The fourth day of the 16th edition of Mawazine paid tribute to two exceptional artists and offered a program that blended the music of Africa with the sounds of the Arab world and Turkey.

Rabat, May 16, 2017: By inviting the superstar Lauryn Hill on the scene of the OLM, Mawazine made of its fourth day yet another special day for music lovers. For more than an hour, the singer of the mythical group The Fugees got the crowd to sing along with her the sounds of the best hip-hop of the 1990s. Lauryn Hill is co-author of The Score, the best-selling rap album in history in the States.  The artist, whose solo The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, enlightened her audience with a repertoire mixing her biggest hits and more spiritual compositions.

Another great artist, ultra popular, had an appointment with the festivalgoers the same evening. At Mohammed V National Theater, Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar, a synonym for classical Indian music and sitar, brilliantly redefined the boundaries of her instrument not only in her traditional classical Indian form but also in working with new sounds and artistic forms. The five-time Grammy nominated musician has delivered a cutting-edge repertoire on the themes of movement, asylum and refugees, with more cheering and supporting from the audience.

Africa was represented by the leading figure of Angolan music, Bonga. Known to all world stars, he is the artist who gave full meaning to the notion, as plural as it is, of africanity. On the stage of Bouregreg, he interpreted in his raspy and powerful voice his most beautiful songs, taking again the tubes of his first album, Angola 74, where one finds the Legendary version, Sodade that Cesaria Evora made even more popular almost twenty years later his la. He also performed his recent song, Recados de Fora, released in 2016.

The fourth day also saw Arabic music celebrated through two particularly striking concerts. That of Al Salem, from Baghdad, who after a short military career took up to music and that of Hussein El Deek, native of Syria and from a large family of artists. Both, considered among the most popular singers of the region, sang songs that made the festivalgoers enjoyed.

True to its credo, and to highlight the greatest national talents, Mawazine devotes half of its concerts to Moroccan artists. The Salé stage allowed spectators to discover some of the most beautiful voices in the kingdom through a program dedicated to three major figures: Hamid El Kasri, who blends Gnaoua rhythms of the North and the south Morocco, Mehdi Nassouli, a specialist in Rudanese folk art, trained with the greatest gnaoua Maâlems (masters), and Mustapha Bakbou, a symbol of tagnaouite art.

A site of poetry and escape, Chellah’s stage welcomed the Turkish singer Aburrahman Tarikci and the Tunisian violinist Zied Zouari, who initiated the public into the different universes of the Maqâm, thus creating a dialogue between the different converging musical traditions of the island of Marmara. Accompanied by the Armenian drummer Julien Tekeyan, the trio recounted with talent the reminiscence of an ancestral song through contemporary rhythms.

As is the tradition, as of the second day of the festival, the streets of Rabat and Salé were fraught with bands and street performance groups performing their respective styles to the delight of the public. to name of few, Rabat and Salé dwellers could enjoy performances from  Oussama Band, specialist of the circus arts, and Bakho Atika Group, recognized for His mastery of dance and dakka marrakchia.

Useful information:

16th edition of Mawazine Festival Rhythms of the World: May 12th to 20th 2017.

About Festival Mawazine Rythmes du Monde:

Established in 2001, the Mawazine Festival Rhythms of the World is the essential rendezvous for music amateurs in Morocco with, for the last 15 years, over 2 million festivalgoers at each edition. Held every month of May over nine days, Mawazine offers a rich and diversified program where world stars from the four corners of the world make of the cities of Rabat and Salé a world stage for music.  Committed to promote Moroccan Music, the Festival devotes more than half of its shows to national artists. As a firm believer in the in values of peace, tolerance openness and respect, 90% of the concerts are free of charge so that everybody can enjoy it. Mawazine also participates in the region’s economy, attracting tourists from all over the world; thus making of Morocco once every year a world music stage.

About Maroc Cultures Association:

Created In compliance with the provisions of November 15, 1958 Dahir, and further to a General Assembly held in Rabat on October 23, 2001, Maroc Cultures is a non-profit association whose main mission is to offer to the public of Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaër region a highly professional cultural and artistic entertainment worthy of the capital of the kingdom. Echoing the fundamental values of His Majesty King Mohammed VI development policy, Maroc Cultures materializes this mission through Mawazine Rhythms of the World Festival as well as various events, multi-disciplinary symposia, plastic art exhibitions and concerts.