Cheikh El Hasnaoui

Cheikh El Hasnaoui, born July 23, 1910 in Taâzibt, a village in Kabylie in Algeria, is a singer, musician and singer-songwriter. Orphaned by his mother at two years old, Mohamed Khelouat was raised by his family. The child grew up in the culture of the Zaouias where he attended Timaâmrin, where he learned the Koran and the Arabic language, the script of which he would later use to transcribe his songs. He left his native village around 1930 for the capital Algiers. He then lived on rue Mogador in the Casbah of Algiers and was even part of the Hadj M'hamed El Anka orchestra. In 1937, on the eve of the Second World War, El Hasnaoui left Algeria for Paris, in the 15th arrondissement. The orphanage, the hunger, the poverty that Cheikh El Hasnaoui experienced during his childhood, marked him for life. Dreaming of impossible, but beautiful things, to escape a most atrocious and unbearable reality... He therefore took off and, like many of his colleagues, began his artistic career in Parisian North African cafes, transformed every Saturday evening and Sunday morning into Chaâbi performance halls. He became friends with certain great figures of the Algerian artistic scene and song based in France (Mohamed Iguerbouchène, Kaddour Cherchalli, Dahmane El Harrachi, etc.). In 1946, El Hasnaoui recorded for Odéon Yemma, Yemma (mother, give me your blessing), Ijah Errayis (the dissolute life) and Ayatwakal Aberkane (vibrant homage to the native land). The second theme of El Hasnaoui's wor…