1 HIS SMILE IS CONTAGIOUS, HIS MUSIC ENCHANTING

KHALED
HIS SMILE IS CONTAGIOUS, HIS MUSIC ENCHANTING…
RECOGNIZED INTERNATIONALLY, AS
“PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD…THE IRREFUTABLE KING OF RAI”
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It’s a statement that’s beyond doubt or question. With his unforgettable voice
and huge smile, Khaled is raï. He helped transform the raw music in his native
Algeria, and then went on to make it a part of the global music scene. And with
10 diamond, platinum, and gold albums, as well as the highest-selling Arab
album in history (123 Soleils), he’s the star all other raï singers aspire to be.
Khaled was born in 1960 in Oran, Algeria, the home of raï, and he was singing
on the streets of the city with his first group, the Five Stars, by the time he was
10. At 14 he’d graduated to the more lucrative circuit of wedding and
circumcision ceremonies (the only places, outside nightclubs, where raï was
acceptable). While singing at a wedding, he was heard by a producer who took
the teenager into a studio to record his first song, “Trigue Lycée.” Full of youthful
exuberance about skipping classes and watching girls, it became a smash,
offering a fresh young perspective of the kind that had never been heard before
in Algeria.
By the mid-‘70s Cheb (or Kid) Khaled had already become a star in Algeria, his
raï cassettes immensely popular with a young generation. Raï translates literally
as ‘opinion,’ and Khaled’s opinions reflected those of his contemporaries, many
of whom desired more social freedom. His forthright attitudes to women, alcohol,
and life, upset the conservative establishment in Algeria, and Khaled – like other
artists who followed his lead – received no airplay on radio or television. His
rhythms and words were simply too erotic and dangerous to be sanctioned.
Rai has origins in Bedouin oral traditions, in the music of Berbers who moved
from the Algerian mountains to the cities of Oran and Algiers, and in Andalusian
music that came to North African ports after the Moors were thrown out of Spain
in 1492. By the 1930s, these elements had coalesced in a style called wahrani
championed by cheikhas—female singers—in the bars of Algeria's "Little Paris,"
the coastal city of Oran. Cheikhas like the great Cheikha Rimitti voiced the
complaints of working class people in French colonial Algeria, upsetting officials.
They also sang openly about sex, upsetting conservatives. It wasn’t the music of
polite society, and it stayed for the most part in the tawdry cabarets and clubs.
But there was no stopping the rai movement. The terms cheb and chebba-young man and young woman--put an informal spin on the more dignified
musical honorifics cheikh and cheikha of wahrani music.
This was the sound Khaled came to. It was acoustic and heavily percussive,
sweetened by the accordion, an instrument brought to Algeria by the French
colonizers. The music, as befitted its lyrics, was rough and ragged. But it was
changing, and Khaled was part of the vanguard that altered raï forever.
Khaled might not have been heard on radio or TV, but he wasn’t about to let
opposition stop him from becoming a major figure. The real turning point came
when he teamed with the visionary producer Rachid Baba Ahmed in the early
‘80s. Ahmed was the modernizer of raï, bringing in Western instruments, such
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as bass, synthesizers, and drum machines, and completely transforming the
music. He worked with a new generation of singers, including Khaled and the
diva Cheba Fadela, and the results were nothing less than a revolution.
Together they electrified raï, creating the genre that became known as ‘pop raï,’
and Khaled became the music’s glittering idol in his homeland.
In 1985, Khaled helped organized the first Festival of Raï in Algeria, a huge
success that legitimized the music so often treated with contempt. But shortly
after, in part to escape the escalating violence in Algeria, and also to let his
music develop, he moved to France. There his career truly began to blossom,
although it took several years of work and development, and several cassette
releases before he was truly ready for the international scene. In 1992, Khaled
soared still higher with N’ssi N’ssi (co-produced by Don Was), which mixed his
glorious raï with thick funk and rock to cross him into the French mainstream.
The song “Didi” (originally released on 1991’s Khaled) became the first raï hit in
France, and broke the genre onto the world music scene.
It was the first step, albeit a giant one. What Khaled needed was to build on that,
and cement his stature and popularity. That came fully with 1996’s Sahra (an
album named for his daughter). It established him as a major international star,
while the single “Aïcha” being the biggest of the year in France. The album took
Khaled’s music to another level. Not only did he refine the framework he’d built,
he also traveled to Jamaica to record with reggae musicians (including Bob
Marley’s backing singers, the I-Threes, and members of the Wailers), with a
crossover that worked perfectly, as two rebel musicians who came together as
one.
If anyone still had doubts that Khaled was truly the King of Raï, proof positive
came in 1998 with 1,2,3 Soleils . The landmark sell-out concert in Paris – the
first major event with an all-Algerian bill - featured Khaled, along with Rachid
Taha and Faudel, performing career hits. Khaled effortlessly stole the show with
his charismatic presence and remarkable singing voice, quite obviously reveling
in the delight of the packed audience. It was a show that established his majesty
and stature beyond question. His command of the crowd was absolute, his
assurance total – Khaled was regal. The question was, how could he follow
that?
The answer came in 2000, with Kenza (named for his other daughter). It pushed
the boundaries of Khaled’s music even further. Rich Egyptian strings, arranged
by Steve Hillage, merged with booming, pulsing American funk as Khaled leaped
into the new Millennium on his most fulfilled album to date, continuing a
magnificent artistic progression. Not only did he show he was still at the top of
his vocal game, he also roared his creativity as an artist, staying ahead of the
pack.
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In the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, Khaled became the first Arab artist to headline a
U.S. tour, breaking attendance records throughout the U.S. in February 2002.
Currently he is preparing and rehearsing his new band and friends for the much
awaited U.S. debut and re-release of his new album on Universal France, AZ
Records, originally released in late 2004 in Europe, and the new US Version
due out in late June-July 2005, with a re-release of this new version in Europe in
August. This will feature the reunion of KHALED with the Grammy award
winning producer DON WAS on the song YA-RAYI.
In May of 2004 the two performed together in Rome, Italy, for the first time since
recording Khaled’s hit single Didi. Together Don Was and Khaled performed live
a new rendition for Quincy Jones’s historic concert “We Are the Future”. The
song will be part of the compilation CD and a Live DVD to be released
throughout the world all the proceeds, to support children of war torn areas.
Khaled returned to America in December of 2004 for a special guest
performance at the GRAMMY JAM 2004 in Los Angles, Ca. He joined a cast of
celebrity artists honoring the great musical legends Earth, Wind and Fire,
performing Brazilian Rhymes into Didi, showing how their music crossed the
world, fusing with his North African style.
Khaled also stayed in Los Angeles to work on the new tracks and remixes of his
new American rendition of his latest album, YA-RAYI which features a newly
re-tracked, rearranged, interpretation of the title song YA-RAYI, and two brand
new tracks with Santana on guitar and guest vocalist Elan, entitled Love to
the People, on which Khaled sings in English/Arabic and the second in Arabic
and French, produced by multi Grammy award winning producer KC Porter and
renowned Arab/North African music producer Dawn Elder.
Khaled, “this is a dream come true to work with Santana, my friend and brother”.
Additionally the album has been completely re-done with new edited versions,
tracks featuring new arrangements, it has been re-sequenced and the entire
album re-mastered to create superior audio perfection by executive producer of
the US version Dawn Elder.
KHALED is the winner of the BBC RADIO3 World MUSIC AWARDS 2004.
And will embark on a historic concert tour in North America summer 2005.
Peace through Music- Khaled & Friends….
The pretenders to the throne come and go; some stay around. But KHALED
remains the ruler, a man who loves his music, who preaches peace, and whose
voice means raï to the world.
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