Every day during the summer, the franceinfo culture department shares its favorites with you. Sunday July 23: the reissue of an album by Lounes Matoub.
His voice was inseparable from his fights. Fighter for freedom, tireless defender of the Kabyle and Amazigh populations, Lounes Matoub (who was rather called Matoub Lounes) left much more than records. The one who accompanied him for years, his widow Nadia Matoub, is now very keen on the release of this album, Open letter to…
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“The force is there. The force of his song, of his verb, of his messagebelieves Nadia Matoub. It’s been 25 years, but even those born after 1998 sing it. And there are some very young people who still see him as the one leading the way. He is always there to help us in our fight, whether in Paris or elsewhere. When we demonstrate, it’s to songs by Lounes Matoub.”
This fight, she says, did not stop with her assassination on June 25, 1998. “We have hundreds of political prisoners, of conscience. If Lounes was there, he would be in prison too. This is what we still carry and his message is more relevant than ever.”
Thirty albums in 20 years
“Every spring, recalls Nadia Matoub, there was the release of an album. He produced so much and it was a platform for us. We waited each time for the release to find out what Lounes Matoub’s vision is in relation to such and such an event.”
“We felt and we still feel his sincerity”
Nadia Matoubat franceinfo
Even today, the music resonates, its voice imposes itself in the flow of dramatic news in Algeria as elsewhere, while freedoms are precarious everywhere. In this final album, Matoub Lounes is more offensive than ever, denouncing the power, its compromises of the time with Islamism. It is no coincidence that it contains a piece in Kabyle to the rearranged tune of the Algerian anthem. Rebellious and courageous act with terrible consequences that still resonates.