Abdelmadjid Meskoud

Algiers, Alger, France

Abdelmadjid Meskoud (Arabic: عبدالمجيد مسكود‎) is an Algerian singer born on March 31, 1953 in the El Hamma district of Belcourt (today Belouizdad) in Algiers, Algeria. A self-taught artist, he is credited with mastering the art of chaâbi music (Algerian musical genre, born in Algiers at the beginning of the 20th century, derived from Arab-Andalusian music from Algiers. "Chaâbi" means "popular" in Arabic , it is one of the most popular musical genres in Algeria.

Abdelmadjid Meskoud, who never went to music school, began in 1969 to strum his first guitar while first practicing comedy in the Mohamed Touri troupe from the Place du 1er-Mai which Mohamed Tahar Benhamla directed, then in the Popular Theater Troupe (TTP) which was led by Hassan El-Hassani.

Meskoud spent two years in Béchar - military service required - which allowed him to sing in tune and master the strokes. He remains a local singer even if thanks to the friendship and complicity of Mohamed Er-lkachid, a musical history buff, he manages to appear on television. He learned his lessons during wedding celebrations until the day the beautiful song El-Assima revealed him to the general public, in 1989. This personal text that he began to sing since 1987 at festivals is a beautiful text, intense, true and full of nostalgia. At the origin of this little masterpiece, the destruction for renovation, of the old district of El Hamma where he was born, very affected by the destruction of the house where he grew up. Afterwards, the poem gradually gained momentum to give Ya Dzaïr ya El Assima. Throughout his career he alternated between music and theater and appeared in the casting of several TV films.

Abdelmadjid Meskoud, who listens to the chaâbi masters Cheikh El Hasnaoui and Hadj El Anka in particular, but also Jacques Brel, Édith Piaf, Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré, introduced a revival in the chaâbi song of the 1990s, then supplanted by Raï among the popular diapers. In 1984, he composed an orchestra with Krimo Ben Allaoua, Hakim Ben El-Djouzi, Zouhir Djemaî (violin), Redouane Ben El-Djouzi (guitar), Ahmed Berrour (derbouka) and Abdelkader Dali (târ). In 2012, Abdelmadjid Meskoud was also among the contributors to the success of the El Gusto orchestra, the concerts and the film of the same name.