The last story of Cheb Khaled
The video of the meeting that the rai singer of Algerian origin and the born Cheb Khaled conducted during the past few days at the headquarters of the French Radio Monte Carlo International with the Egyptian media, Samira Ibrahim, made the event, especially when the owner of the distinctive laugh burst into tears, after I asked him about the source of his happiness, to respond that he had great sadness.
No one knows the truth about what Cheb Khaled is going through. He lost his mother not too long ago, in addition to what he is facing inside Algeria in terms of popular anger, manifested on Algerian social networking sites because of his name being involved in the dispute between Algeria and Morocco, but it is known that Cheb Khaled is one of the most The stars are smart at seizing opportunities, since he released his first album when he was barely fourteen years old.
He laughed crying
It seems that the latest album, "King Khaled", did not know the expected success, especially since it witnessed a leak on various platforms a week before its release, which apparently caused the cancellation of its launch party, before the official video clip for it, titled "Cam Toghader", was released. Which in turn was disappointing, so that the number of his views barely exceeded eight million on the YouTube platform, which is not at all commensurate with a global star of the size of Khaled.
Despite the fact that "King of Rai" is one of the stars who wait the most on the release of the new one, at the rate of an album approximately every five years, before turning to seven years this time, he sits on the throne of a distinguished singing heritage, as he is considered one of the first "rai" singers that I linked. Contracts with giant international production companies, with the transformation of music production into an economy standing on its own, which owns many songs that entered the Algerian “DNA”, and witnessed the various stages of the development of rai music, since it accompanied the founding fathers, until the beginning of the emergence of rai into the arena of acceptance. Al Rasmi, before becoming one of the symbols of this art globally, benefiting from the Algerian tragedy during the 1990s, even after the global presence of this music declined.
In an interview with Cheb Khaled on French radio, what indicates the reasons for the failure of this album, as he implicitly expressed that the company "Universal" imposed many restrictions on him, which he tried to free himself from by producing it for himself with the help of his wife.
Perhaps what he overlooked is that this album came in the form of a reproduction of his most important international successes, with the restoration of two songs, "The Lycee Road", which made his glory, and he had previously restored them in an album, and presented it this time with the participation of "DJ Snake" or "William Sami". , of French-Algerian origin, taking advantage of his newfound popularity in promoting Algeria, as well as "Lats Dobiball", which he performed for the first time with the international guitarist "Carlos Santana".
"Kam Togdir" was similar to the song "Si La Vie", but lacks its spirit, while he presented an Indian song that is very similar to his masterpiece "Al Harba Wayne", which was released more than twenty years ago.
A few of the remaining songs did not resemble anything in the spirit of “rai” music, so the lyrics sounded like someone had pasted scattered phrases to turn melodies into songs, similar to what he did in his penultimate album, in which many of the lyrics of his songs turned into “memes” in Algeria, as he did not find his album. What's new is an echo and no interest compared to what the "king" used to do.
The stumbling block of Cheb Khaled also this time is his bet on his global spread as an artist, disguising the color of opinion, which eventually made him global. What dominates the songs in the album is the melody, the fun atmosphere, and the short duration of the songs, the opposite of what is expected from the mass base inside the country, which has experience in dealing with it. As an artist, and with rai music in particular, which glorified him.
Cheb Khaled tried to present an exotic "exotic" album that addresses wider audiences around the world, by swimming alone in the face of the giants of music production.
?Did "Khaled" bet on the death of Rai
Music has never been far from politics in Algeria, so that the official anthem of the popular movement, which was called "Hirak" in 2019, was derived from a song that resonates inside the stadiums, and it will form part of a musical color that appeared years ago, and began to develop and crystallize in Algeria. It is called "Al-Zangawi" is dominated by rhythms derived from the atmosphere of enthusiastic stadiums, and words that tell the suffering of young people, their dreams, and their social defeats.
The emergence of this color in recent years has made many suspect the fading of Rai, and the decline of his presence, which could justify Khaled’s disavowal of this color in his latest album, but those who follow the reality of Algerian music will realize the error of this analysis, as “Rai” has been associated since its appearance with an atmosphere of celebration and joy, And with social prohibitions from spaces, as glorifying the body, and delving into the course of love, without ceilings, and with weddings and parties that stopped during the Corona crisis, which applies to Al-Zanqawi as well, but the first is more present in the Algerian daily, and more entrenched than the second, especially in the celebration.
It suffices to infer the matter by reviewing the numbers of views of the songs that made the “trend” this summer, after the official exit from the epidemic, and which belong to Rai in its various branches, based on the song “Zahari Wayne and I Wayne”, which was released by an unknown young man, “Amon.” And it came closer to the atmosphere of the “Way Way” music, “Lee Yajreh Ma Yadaweesh” released by “Mamedo”, which came close to the color of “Madahat”, which is traditional music from western Algeria, usually performed by women, as well as the song “Shaara and Nadir AVC”. by Amine Matlou. It is a sad raï song with traditional raï rhythms. The success of any of these songs alone cannot be compared to the listenership of Cheb Khaled's album.The new one, in which the viewership of the official video clip did not exceed a quarter of views, any of the videos of these songs that were filmed in almost primitive ways, each of which counts tens of millions in just a few weeks, reinforced by its success on social media platforms, especially “Tik Tok”, in which young people and adolescents excel in restore these songs.
Cheb Khaled's bet did not stop at denying the basics of the art of opinion, and the privacy of his Algerian audience, but also the economics that govern his market in Algeria. Aiming at attracting more concerts, and the corresponding revenue, and not platforms such as “Spotify” and the like, which require that its affiliate pay a fee for each listen, in respect of intellectual property rights and other matters that seem far from the interests of the “opinion” market, old and new. As it is repeated in many songs, as it happens (albeit rarely) that well-known melodies are re-exploited, which made many of its symbols live in destitute conditions when they retired.
Cheb Khaled was the first to precede the title “cheb” to his name, perhaps in contrast to the word “sheikh”, which are the titles by which the early “rai” performers were known, and which apply to all singers who performed songs of a traditional nature in general (as opposed to modern music), He started very young and released his first album at the age of fourteen.
The sheikh and the sheikha have the duty to issue an opinion on these songs, and the state of the Sultanate is referred to as the “sheikha” in many regions. It is noticeable that the performers of "rai" during the last decade have begun to avoid naming the "young man" that precedes their names, perhaps in the conviction that "rai" is immortal, or so that they do not judge their path to annihilation if they grow old, as their predecessors did, or even highlight their distinction, and their belonging to the voice of the street. The Algerian who lives in and on the shadows and margins, even the word “rai” was repeated by young centenarians at the beginning of the last century in the city of Oran, as the historian “Yves Saint Laurent” mentions, meaning what is despicable, from a lower level that crosses the times, and develops its colors and tools, as a homeland Permanent face, even if the king died.
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