Maâlma Yamna

Maâlma Yamna was born in the Casbah of Algiers and founded the most prestigious female musical orchestra of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In a society where public female performance was strictly circumscribed, she achieved supreme professional stature through her artistic excellence and impeccable moral dignity.

Yamna mastered the classical Andalusian San'a suites, the Hawzi of Tlemcen, and urban qasidas. In 1906, she traveled to Paris to record historic 78rpm discs for Pathé and Gramophone, establishing the foundation for all subsequent generations of female Algerian artists including Meriem Fekkaï and Fadila Dziria.