“We regret to announce the death of our father (to all), Idir, on Saturday May 2 at 9:30 pm. Rest in peace, Dad. ” It was through a message on the singer's official Facebook page that the world learned on Saturday evening of the disappearance of the great Kabyle singer Idir. Born in 1949, Idir has accompanied for 50 years - and despite eclipses - the cultural and musical life of his country and France. "I arrived at the right time, with the right songs," told AFP in 2013, explaining how he had been imbued from his childhood by the songs that punctuated all the moments of everyday life. From his interpretation of A Vava Inouva, in the Berber language at the dawn of the 1970s, to his album La France en couleursReleased in 2007, in the midst of the French presidential campaign marked by the debates on immigration and national identity, her songs resonate with the news without ever losing poetry. Back on a career through the most beautiful titles and interpretations of an unrivaled singer.
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A Vava Inouva (My father to me)
It is with this title that Idir, destined for a completely different career, pierces practically by chance in the 1970s. In 1973, he replaced the singer Noura at short notice during a broadcast by Radio Alger and sang Ersed a Yidès . He then recorded this title, as well as A Vava inouva, a song in the Berber language, which evokes evenings in Kabyle villages. My father of mine is a world success without his knowledge while he is doing his military service.
Awah awah
At the end of the 1970s, Idir, a discreet man who was reluctant to live in the light of showbizz, left an album before retiring from the scene. His absence will last ten years. But he composed a repertoire that will always be on the air, starting with Awah awah, a festive and lively hymn.
Ssendu (La Baratte)
Another legendary song by the great Idir, Ssendu, of which so many people know every word on each side of the Mediterranean. The simple title is inspired by the memories of his mother beating butter when she was a child. But the message is eminently political. He evokes "this image of woman who was there, undergoing the law of the environment, of the male ... and who therefore confided in something inert". "I am convinced that vis-à-vis a woman in general and a mother in particular, I believe that we all have something to be forgiven, or at least to blame us", he confided in concert at Puteaux one evening, thirty years later.
Ay arrac negh (To our children)
On this legendary album, the title song Ay arrac negh and its lullaby rhythms mark by the simplicity of their poetry. But the text is also the expression of uprooting. "If one is gone, if one is banished, others will stand up and replace them. Never give up and persevere, never forget times will change, ” sings Idir.
Aghrib (The Exile)
After a decade of absence and a return to the triumphant scene in the early 1990s, Idir released Chasseurs de lumière, a new album in 1993 that borrows from world music without ever losing its roots. Witness Aghrib, song about a recurring theme in the work of Idir: exile.
Isaltiyen (The Celts)
Also in 1993, the curious Idir signed with the musician Alan Stivell Isaltiyen, a title that mixes Berber and Breton language, derbouka, bagpipes and harp in a union of styles that hits the bull's eye .
A man who has no brother
In 1999, Idir publishes Identités, punch album for which it brings together a plethora of artists (Manu Chao, Maxime Le Forestier, Zebda, the National Orchestra of Barbès ...) who celebrate a black-white-buttery France the day after the world cup won by Zinedine Zidane and the Blues.
Why this rain
In 2002, Idir recorded Why this rain, a tribute to the victims of the deluge that hit Algiers on November 10, 2001. More than a thousand people died, swept away by the downpours of muddy water that ravaged the city from the heights of Bab El Wadi to the shore of the sea. Jean-Jacques Goldman, himself withdrawn from the scene for years, signs this sweet and nevertheless terrible melody.
France of colors
"The France of colors defends the colors of France." In 2007, in the midst of the presidential campaign between Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, Idir published a new album which did not leave anyone indifferent. For this manifesto, he invites the finest flower of the scene of the time: Akhenaton, Disiz la Peste, Grand Corps Malade, Zaho, Noa, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Nâdiya, Oxmo Puccino.
Bohemian
In 2017, Idir produced a last album in the image of his life: a collection of memories, postcards and poems gleaned throughout his career through meetings. He sings La Corrida with Francis Cabrel, Les Larmes de leur pères with Patrick Bruel, the so obvious On the road again with Bernard Lavilliers, a sublime Born somewhere with Maxime Le Forestier, Jardin d'hiver with Henri Salvador ... A bouquet splendid of flavors, memories and mixed roots. Among all these titles which deserve to be discovered if you do not know them yet, let us also retain the duet of Idir with Charles Aznavour for a Bohemian accomplice and tender.