You reconnected with Quebec during a visit to the Francofête before your two performances at the Olympia in Montreal. How is your reunion with the Quebec public going?
It’s the usual! I haven’t found any change compared to the last few times, there is always a good welcome, there is friendliness. Everything is here. It’s been a little over 10 years of absence for me and yet we sold out [pour la première date, ce vendredi]. Some fans were contacting me because they were a little disappointed, so we added a date.
What is your relationship to Montreal and its public?
It’s a city that I knew in the 1990s. This country has its scent, it has its difference. What I like here is that it’s a city where even if it’s cold, the people are warm. People want to live, to party.
Did you expect this welcome when you decided to reconnect with Quebec?
Honestly, no. You know, the world has changed a lot. We have entered a new era. I thought that the young people of my time had moved on to another style, another interest. But my music, I am told that it is listened to by people from 7 to 77 years old. That’s what’s beautiful. It touches me, because people, when I meet them, tell me that I accompany them in their lives. Parents have introduced my music to their children. It pushes me to continue, not to abandon this music, because I realize that it brings people together.
PHOTO MOSA’AB ELSHAMY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cheb Khaled, during a concert in Rabat, Morocco
You recently released a new album after 12 years, which is actually a re-release of your self-titled hit album released 30 years ago…
I’m still there ! Even when I go to the United States, I am reminded that my music is part of the legend. In our time, you have to release new things every six months to last. But what I released 20 years ago still exists, it doesn’t go out of style. Songs Didi Or Aishathey are still present.
Will your shows draw on your entire repertoire, from the 1990s to now?
Yes ! Sometimes even during shows, people remind me of songs I made when I was 15 and ask me to play them. So I ask my musician, my accomplice, to give me the first words, and I sing them. The pleasure is shared when I’m on stage: I sing for people and I also sing for myself, I have fun doing it and I share my joy with the fans as much as possible.
You announce that your new album will be released soon. What musical direction do you want to take?
This music, raï, was locked in time in Algeria and when we broke the borders, we saw that it could marry with the fashion of each era. I shared raï with rock and roll, with reggae, with flamenco. For me, if we stay with old fashion in our music, people will get tired of it. At the moment, there is always something new coming out and you have to adapt to it. The fashion is for disc jockeys at the moment, so, as an independent artist, I wanted to rework a song that dates back to when I was 16 and I called on my friend DJ Snake to Trigue High School. To stay in the race, to stay on stage, you have to follow the generation, follow what people are listening to and join in so that the heritage does not die. Some people are a little stuck, but I see openings there.
Your concerts in Montreal are part of a tour that you are planning in Canada and the United States. Why do you want to meet these audiences?
The United States, some are fighting to have a place in this world. But my name is already known there. So I go there for fun. Countries like Canada remain in my heart all the time, I want to go back there all the time, I am attached to them. There are quite a few Oranese and North Africans there, I feel at home there. Among the Arabs, as a singer from the Maghreb, I became a representative. It is an honor.