Cheb Mami, a world-renowned Algerian rai singer, was born on July 11, 1966 in Saida, Algeria.
Biography and life story of celebrity in English.
Basic info wiki card
Name in English: Cheb Mami
Name in Arabic: شاب مامي
Full real name: Mohamed Khleifati
Nickname: Prince of Rai
Nationality: Algeria
Language: Arabic, French, Algerian dialect
Religion: Islam (Sunni)
Date of birth: July 11, 1966
Place of birth: Saida, Algeria
Age: 56 years (in 2022)
Astrological Sign: Cancer
Profession: Singer
Genre: Rai
Years of activity: 1982 – until now
Social status: Married
Biography, Life story
Cheb Mami was born on July 11, 1966 in Ghorbet El Oued, a poor neighborhood in Saida, western Algeria. His father, who worked in a paper mill, was a strict man, and his earnings were not enough to feed his nine children. This family situation forced the young Mami to accept doing anything to help his father earn a living. Mami’s tendency towards singing appeared from an early age. It was said that he preferred to sing melodies and pieces of “strange songs” rather than do his homework. He ended up singing at weddings and nightclubs when he got older.
When he was 16 years old, Mami dazzled viewers of the television program “Alhan and Shabab” for young talents by performing an old song dating back to 1920 from Oran with a very perfect Andalusian accent and tone, and a song like this is the basis of what is known as rai. The audience was disappointed when Mami was denied the first prize. It is plausible that the reason for Cheb Mami’s early admiration for this type of music is due to Rai’s growth in the arms of the poor and marginalized. Rae was invented by Mami, on his website. These people were inspired by that creativity from their suffering and misfortune by using the ancient flute to improvise this singing genre that men later adopted.”
Between 1982 and 1985 Mami sold hundreds of thousands of copies of the many tapes he produced. When the authorities abolished the ban on this music in 1985, Cheb Mami started with Cheb Khaled through the first rai festival organized in Oran.
“At first it was difficult because the authorities said rai was a vulgar kind of music because we were using simple words—slang. It was not poetry or what expresses the beauty of life. Rather, we were singing about our daily lives,” Mami told CNN. Today, the opinion is accepted by the people. Rather, it became popular because the authorities saw that this type of music succeeded in transcending the borders of the Arab world, and they began to say that it was part of our culture—in the past they used to say the exact opposite.”
After performing in 1986 with Cheb Khaled at the Bobigny Festival in France, Mami succeeded in signing a singing contract, and then performed at the famous Paris Olympia Theater, a precedent for Rai singer. Shortly after the Olympia concert, he recorded his first album under the title “Donnie for My Country”. After enlisting in the military service in Algeria for two years, he returned to Paris to resume his artistic career. Then he released “Khalouni, we cry alone” in America in 1990. Mami consolidated his fame in France, his new place of residence, by issuing “Saeeda” in 1995, and “Mali Mali” in 1999, which reached the highest sales level in France, and Mami became an international star with his cooperation with the singer Famous Sting in the song “Desert Rose” (Brand New Day, 1999).
She released a duet song for him with the artist Kazem El Saher Smit (I am sitting in the cafe).
In 2002, he released a duet with Moroccan singer Samira Said under the title “Youm Wara Youm”. His latest album “Dalali” (2001) is classified among the rai mixed with popular tunes, with a flavor of pop, reggae and ragamavin music. It bears the distinctive sign of Amir El Rai, as Cheb Mami has developed over the years his own musical style.
Cheb Mami has a daughter from the French journalist and photographer Camet.
On July 3, 2009, the Paris Court of Bobigny, founded by Pedro Kaouane, sentenced Cheb Mami to five years in prison, on charges of attempting a forced abortion in the summer of 2005 of his former lover, of French nationality, Isabelle Simon. He was released on Wednesday, March 23, 2011.
List of works – Discography
Cheb Mami has released a number of albums, and this is a list of works organized by year.
Albums
The Prince of Rai (1989), Let Me Cry (1999), Happy (1994), Know For My Country (1996), Mali Mali (1999), Dalali (2001), From North to South (2003), On the Neighborhood in the Great Rex (2004) , Nights (2006).
