Hasna El Bacharia, the Algerian Sahrawi rock musician, has died

Algerian artist Hasnaa El Bacharia, nicknamed the “Desert Singer” and considered a pioneer in Diwaniya music, has died at the age of 74, Algerian national television announced on Wednesday.

Real name Hosnia Hosni, this Sahrawi icon known especially in France or Canada, was one of the leaders of the group “Lama Bacharia”, which was founded with Souad Asla in 2015. The band was composed entirely of women, and it toured Europe with its traditional repertoire. . Hosnia Al-Basharia performed a distinguished concert in February in Paris at the beginning of a European tour. She gave a major concert in September during the Arabesque Festival in Montpellier, southeastern France.

Born in Béchar, southern Algeria, in 1950, the city that inspired her stage name, she was the first woman to play the gambari, a type of North African three-stringed guitar that had previously been prohibited to women. Diwan or Gnawa music is inspired by secular and sacred traditions inherited from former slaves from sub-Saharan North Africa.

Hasna El Bacharia lived in Paris for 8 years and released her most famous album there. Algeria is a gem In 2009. She was introduced to music at a young age, as her father led a Gnawa band and her grandfather was a musician. She was the subject of a 2019 documentary titled Desert rock Directed by Canadian-Algerian director Sarah Nasser, for whom the musician directed both films “A musical and moral revolution”.