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Cheikha Rabia, is a Algerian female singer born in Relizane (Oran).

Biography
Cheikha Rabia began singing at the age of 11. Originally from Relizane, a village near Oran in Algeria, Rabia is the daughter of a barber (a veteran of World War I) and a seamstress originates from Kabylie. She discovers the singing women at celebrations and wedding parties. These singers, called 'meddehates' interpreted, before exclusively female assemblies chants percussions. At background of 14 years and then wants to learn, she works all sorts of directories, even those previously forbidden to women that of ‘cheikhs or cheik, as know as the 'masters' who are celebrating Bedouin poetry and improvise on life, embellished songs by harmonious musicality of the bamboo flute, named gasba. The name Cheikha (mistress of song) is given to Cheikha Rabia at 18 years old. Cheikha Rabia heritage is the intersection of these two deep traditions, one male and one female, who later gave birth to Raï music. 'A new popular music was born of the encounter between singing and percussion meddehates, and the flutes of 'cheikh' as explained by journalist Eliane Azoulay

Roots is Raï
From the 1960s, she sang in cabarets of Algiers where it is a huge success with an exclusively male audience. She immigrated to France in 1977 with her husband and eight children and start a new career in the French capital Paris, where she acquires and maintains a Café, rue des Pyrenees, while continuing to occur in small cabarets as a Blues Singer. After her divorce, a difficult period lies ahead, it must focus on raising her children and she has no choice but to stop singing. Five years later, these children grew up, she sells her coffee and begins to sing on weekends. After several successful recordings in Algeria, she recorded an album in 1999 on Virgin with a powerful headline, 'ana hak', followed by a European tour. Cheikha Rabia combines the concert dates, alternating passages in renowned festivals as cultural centers in suburban bistros or prestigious venues. The idea for a new musical structure in the ray of Cheikha Rabia begins to germinate. At a meeting in 2005 with the Tunisian-born musician, producer Douieb Dinah, she discovers that her personality is of interest to new generations of rock & electro musicians. She sign with the label Dinamyte the album Liberti in 2008.

In 2012, at seventy years old, the singer Cheikha Rabia recorded a new album with Dinah Douieb with a new musical direction. This new music also draws inspiration from the rock Black Sabbath and funk of James Brown mixed with electronic music. The group includes the participation of guitarists 'Hero' Yan Pechin and Micky Finn bassist and synthesizer Niktus and Dinah Douieb on rhythm guitar and synths. The concept 'RABIA' was born and means rage in Spanish and spring in Arabic.

Discography

 * 'Ana Hak' (1999)
 * 'Liberti' (2007)
 * 'RABIA' (2012)

Styles

 * Raï
 * Rhythm & Raï
 * Arabic rock & funk
 * Arabic electro