Cheikha Rimitti

Rimitti passed away on Monday, May 15th 2005, only two days after performing with Khaled at the Zenith concert hall in Paris (at a concert called “Festival 100% Rai). Right up to her death the great-grandmother displayed astonishing vitality on stage. She would effortlessly reel out the standards she had written over a 70-year-career (her first recording dates back to 1936!).
“Algeria is sad, the mythical figure of rai music is dead” was the May 16 headline in the Algerian daily Le Matin. For over fifty years Rimitti was an indomitable personality in her homeland. Andalusian, Kabyl and Bedouin music cultures came together as “wahrani” music which Rimitti championed in the “Little Paris” city of Oran. In her early years, she would lambast French colonial policy against the Algerian masses, but was also outspoken about her sexuality. This set her against the conservative Islamic elements within her community.

Singer of the misty dawns full of the cabaret smoke of endless nights, Cheikha Rimitti, the defiant night bird, was a wonderfully indecent elderly lady. A mythical figure of Raï music with an extravagant personality, her story is that of her country, Algeria. A woman of infamous bars, moments of glory and fallen angels, the most extraordinary tales are told about her.

Born in Tessala (a village near Sidi Bel-Abbès in the west of Algeria) on the 8 May 1923, little Saïda was very soon left an orphan. Only her first name was known as the singer always kept her true family name carefully hidden in order to protect her relatives.

At the age of 20 she moved to Rélizane, a large colonial town where life was far from easy. Poverty, epidemics and famine were rife. "We toasted wheat instead of coffee, and drank it with syrup. At that time we used mattresses for clothing and food coupons", she recalled in an interview with Bouziane Daoudi, a journalist working for French newspaper "Libération". "When the siren wailed, we ran into the vineyards and hid in the holes" she continued. That was in 1943 and Algeria (still a French colony) was the refuge of those fighting to free France, one of the headquarters of the soldiers refusing capitulation.

The young Saïda, who slept in the streets and the hammams, eating whenever she could, began to follow a group of travelling musicians. One day she met one of Algeria’s most famous musicians Sheikh Mohamed Ould Ennems, and moved in with him despite the fact he was already the father of ten. Through him, she discovered the artistic scene in Algiers and recorded at Radio Alger. It was also then that she was given her nickname. The story goes that one rainy day she went into a canteen for a cup of coffee. The clients recognised her and cheered her enthusiastically. To thank them, she wanted to pay for a round, but as she only spoke a few words of French, she told the waitress "Remettez, madame, remettez" (Again, madame, again). She was christened on the spot "the singer Rimitti".

In 1952 she recorded her first record with Pathé, releasing her first hit "Charrak Gatta" in 1954. A song wreathed in heresy, thought by some to be an attack on the taboo of virginity. Unintentionally feminist, Cheikha Rimitti sang of women, love and intertwined bodies, alcohol, the night. An inspired lyricist, she also sang about the telephone and the TGV (High Speed Train).

At the end of the seventies, she became furious when learning that singers in France were using her songs. One of them even called herself Cheikha Rimitti "sghira" (junior)! In 1978 she arrived in Paris, singing in all the top North African popular music venues (of which the famous "Bedjaïa Club", a café in Paris' 18th district).

Banned from performing in Algeria at the height of the unrest that marked the Nineties, it was in France that she found a new audience. Her music touched all generations. Rimitti even recorded a pop-raï album produced by the elegant experimental rocker Robert Fripp. In 2000 she released “Nouar”, arguably one of raï’s most outstanding albums, one that brought her the prestigious Grand Prix from the Charles Cros Academy.

Fine recognition for one who often says "Misfortune was my teacher. Songs come into my head, and I remember them. No need for paper and a pen". And even if this recognition warmed her heart, having been so often robbed by chebs of all shapes and sizes, the only thing which was truly important for her was the naughty and provocative twinkle in her eye, a sparkle of eternal youth.

This quality was once again there for everyone to see at a December 2005 concert in her adopted home of Paris. In the magical atmosphere of the Cabaret Sauvage music hall, Rimitti launched into a two-and-a-half hour concert that had the audience subjugated. The public was too polite to ask for an encore, so the octogenarian invited herself onto the stage to regale them for one last song. The memorable concert coincided with the release of Rimitti’s album “N’ta Goudami”, on the Because label.

Daniel BrownMay 16 2006

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