Rachid Taha

Rachid Taha is an Algerian musician based in France, born in Sig in 1958 and active until his death in 2018. His work combines raï with rock and wider world fusion, and he usually sings in Arabic. His music also draws on techno and other styles, and he is associated with a sound shaped by both Algerian and French musical contexts.

Early life and background

Taha grows up with music from the Maghreb region and begins listening to Algerian music in the 1960s, including chaabi street music. He moves to France with his parents at the age of ten and settles in an immigrant community near Lyon in 1968. His father works in a factory. Before his solo career, he is based in Paris after his beginnings as the leader of a French rock band.

Carte de Séjour

In the early 1980s, while living in Lyon, Taha meets Mohammed and Mokhtar Amini. Together with Djamel Dif and Eric Vaquer, they form Carte de Séjour. The group records a first maxi album in 1983, releases Rhoromanie in 1984, and follows it with Ramsa in 1986. That later album includes a well-known ironic version of Charles Trenet’s “Douce France”. The band dissolves in 1989. Taha is also listed as a member of Carte de Séjour, 1, 2, 3, Soleils.

Solo work and style

Taha’s solo breakthrough is Diwân, an album of reinterpretations of songs from Algerian and Arab traditions. He later releases Tékitoi in 2004, produced by Steve Hillage, which brings him wider recognition among rock musicians. His sound is often linked to the mandolute, an instrument that combines the oud with European fretted instruments. His influences include rock, techno and raï, and his work is described as moving across Arabic pop, classic rock and electronic rhythms.

Collaborations and film use

In 2005, Taha performs with Robert Plant, Patti Smith and Brian Eno. He records a version of The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” in Arabic as “Rock El Casbah”, which appears in the 2007 film about Joe Strummer, The Future Is Unwritten. His song “Barra Barra” from Made in Medina is used in Black Hawk Down, and later features in the trailer for Far Cry 2 and in The Hunting Party. Another track from the same album, “Garab”, appears in The Truth About Charlie and Blood and Chocolate.