Cheikha Rimitti

Cheikha Remitti (in arabic : شيخة ريميتي), or simply called Rimitti, whose real name is Sadia Bedief, born on May 8, 1923 in Tessala, near Sidi-Bel-Abbès, in Algeria, and died on May 15, 2006 in Paris 18e, is an Algerian musician and singer of raï. She was nicknamed the "Granny of Raï", of which she was the major female and feminist figure in the history of music in North Africa. Cheikha Remitti was born in Algeria in Tessala (a town located near Sidi Bel-Abbès, in Oranie) on May 8, 1923. She is originally from Ammi Moussa, Wilaya of Relizane of the large Berber tribe Beni-Ouragh. Cheikha Rimitti was one of the first women to sing, like men, to a background of gasba flute and long galal drum. To this style, she added the raw language and rough, almost spoken style of the meddahates, who introduce teenage girls to the joys and pitfalls of love by singing for exclusively female assemblies. She was a singer considered the spiritual mother of raï and the mother of modern raï.

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