Hasni CHAKROUN (February 1, 1968 - September 29, 1994). Adored by the thousands of young Algerians from both sides of the Mediterranean, Hasni CHAKROUN was born in 1968 in Oran in the popular district of "Gambetta". Nobody knew then that this calm and timid child was destined to one day become one of the most recognized stars of the Algerian song and the Raï.
Nicknamed "Rai Nightingale" Cheb Hasni grew up in a distressing poverty, raised among his six siblings by a welder father and a stay-at-home mom.
Like the vast majority of young Maghreb people in the world, Hasni turns to football, the sport that practices as a team and for which many things like a rising star. Nevertheless, the young man at other levels: The song. Coming from a social class that suffers, he sings his revolt at the end of school. Then succeed small village festivals and weddings; the Raï then takes most of his time and the young singer and met the whole heart, thus stopped his studies in order to completely do without his art.
It is at 18 years old that Cheb Hasni recorded his first duet with the famous singer Cheba Zahouania entitled El Baraka M'rennika. The title will be an immediate success and mark the beginning of a career made of 150 albums in just 8 years.
His songs are sentimental, deeply personal and even intimate and this is what enchants and seduces the Algerian youth who begins to swear by him and his talent. However, his over-abundance of honesty and his daring words earned him the wrath of the religious of the country who do not appreciate his outspokenness and audacity.
But the "Julio Iglesias Oranais", as some call it, still continues its ascent to the top and titles such as Consulate, Gaa Nsa, Mazel Kayen, Galou Hasni Met, Srat Biya Kissa are born. The Islamist pressure can not silence the young man, on the contrary; censorship makes him even more popular throughout the Maghreb, making him the spokesman of a whole generation.
A melodious voice, an indisputable charisma, Hasni speaks of love, pleasure and desire, seduction but also sex, alcohol or even death; nothing is taboo for Cheb Hasni. 150,000 people attend one of his last concerts in Algiers and El Visa, one of his latest hits sells more than 250000 copies
And while the public wants more, FIS extremists continue to see red; Under the pressure of fundamentalism, his wife asks for a divorce in the face of Hasni's stubbornness not to leave Algeria despite all the threats and attacks on his person. She goes to France, to Perpignan taking with her their son Abdallah.
Eternal Son of Oran, it is his infallible loyalty to his country and his fans that will ultimately lose him; In 1994, Oran, the city that saw him grow up, will also see him die, murdered with two bullets in his head, at the exit of a cafe, close to his home.
The Rossignol du Rai leaves behind millions of fans around the world who still cry today, and more than four hundred titles in the space of eight years of career.
As a victim of fundamentalism, Cheb Hasni now rests in the Aïn Beïda cemetery in Oran.
