Rachid TAHA It's good to see a spirit of rebellion blasting through the French music scene from time to time - and Rachid Taha, former lead singer of Carte de sejour, certainly knows how to Rail against racism, nepotism and conformism of all kinds ! Rachid's innovative sound - an exciting musical melting-pot which incorporates everything from traditional Arab zithers to modern electric guitars - helps this Algerian-born Rebel with a Cause get his message across. Rachid Taha was born in Oran, a coastal town in Algeria, in 1958. But Rachid would leave Oran in his late childhood, when his family emigrated to France in 1968. Growing up in Alsace and then the Vosges mountain region, young Rachid soon made several major discoveries about his new homeland, experiencing the joys of winter for the first time but also finding himself subject to the racist taunts of his classmates. These soon became so bad that Rachid's father took his son out of the local school and sent him to a Catholic convent school, where he would have a better chance of passing his exams. Rachid was not destined to go on to higher education, however. In 1979 he left home and found a job as a salesman, travelling across the country selling works of French literature. After a year of door-to-door sales, Rachid returned to live with his family, who had recently moved to a suburb of Lyon. Rachid went on to make a living doing a variety of odd jobs in the Lyon region, then in 1981 he found a full-time job in a local factory. It was here that Rachid would finally be able to indulge in his passion for music, for shortly after joining the factory he met up with two other budding young musicians, Mohammed and Moktar. The trio went on to form their own group (Mohammed on guitar, Moktar on bass and Rachid on vocals) and soon began performing concerts in their lunch-hour. Carte de sejour In the early 80's the rising tide of immigration, and particularly immigration from Arab countries, was beginning to cause problems among certain sections of the French population. Indeed, the extreme right party Le Front National was starting to win an increasing number of supporters. But it was also around this time that the children of African and Algerian immigrants, the so-called 'second-generation' immigrants who had been born in France, began to develop a strong political consciousness and start defending themselves. The formation of Rachid Taha's trio coincided with this new political awareness and the group deliberately chose a highly topical name, calling themselves Carte de Sejour (Residence permit). Working in the factory by day and rehearsing at night, the group soon got their recording career off the ground, going into a local studio in 1982 to record their first single. Carte de Sejour's first EP, featuring four of the group's own compositions, was not a huge commercial success but it did prove a major hit with the critics. Encouraged by a number of positive reviews, the group returned to the studio the following year and recorded their debut album, "Rhoromanie", with producer Steve Hillage (a former member of the group Gong). But it was Carte de Sejour's second album, "Deux et demi", which would really catapult the group to the forefront of the French music scene. For this album, released in 1986, featured Carte de Sejour's highly controversial single "Douce France". The group's ironic cover version of Charles Trenet's classic French chanson hit, re-recorded with stRains of Arab music in the background, was bound to cause a huge stir on the French music scene. And predictably, "Douce France" got an enormous amount of coverage in the media. Yet, this flurry of media interest was not altogether to Carte de Sejour's advantage, for "Douce France" would end up overshadowing the rest of the songs on the album which were all recorded in Arabic. Carte de Sejour would embark upon a busy touring and recording schedule over the next few years, but they would never quite equal the success of "Douce France". And in 1989, shortly after returning from a tour of Germany, the group would finally split up. This was not to be the end of Rachid Taha's singing career, however, for he decided to pursue a solo career, going into a Los Angeles studio with Don Was (from the group Was not Was) to record a demo tape. Unfortunately, this first demo tape would not be enough to land Rachid a new recording contract. Undeterred by this setback, Rachid decided to take a break from the music scene and go back to his Algerian roots in Oran. He had not given up the idea of launching a solo career, however, and continued to work on a new demo tape - which would finally result in his debut solo album. Named after a famous immigrant area in Paris, the album "Barbes" was released in 1991. But, unfortunately for Rachid, the Gulf War broke out shortly after the release of "Barbes" and French radio stations judged his Arabic songs too 'sensitive' to play during the war with Saddam Hussein. "Voila, voila" In spite of this second setback Rachid Taha persevered with his solo career, returning to the studio in 1993 to record a second album, entitled simply "Rachid Taha". Produced by Steve Hillage, Rachid's new album featured a fusion of African and European music and a series of lyrics which were more sharply ironic than ever. Much to everyone's surprise the dance-oriented single "Voila Voila", proved a major hit with English DJs who soon sent it rocketing to the top of the dance charts. Two years later Rachid flew to London to record his third solo album with his old friend Steve Hillage. Released in 1995, the new album "Ole Ole" proved to be even more of a musical cross-over than Rachid's previous album, fusing Western techno beats and electric guitars with Algerian chaabi, Mexican mariachis and the traditional Arab zither (not to mention Indian melodies and Cajun accordion !) This 'techno-ethno' fusion certainly took the French music world by surprise. Recently, Rachid Taha returned to the forefront of the French music scene, with a new double CD album. This album, entitled "Carte blanche", features the best of his solo work and a selection of Carte de Sejour's greatest hits. After a long, hard 15-year-old struggle Rachid Taha has finally managed to carve a niche for himself on the French music scene, without abandoning his distinctive style. As he himself once predicted, declaring "I will never change my career because of my name, and I will never change my name because of my career !" After fifteen years' experience on the French music scene, Rachid Taha released a double CD of his greatest hits last year entitled "Carte blanche". The following year Taha returned to the studio to record a brand new album entitled "Diwan". This fascinating album, produced by Steve Hillage, was made up entirely of covers, featuring Taha's innovative new versions of Middle Eastern classics. Tracks included covers of chaabi compositions by Dahmane El Harrachi and Mohamed el Anka, an interesting new version of a Farid el Atrache song as well as a cover of a hit by the Moroccan group Nass El Ghiwane. "Diwan" also included "Ya Rayah", a song which had originally appeared on the album "Rachid Taha" in 1994 and had gone on to become a massive hit for Taha in the French charts. Rachid Taha spent most of 98 performing an extensive tour which took him across the length and breadth of France. He also appeared at a number of major international music festivals, including the Festival d'Ete in Quebec, the Francofolies music festival in La Rochelle (France), La Route du Rock Festival in Saint-Malo (France) and the Vive la World festival organised in the United States. On 26 September 1998 Taha took to the stage with Rai stars Khaled and Faudel to perform "Un deux trois soleil" - a Rai extravaganza directed by the famous English producer Steve Hillage. Taha went wild on stage, throwing himself body and soul into this exceptional show performed to a capacity audience of 15,000 music fans at Bercy Stadium in Paris. In the spring of 99', Rachid Taha branched out in a new direction, performing two concerts in Cairo and Alexandria. (Although Taha had performed several concerts in Lebanon and the Maghreb, this was the first time that the singer had flown out to meet his Egyptian fans face to face). Taha's Egyptian performances proved to be a huge success, the singer's concert in Cairo attracting an audience of 2,500 fans. Two thirds of the audience at the Cairo concert were Egyptian and - although the majority of Taha's Egyptian fans found it difficult to understand the singer's lyrics (performed in an Arabic which was very different to their own) - they gave the singer an extremely warm welcome. Following in the successful footsteps of Rai king Khaled, Rachid Taha has gone on to launch his own musical trend - chaabi. And, judging by the impressive sales figures of the album "1,2,3 soleil", this is a trend which is set to grow and grow! Meanwhile Rachid Taha continues his lifelong fight against racism and intolerance of all kinds. Ironically enough, while the Algerian Rebel With A Cause has maintained his openly provocative profile, Taha has also become an integral part of France's thriving metisse scene. May 99 Copyright RFI Musique from http://www.rfimusique.com/gb/index.htmlv