, the once and future King of Rai, is a singer to be treasured.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/awards20...e_khaled.shtml

[Lotfi-dk]

VOTE for audience award :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/awards20...nceaward.shtml

[moroccanchica]

THX FOR THE ARTICLE LOFTI!!

Personally i dont think he should have won the award (again), i think he is a great artist, but i feel that there were many other artists that deserved the award. Its only because he is renowned, they gave it to him. Gltz and glam rule the media- even the BBC

[Khalidz]

They dont call him the 'King of Rai' for nothing!!

No one can touch him in the arab world, not even that Amr Diab who tried but failed!!!
Even with his fancy looks and clothes and make up lol

He (khaled) is getting lazy but still 'Le roi du rai'

[Anisa]

At least Amr Diab is gorgeous & has a better voice than Khaled oh and as far as I'm aware is not into wife-beating!!

[Naseem-]

Khaled’s music is well understood by every one, as most of his fans in Europe aren’t Arabs, I think he deserved the award, talking about amr diab you problem like him just because of his a good looking guy, his not knowing at all in non Arabic countries,
Have any one here met him before? Is so what did you think of him?

[Sista]

Looks like one of my nieghbours
He's not that good looking in my opinion. A standard buff kinda guy but thats it, theres no real character there or uniquness.

As for the awards, it would have been nice for someone else to have got it. There is a showcase of talent at the moment going unnoticed.