Every day, a personality invites herself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Today, guitarist, composer and founder of the group Chico & les Gypsies, Chico Bouchikhi. In March 2023 they released a new album, “Otro Camino” and they will be performing this summer.
Chico Bouchikhi is the guitarist, founding member and composer of the Gipsy Kings, a group that brought flamenco to a global audience with titles like Bamboleo And Djobi Djoba in 1987. In 1991, he was ousted from the group and decided to create his own, Chico & les Gypsies, in 1992. In March 2023, Chico & les Gypsies released a new album, Other Camino, and will be performing this summer across France.
franceinfo: Other road includes 12 original tracks and a cover of the track Stand-by-Me for a real homecoming. Is this an invitation to travel?
chico: Completely. We invite you to take a musical path that we have loved for all these years. Can you imagine the happiness in which we live? But it’s an invitation. We simply say: “Enjoy, come with us, we will share beautiful emotions“.
Which represents Other road for you ? We have the impression that it has a little particular flavor this one…
It’s a return to the DNA of our music, I would say from the Gipsy Kings era. There is this soul that is really deep. We have three singers with magnificent voices, which are completely different. It’s been a long time since we made an album of compositions and there, we are really very proud to have it, to defend it and to share it today.
You were born in Arles to a Moroccan father and an Algerian mother. It is in the HLM district that you grew up, that you spent your childhood. You meet the Reyes family there. Is that when you started to like music?
There was a great soundtrack at home. My older brother brought me albums. He traveled a lot, in the United States, everywhere! Blues, rock, classical music… I was already enriched by this very broad musical culture. And then this contribution from each other when I met the Reyes family meant that somewhere, we managed to make a musical style which was ‘gipsy rock’, I called it a bit like that, because there was flamenco in the left hand and in the right hand there was all the energy of rock and that’s what brought us luck for a very long time.
You have been touched by an enormous tragedy: your brother was assassinated by the Mossad, confused with Ali Hassan Salameh, the man at the head of the commando of the hostage crisis of the Munich Olympics in 1972 . How did you experience this drama?
“After my brother was mistakenly murdered by the Mossad, music was almost a lifeline.”
Chico, from the group Chico & the Gypsiesat franceinfo
For me, the music was huge. But for our family, you can imagine that it was an incredible tragedy. I was very young, 19, and it was also a misunderstanding of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, the most famous in the whole world. Making a blunder like that was huge. And my brother who meant everything to me… He was the one who gave me my first guitar. I made my musical path with this first guitar and the Reyes family. And finally, it allowed me to come together for the first anniversary of the peace treaty in Oslo and to shake hands with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat who, by virtue of their position, represented what my brother had been assassinated for.
How did you experience this moment of being present when they initially called on the Gipsy Kings?
It’s part of my destiny. This is my life here. It is fate that shows you the way to go. I was very moved because in addition, one of my brothers accompanied me and who took a photo of Shimon Peres, Yasser Arafat and me when they came on stage to thank us. It was extraordinary. We were the only ones to know this story, even Unesco didn’t know anything about it at that time. I think it was a sign of fate.
Did the Mossad apologize?
Never. The only thing I would have liked is that my parents and especially my mother during her lifetime, at least hear an apology. Imagine in life, you bump into someone and apologize, so imagine murdering someone like that for nothing…
In 1991, you will be ousted from this group. How did you experience it?
Evil. You should know that when I’m ousted, it’s simply because I ask the producer to account which does not correspond to the reality of the success we have all over the world. He will be condemned. And I demand accounts for the group. Well, it was a betrayal. It was complicated and two months later, I lost my father so it was really a difficult time.
You have decided not to give up and take your life back. Quickly will be born Chico & the Gypsies. Is it also a victory over life?
“After my ousting from the Gipsy Kings, it was the public who asked me to play again.”
Chico, from the group Chico & the Gypsiesat franceinfo
When I went to a bakery, whether I took the highway or the plane, everyone asked me: “But why did you stop? It was you we loved!“So one day, I asked myself the question and I said to myself: but it’s double trouble then! Frankly, I didn’t want to play anymore, it still hurt me a lot. And then I started Chico & the Gypsies and the adventure continued. I made dozens of albums, thousands of concerts all over the world, and this, until today! It’s only happiness.
Chico & the Gypsies will be on July 19, 2023 at Patrimonio, August 4 at Courlans and December 11 at the Casino de Paris.