Rachid Taha

Rachid Taha was an Algerian singer who mixed rock and punk with raï and chaâbi, 2 kinds of popular Algerian music. His 1997 version of Ya Rayah became one of the best-known Algerian songs in France. Born on 18 September 1958 in Sig, near Oran, he died at Les Lilas, near Paris, on the night of 11 to 12 September 2018.

At 10 Taha moved to France with his working-class parents, who lived in Alsace and the Vosges before settling near Lyon. There the young man worked in a factory.

In 1980, at Rillieux-la-Pape near Lyon, he founded the rock band Carte de Séjour. The name refers to the residence card that immigrants had to carry. Its songs spoke of racism and the suburbs, and in 1983 he took part in the March for Equality and Against Racism.

The band's rock version of Douce France, in 1986, was widely discussed in the press. Charles Trenet had first sung the song in 1943, during the German occupation.

After the band split in 1990, Taha began a solo career, and his first album, Barbès, came out in 1991. Ya Rayah, a 1973 chaâbi song by Dahmane El Harrachi, followed in 1997, and his version brought chaâbi into homes across France. In September 1998 he sang it with Khaled and Faudel at Bercy, in Paris, during the 1, 2, 3 Soleils concert.

Taha died in his sleep, aged 59, and was buried at Sig, in western Algeria.