Radio Hal

The 1970s were marked in Morocco by the introduction, on a large scale, of a new musical genre.Nass El Ghiwane, the founding group,—a handful of artists,—launched this genre built on rudimentary and sober instrumentation as well as realistic and powerful texts.Very quickly, the youth followed. This is a music that speaks of their life, their desires, their frustrations, their hopes etc. Several musical groups were born afterwards in the process, including Jil Jilala, Lamchaeb, Siham, Mesnaoua, Tagada and Izenzaren.A word was released and spread like wildfire resembling a musical Arab Spring before its time. Musically, a rare syncretism has operated. A Gnaoui background from Essaouira, the Aita of the Chaouia plains, a solid Malhoun culture from Marrakech and an assumed “Soussi” sensitivity.Larbi Batma, Abderrahmane Kirouche alias Paco, Omar Sayed, Mohamed Boujmie, Abdelaziz Tahiri, Moulay Tahar Asbahani, Mohamed Derhem, Omar Dakhouche, Chérif Lamrani, Abelaziz Chamkh, Abdelhadi Igout and many others have written a unique story that will have a lasting impact on Moroccan music.