Dahmane El Harrachi

Abderrahmane Amrani, known by the stage name Dahmane el Harrachi is an Algerian musician, pianist, singer-songwriter, of chaâbi music. Considered a great master (sheikh) of chaâbi. He contributed to making this genre of music known by exporting it around the world with his song Ya Rayeh. His son, Kamel El Harrachi, also a chaâbi singer-songwriter, continues to bring his repertoire to life. An Algerian originally from Djellal in the wilaya of Khenchela, his father settled in Algiers in 1920 and became muezzin at the Great Mosque. After the birth of Dahmane (short for Abderrahmane), the family moved to Belcourt, rue Marey, then settled permanently in El-Harrach. The youngest of a family of eleven children, it is from El Harrach that Dahmane gets his nickname El Harrachi. He started playing the banjo very early, he was influenced by the Chaâbi singer Khelifa Belkacem (died in 1951). At 16, he was already performing the latter's songs. With his school certificate in hand, he became a shoemaker then a tram conductor on the line linking Maison Carrée to Bab El Oued. He is already a banjo virtuoso and many chaâbi singers of the 1940s offer his services such as: Hadj Menouar, Cheïkh Bourahla, Cheïkh Larbi el Annabi, Abdelkader Ouchala and especially Cheikh El Hasnaoui with whom he performs for the first time time at the Café des artistes, rue de Charonne in Paris in 1952 In 1949, he went to mainland France and settled in Lille, then in Marseille and finally in Paris, a city that he practically never left. For years, he performed in North African cafés in cities across France. He performed the chaâbi repertoire accompanied by a banjo. He then discovered the gap between the reality of immigration and the North African repertoire of melhoun written between the 16th and 19th centuries. Author-composer, he adapts chaâbi in his own way by creating a new musical and poetic language. His songs speak of experiences in a sustained manner, understandable by the entire Maghreb community. He recorded his first record with Pathé Marconi in 1956, during the war of independence. His song was titled behdja bidha ma t'houl (White Algiers will never lose its shine) and also composed the song kifech nennsa biled el khir (How could I forget the land of abundance). An original artist, he modernized the chaâbi and gave the banjo and the mandola a phrasing, harmony and accentuations that are his own and which distinguish him from other chaâbi singers. His repertoire consists of around 500 songs of which he is the author. His incisive lyrics and melodies make him appreciated by the general public. To give more content to his lyrical texts, he very often uses the metaphorical process. His gravelly voice lends itself very well to his repertoire brushing the themes of nostalgia for the country, the sufferings of exile, passion for one's hometown, friendship, family, romantic setbacks, the vicissitudes of life, righteousness, moral rigor while castigating dishonesty, hypocrisy, ingratitude and bad faith. He spent his entire artistic career in France and received recognition from his peers during the Maghreb Music Festival which was held in the early 1970s in La Villette. Discovered late by the new generation in Algeria, he only performed officially in public in 1974 at the Atlas Hall in Algiers where he was a great success. On Algerian television, he left three recordings and played his own role as a chaâbi singer in a TV film entitled Saha Dahmane (Hi Dahmane) filmed just before his disappearance in a road accident on August 31, 1980 in Aïn Benian. His artistic journey as a singer is borrowed from his own life experience by translating into his songs, written in the Algerian language, all the variations of immigration. One of his most famous songs Ya Rayah (O leaving), about emigration, departure, was a great success when it was released in France in 1973. Rachid Taha covered it in 1997. The original song made the around the world and was translated into several languages while keeping the same melody.