Blaoui el Houari
Blaoui el Houari was born on January 23, 1926 in Sidi Blel in the M’dina Jdida district of Oran. He was introduced to music thanks to his father who played the “Kouitra” and his brother who introduced him to the banjo and the mandolin.
At 13, he left school to work in his father's café where he took care of maintaining the phonograph and broadcasting 78s of great Algerian and Egyptian singers and he took the opportunity to immerse himself in modern music.
Blaoui Houari won a first prize in radio hooking (currently known as Salle El Feth). He was hired as a pointer at the port docks after the landing of the American armed forces in Oran in 1942. It was there that he learned to play the piano and accordion alongside Maurice El Médioni.
He then began to host wedding and circumcision parties in a Bedoui style played with modern instruments. He founded his first musical-theatrical orchestra in 1943 and recorded his first 45s in 1955, covering the famous song by Benyekhlef Boutaleb, “Rani M’hayer”.
During the war of national liberation, Blaoui el Houari was detained by the colonial administration at the Sig concentration camp for patriotic activity. Also, he was a friend of the martyr Ahmed Zabana, shocked by the tragedy of the latter's death under the guillotine, this led him to compose one of his most famous songs, Zabana, written by Chérif Hamani.
After the independence of Algeria, he took charge of the regional Algerian Radio and Television in Oran and then of the Algerian National Theater (TNA) in Algiers in 1967.
In addition to a rich repertoire of more than 500 songs, he contributed to the emergence of many stars of Oran song and raï during the 1980s, like Khaled, who covered many titles from his repertoire which later became universal, Mami or even Houari Benchennat, Sabah Saghira and Djahida.
Blaoui El Houari was one of the innovators and theorists of Algerian music, he received the medal of the order of national merit at the rank of “Achir”, awarded by the President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in April 2017.
At 13, he left school to work in his father's café where he took care of maintaining the phonograph and broadcasting 78s of great Algerian and Egyptian singers and he took the opportunity to immerse himself in modern music.
Blaoui Houari won a first prize in radio hooking (currently known as Salle El Feth). He was hired as a pointer at the port docks after the landing of the American armed forces in Oran in 1942. It was there that he learned to play the piano and accordion alongside Maurice El Médioni.
He then began to host wedding and circumcision parties in a Bedoui style played with modern instruments. He founded his first musical-theatrical orchestra in 1943 and recorded his first 45s in 1955, covering the famous song by Benyekhlef Boutaleb, “Rani M’hayer”.
During the war of national liberation, Blaoui el Houari was detained by the colonial administration at the Sig concentration camp for patriotic activity. Also, he was a friend of the martyr Ahmed Zabana, shocked by the tragedy of the latter's death under the guillotine, this led him to compose one of his most famous songs, Zabana, written by Chérif Hamani.
After the independence of Algeria, he took charge of the regional Algerian Radio and Television in Oran and then of the Algerian National Theater (TNA) in Algiers in 1967.
In addition to a rich repertoire of more than 500 songs, he contributed to the emergence of many stars of Oran song and raï during the 1980s, like Khaled, who covered many titles from his repertoire which later became universal, Mami or even Houari Benchennat, Sabah Saghira and Djahida.
Blaoui El Houari was one of the innovators and theorists of Algerian music, he received the medal of the order of national merit at the rank of “Achir”, awarded by the President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in April 2017.