b. Hamid Cheriet, 1949, A‹t LahcŠne, Haute-Kabylia, Algeria. Born into a Berber family of farmers, Cheriet studied geology at university. He made his musical debut on Radio Algiers in 1973, singing the lullaby "A Vava Inouva" as a last minute replacement for an absent star. The song became a hit in his homeland and, in 1975, following a spell in the army, he moved to Paris, France to sign a recording contract with Path‚ Marconi. Adopting the name Idir ("He Will Live"), he has established himself as a singer, songwriter and poet, expressing the cultural identity and sense of exile of France's Berber community. He released two albums in the 70s (one in 1976, the other in 1979) and subsequently recorded with Alan Stivell. In 1995, Idir organised Algerie, La Vie (Algeria, Life) a concert to promote unity in civil war-torn Algeria, where he performed with Khaled, in order to emphasise Berber and Arab co-operation. Identit‚s, his international debut released in France in 1999 and throughout the world a year later, featured a series of duets with like-minded artists from around the world, including Manu Chao, Geoffrey Oryema, Dan Ar Braz, Orchestre National De Barbes and Frederic Galliano. This gently impressive release featured the flutes and guitars of Berber "kabyle" music throughout.

Listen to Idir at Finetune.

• Zwit Rwit

• Cheb Mami
• Khaled
• Rachid Taha
• Alabina
• Rasha
• Sharkiat
• Hossam Ramzy
• Kadda Chrif Hadria
• Ali Hassan Kuban
• Hamza El Din
• Baaba Maal
• Maurice El Mediouni
• Raina Rai
• Jamshied Sharifi
• Abdul Aziz El-Sayed
• Abdelli
• Dave Holland
• Baka Beyond
• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party
• Said Chraibi

• Tarek
• postamble
• tjabeljan

• samzaman123 on 2007-04-27 23:44:10.957:
  brilliant
• samzaman123 on 2007-04-27 23:44:10.377:
  brilliant