Cheikh El Madani

Cheikh El Madani was an iconic performer of Bedouin oral poetry and the rural Dahra style. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, his powerful, raw vocal performances at seasonal harvest festivals ('Waadat') and wedding celebrations gathered thousands of listeners.

Performing alongside twin gasba flutists, El Madani specialized in reciting the heroic exploits of Algerian resistance fighters and the spiritual praise of Sidi Lakhdar Ben Khlouf. His recording sessions for Gramophone and Pathé in the 1930s helped preserve western Algerian rural oral literature.