- Title: TURKEY: ALGERIAN POP SINGER CHEB KHALED PERFORMS IN ISTANBUL
- Date: 22nd November 1996
- Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (NOVEMBER 22, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) VARIOUS OF KHALED PERFORMING IN CONCERT
- Embargoed: 7th December 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVABXO2XDLMBAYKLOXZQEUWCS6W7
- Story Text: Cheb Khaled, the king of Algerian pop music "rai", performed to packed concert halls in Istanbul at the weekend as part of the "World Music Days" in the Turkish city.
A cultural celebrity who lives in self-imposed exile in Paris, Khaled shot to fame in the West in the early 1990s with his hit song "Didi". He is the one of the best-known singers of Rai -- a mixture of reggae, rock and Arabic melodies.
Khaled's most enthusiastic supporters in the audience were around 250 Algerian fans who flew in on two planes from Algiers just for these concerts.
Khaled, 37 -- who still uses his nickname 'Cheb' (little or young) -- said he was not in exile in Paris but lived there because it was easier to spread his music to world audiences.
Khaled, who evaded questions on politics, said he believed politicians and other people did not listen to anyone else or to each other.
"Sahara means desert in Arabic. I gave this name to my latest album because we human beings are living in a kind of desert, we all lonely in the world," Khaled told reporters before the concert.
"Only God listens to you. I am talking to my God in this album," he said.
He built on his fame with his next album "N'ssi N'ssi" and just released his latest recording, "Sahara". Khaled has been living in Paris for 10 years.
Born Khaled Hadj Brahim in the West Algerian port of oran, the singer is said to rank high on Islamic fundamentalist hit-lists -- his music is judged to lead the young astray.
The roots of Rai are in traditional Bedouin music. Modern Rai was born out of the frustrations of the working classes and updated with 60's rock, Moroccan and Egyptian pop, Spanish flamenco, and Jamaican Reggae.
Khaled shocked fans back in 1985 at a Rai festival when he went electric. Now the synthesisers and drums have become the staples of Rai music.
The music has been banned in taxis and coffee shops in Algeria, and a fatwa -- death sentence -- issued against any singer considered vulgar. Cheb Hasni, a prolific 26-year-old singer of Rai, was shot at his parents home in Oran in September 1994.
Another Rai singer and producer Rachid Baba Ahmed, was machine-gunned outside his Oran-based record store in February 1995.
Although security is always tight at Khaled's concerts, he does not use bodyguards. Despite his growing international success and repeated offers to perform in Algeria, Khaled hasn't returned home since 1990, fearing clashes or even attacks at his concerts. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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