Cheb Aissa

Cheb Aissa, born Ali-Sherif Benaissa, stands among the foremost rai vocalists and keeps pairing his feather-light delivery with an upbeat stage presence across fusions of ancestral melodies and contemporary urban rhythms. After achieving a major success with Bela-Babi, his second cassette issued in 1988, he has sustained a following through rai-trab, the distinctive idiom he shaped around traditional foundations that hinge on free-form improvisations and vocal inflections. Born in Saida, a modest city lying two hundred kilometers west of Oran, he absorbed his earliest influences from the singing of his mother and maternal grandmother, whose performances were reserved for female listeners alone. He made his initial public appearance at one of those gatherings when he turned twelve. Still a teenager, he entered the profession in 1986 by joining the local rai ensemble Farachete and began performing in art centers across Algeria. After settling in Oran in 1988, he spent a month sleeping on a lawn before securing engagements in small cabarets, then issued his first cassette the following year. Relocating to Marseilles in 1996, he secured a contract with the French label Blue Silver. Recorded in Oran and released in 1997, his debut CD Chira France gained him access to prominent Parisian venues such as Café de la Danse. His next album, Nouara, appeared in 1999. During those formative years he received guidance from rai vocalist Cheb Mami.