Cheb Hasni

Cheb Hasni (الشاب حسني), whose real name Hasni Chakroun (شقرون حسني), is an Algerian raï singer, nicknamed the "Rossignol du Raï", he was born on February 1, 1968 in Oran, Algeria, and died on the 29 September 1994 in the same city. He is considered the king of sentimental raï. Hasni Chakroun, his name in the civil register, was born on February 1, 1968 in Gambetta, a popular suburb of Oran, the son of a welder father of seven children.

Young, he pushed his voice as soon as he left school. He was also a football player, which he started at the age of 9 with ASMO. At 15, he injured himself and stayed in hospital for several weeks. Back on the field, his weight had increased, and despite the encouragement of the coaches he could not continue his sporting career. Hasni reportedly performed for the first time during the club leader's brother's wedding.

In the process, one of the wedding guests offers him to perform in the cabarets of Oran. In 1986, Hasni Chakroun recorded his first cassette with the Saint-Crépain publishing house. In 1987, he performed songs in duet with the raï singer Chaba Zahouania. He married in 1987, at the age of 19, and had one child, named Abdallah, born in 1989. His wife "Melouka" whose real name is Zahzouh Malika, was for years the main inspiration of his greatest titles like "Tal Ghyabek ya ghzali" or "El Bayda mon amour".

Singer adored by young people in Algeria and around the world, Cheb Hasni likes to sing sentimental love, and becomes the most prolific and biggest seller of cassettes in the country. Coming from the second generation of raï, which appeared after 1985, the year of the first raï festival in Algeria, and of which Cheb Hasni and his emulator cheb Nasro were the first representatives.

Their music is labeled "Raï sentimental" or "Raï love" compared to the "vulgar" and harsh raï of their predecessors. More melodious, the genre is widely popularized through weddings, so the bar and the cabaret are no longer essential spaces for the dissemination of the genre. In 1990, prolific, he recorded 10 clips with a French company, and in 1992, he signed a contract with the manager Nourredine Gafaïti (Manager of Chaba Zahouania, Cheb Sahraoui and Chaba Fadela) and went on tours all over the world with the other stars.

Inducted King of "Raï love", Hasni recorded more than 150 cassettes during his career, with at least six songs per audio tape. At the height of his art, on September 29, 1994, Hasni was assassinated in his neighborhood of Oran (Gambetta) at the age of 26. The Armed Islamic Group (G.I.A) claimed responsibility for the assassination, the news set the whole country ablaze and a huge crowd gathered in his neighborhood.

Every Algerian, wherever he is on earth, carries his memory within him, the memory of a time when Hasni gave a little hope in the midst of the chaos of the "black decade". He will leave behind him the image of a martyr, man of the people, attached to his district of Oran and to Algeria that he will never want to leave us even under the threat of terrorism, and remains the idol of a whole people.

, Algeria but also the whole Maghreb and its diaspora. He will be decorated with the medal of the Order of National Merit in the rank of "Achir" posthumously.