Legendary Algerian music label Disco Maghreb, which launched the careers of some of the Rai folk-inspired genre’s most famous stars, has seen a revival thanks to a hit song by DJ Snake.
Yesterday, the label’s miniature headquarters at a long-shuttered record store in the eastern city of Oran was scheduled to receive another prominent guest: French President Emmanuel Macron, whose official visit would be focused on outreach to youth in the North African country.
Owner Boualem Benhaoua, 68, said he has “so many memories in the music, so many memories with Rai singers, they all came through here.”
Photo: AFP
Cheb Khaled, Cheb Mami, Cheb Hasni and Cheba Zahouania are among the most famous stars of the genre, which emerged in 1920s Oran but became a major world music genre in the 1980s, particularly popular in Algeria’s former colonial ruler France.
French-Algerian singer DJ Snake paid tribute to the genre in his song Disco Maghreb, which has been seen 78 million times on YouTube alone, and prompted an influx of young Algerians to take selfies at the shop with its iconic model cassette tape hanging outside.
The singer, whose real name is William Sami Grigahcine, has also published a video of himself visiting the famous shop on a street corner in Oran.
“I imagined ‘Disco Maghreb’ as a bridge between different generations and origins, linking North Africa, the Arab world and beyond... This is a love letter to my people,” DJ Snake wrote on Twitter in May.
Inside the shop, barely touched in years, cassettes pile up on the shelves, surrounded by vintage audio equipment that could be in an antiques museum.
Most of DJ Snake’s fans are from the era of YouTube and TikTok, but they queue happily for photographs with Benhaoua and his vinyl collection.
“It’s an emblematic place in Oran and DJ Snake’s latest track gave it more resonance,” said airline pilot Nawel, 36.
She said she was bringing her children for a visit and to take photographs, as they live in France.
Despite the store being closed for years, Benhaoua said he wants it to become “a place for artists to meet and for new talent to be discovered.”
Benhaoua said the young singer has also shone a spotlight on Oran, with his video clip young people on mopeds and dancing in the street shot in the city.
Many on social media have commented that the clip has done more to promote tourism in the city than official tourism agencies.
Benhaoua said DJ Snake had “the qualities of a great man.”
“He sympathizes with people with modest incomes, he himself grew up in these conditions,” he said. “He’s not just a singer, but like part of the family.”
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS