Interview with Moroccan singer/songwriter Malek

2006-06-19

In an interview with Magharebia, singer/songwriter Malek discusses how his French and Moroccan roots, along with living in both countries, have contributed to his career. He employs numerous styles, believing that the music, words and message matter most.

[File] Malek

Singer Malek has made his mark on Moroccan music song through French and Arabic lyrics and using a variety of styles. He is greatly influenced by French singer Jacques Brel and his own Moroccan roots. He already has several albums under his belt, the latest of which is in production.

Magharebia: You're half Moroccan, half French. How has this mixture helped you as an artist?

Malek: First, it has given me the opportunity to be perfectly bilingual. Also, the fact that my mother is French and my father is Moroccan allowed me to belong to two different cultures and therefore two different perspectives to broaden my horizons. Thanks too to this mixture, as you call it, I've been able to live in France and Morocco and meet well-known artists in both countries.

Knowing how your audience sees things and what they want to listen to is important. As a result, singing in Morocco or in France, given my roots, allows me to be close to these two audiences and to communicate with them. My father comes from Oujda in eastern Morocco, so my songs have a certain rai flavour. My two cultures have helped me become a tolerant person.

Magharebia: You started your career in France. What made you go back to Morocco? Tell us about how you got started and how you've developed artistically in both countries.

Malek: I started my career in Montpellier, France, where I had gone to study law. During this time, I was writing poetry and wasn't really thinking about songs. I'd always wanted to sing, but the opportunity had never presented itself. I had been writing various poems about love and life in general from the age of 14. Writing such poems, you think about turning them into songs, especially when you're young.

So when I was about 16, I started to play the guitar, my favourite instrument. With a group of friends, we sang Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf and Serge Reggiani. Jacques Brel was a great influence. This was the 1970s, the time of café theatres, where I sang for the first time with my group and where I started getting used to singing in public. This early experience not only allowed me to encounter an audience for the first time, but it also helped me meet major French artists, whose advice and support have helped me enormously in my career.

Magharebia: What about your studies?

Malek: Studies? Well, I dropped out! (He laughs). I abandoned my studies, which was a great disappointment to my parents, and I was free to devote myself entirely to my great passion of music. Full of ambition, love of singing and enthusiasm for adventures and new experiences, I managed to release a single in 1981 with the title "A Mother", at the suggestion of my French producer. All this helped me release my first album called "La Mal Vie", which was successful and gave me more courage to continue.

Magharebia: This was all in France. When did you go back to Morocco?

Malek: I returned to Morocco in 1991 and I have since settled in Casablanca. When I was in Morocco, contact with Moroccans and their lifestyles made its mark on me. I then decided to go back. In 1996, I sang the song "Bara'a" (Innocence) on 2M, the second Moroccan channel, on behalf of UNICEF on the occasion of the second International Radio and Television Day for Children across the world. This song was produced by several artists, who offered their services to sing for this day. A group of children joined us. It was a huge success and the song led to another song, which won the International Emmy Awards prize.

Magharebia: You sing in several musical styles. Which is your favourite?

Malek: I don't really have a favourite. I sing in Arabic and in French, in several different styles. It's the music, the words and the message that matter.

Magharebia: Apparently, you've sung rai as well?

Malek: And Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf ... As I said at the start, there has been an influence from my Oujdi (hometown) roots and so yes, in the 1980s I sang rai with singer and friend Hamid Bouchnaq, whose "Asrar" (Secrets), and "Ma bka lina amal" (There's No More Hope) and several of my songs have a ra flavour.

Magharebia: Since your 2000 album "Et demain m'attendra" (And Tomorrow Awaits), which was recorded in Morocco, we haven't heard much about you. Why the silence?

Malek: I now have less time to write songs since becoming artistic director for the Platinium record label. It's a job which takes up a lot of my time and I'm contributing to Moroccan music in a different way. The aim is to support young talent and to give them what they need so that we don't see them heading off abroad to build their careers. However, my next album is planned for the end of 2006 and is nearly finished. It will bring together my 25 years of singing.