Halim Sammar on the right with his father

A young Amazigh talented handicraftsman from the Rif, Halim Sammar, wins the 2012 award of the second edition of the Moroccan best handicraftsman. This competition was organized by the ministry of Handicrafts and took place in Marrakech. The event was broadcasted on the Moroccan second TV Channel (2M).

Halim Sammar is a master of the wood. He won the competition for his creativity on transforming the wood into symbols of his culture in an artistic manner.

Congratulations to Halim and all his family friends for this award!

The following is the design on which Halim Sammar won his prize.

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Tinariwen wins Grammy Award 2012

Congratulations to the fabulous Amazigh North African blues band Tinariwen on winning this year’s Grammy award for Best World Music Album.

Tuareg desert rockers Tinariwen have won the new best world music album award for “Tassili” at the Grammys.
Tinariwen, based in Mali, won one of the newly-combined categories at Sunday’s Grammy’s. The world music category had been previously been divided into traditional and contemporary categories.

This makes of Tinariwen to be the first North African and Amazigh band to win such a prestigious award.

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Khalid Izri concets in the Unites States of America, April 2012

After having successfully promoted the Rifian music in Europe, Khalid Izri, for the first time in the career of the artist, is going to cross the Atlantic sea towards the United Stated in April 2012 to perform two concerts in Los Angeles and New York.

The concerts of Los Angeles are programmed in the fourth edition of the Los Angeles Amazigh Film Festival on the 21st and 22th of April, 2012. This event is organized by the Amazigh Cultural Association in America, (A.C.A.A.) and the Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity of Burbank, Ca.

The third concert will take place in the United Nations building  in New York on  at 5 p.m April 27th, 2012.

Culture, roots and identity are the key concepts in the songs of the Amazigh singer Khalid Izri. His impressive voice is devoted entirely to Berber traditions. He performs both gentle and powerful songs on such themes as immigration, the status of women and the contradictions in society, but at the same time he of course also defends his own Amazigh culture and condemns the injustices done to the Moroccan Berbers. Khalid Izri’s velvety voice and outstanding songs have given him almost mythical status in the Amazigh culture.

For more information about the upcoming concerts of Khalid Izri, please check the following link:

http://podiumprod.com/artists/khalid-izri/

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Mezzo Voce, Production Mareterraniu Production France 3, Réalisation Paul Rognoni, tout droits réservés.

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Cherif Kheddam (1927-2012)

We learned with great sorrow the passing of the kabylian composer and poet Cherif Kheddam, this Monday, January 23, 2012.

Cherif KHEDDAM passed away at the age of 85 years in Paris following a long illness.

Agraw.com expresses its deepest condolences to the family, friends, and fans of the last great master of the Kabyle song.

Known to be the champion of Kabyle music of exile, the late Kheddam arrived in 1947 in France.On his arrival, he settled in Saint-Denis and in Epinay.

From 1947 to 1952, he worked in a foundry, and from 1953 to 1961, a painting business. Alongside his hard work, Cherif Kheddam was taking music lessons at night in private homes. So it was in the context of emigration that Cherif began practicing music and singing.

According to the deceased writer Tahar Djaout who was in France where he arrived at the age of 21 years, Cherif Kheddam really discovered the art: the song of the  Maghreb, Arab or Western, Egyptian films at a time when the scene was dominated, as regards the Kabyle songs by Slimane Azem, Cheikh El-Hasnaoui and Alloua Zerrouki

From his first song Yellis tmurt n iw (Girl of my country), recorded in the late 1940′s on a 78 record, Kheddam went from strength to strength with his multitude of Songs like B’gayet Telha and composing for Radio Paris, then to ORTF where several pieces were performed by the orchestra of the radio.

The agony of exile and the war of national liberation forced him inward and to create. This paradoxical situation which arose in the musical work of Cherif turned into a professional career, great framing of the song which Kabyle Idir, Aït Menguellet, Malika Domrane and Nouara whose husband  he became. He returned home in 1963, the year he returned to the Channel II to host several radio programs.

With Ighennayen Uzekka (the singers of tomorrow) he was well known and highly regarded for having unearthed talent, advising and encouraging the newcomers to the world of song. His family said the body of  Cherif Kheddam was transferred to a morgue near the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris on Wednesday would be repatriated to Algeria, to the village of Ait Bou Messaoud (Tizi-Ouzou) he was born 1 January 1927.

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Mohamed Rouicha (1950 -2012)

The Amazigh famous star from the Atlas Mountains Mohamed Rouicha has passed away at the age of 60 in Khenifra after sufering from a long term illness.

The artist has contributed by his original melodies and poems played on Lotar in enriching the Amazigh music library.

This traditional instrument has crossed its local borders to be become a world known instrument thanks Mohamed Rouicha. From a simple amateur, Rouicha has become one of the few ambassadors of the Amazigh song in the world.

His music conquered Moroccans, North Africans and even Europeans. His songs, which address various topics such as love, peace, nature, women, family.

Our deepest condelences to the family and fans of Mohamed Rouicha.

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