A special edition of World Skip the Beat, on CKUT Radio in Montreal, which explores music and song from around the world inspired by immigration, Diaspora and migration. Featuring music from all corners of the world, this special program offers unique and rare musical selections from diverse artists from Algeria, Canada, Cap Verde, Egypt, France, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Lebanon, Peru, Slovakia and Spain. A special edition of World Skip the Beat produced by Dror Warschawski.

Awaiting Immigration

01: Poc Li Dente é Tcheu, Mayra Andrade, Cap Verde

02: La carte de résidence, Slimane Azem and Nourredine Meziane, Algeria

03: Anfas Mouss & Hakim, Origines Contrôlées, Algeria / France

04: Maison Blanche, Mouss & Hakim, Origines Contrôlées, Algeria / France

“Origines Contrôlées” is a CD by Mouss et Hakim, two brothers very involved politically with the collective Tacticollectif, previously in Zebda and from Algerian descent.

As Rachid Taha has before them, they have gathered very underrated songs, written by Algerian immigrants in France in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. These songs were despised both in Algeria and in France and had limited success. But they are the expression of a population, with their specific emotions and with their specific style. They are sung in a mixture of arabic, kabyle and french (“francarabe “).

These songs describe the difficulty to leave (“Maison Blanche” is the nickname of Algeria’s airport), to get immigration papers, the difficulties to work, to stand the bad weather and to be a victim of racism in France. In a very original fashion for the Algerian lyrics tradition, they also describe the life in France, smoking, drinking, romance, etc… In the end, the nostalgia for Algeria, romance and even the Ramadan fast prevails… Original songs from this period are by Slimane Azem, Nourredine Meziane, Dahmane El Harrachi, Cheikh Bouyazgaren, Cheikh El Hasnaoui, Mohamed Mazouni and others…

Slavery

05: El Mayoral (Slave Driver), Susana Baca, Peru

06: I Feel Like Going Home, Muddy Waters, U.S.

07: Come, Let Us Go Back To God the Soul Stirrers, U.S.

Let’s not forget that blues and gospel songs started as songs born in slavery, as slaves sang about their oppression and hope for a better future. Aren’t “going home”, sung by Muddy Waters, or “going back to god”, sung by the Soul Stirrers, with the young Sam Cooke, metaphors for “going back to Africa”?

Algerians

08: Ya Rayah, Dahmane El Harrachi, Algeria

09: Ach Adani (Dahmane El Harrachi), Rachid Taha, Algeria / France

10: Adieu La France, Mouss & Hakim, Origines Contrôlées, Algeria / France

Roma

11: Ya Dorah Shami, Nile Musicians, Egypt

12: Auschwitz, Marichka, Slovakia

13: Naci en Alamo, Remedios Silva Pisa, Spain

14: A La Sierra De Armenia (Seguiriya), Niña De Los Peines, Spain

Roma people, often referred to as gypsies or Tzigane, epitomize immigration and oppression, traveling for about a thousand years and experiencing oppression everywhere. The term “Gypsy” comes from the fact that some traveled through Egypt. A population in Europe that was also been decimated by the Nazis during World War II. In one song, Remedios Silva Pisa sings “I don’t have a place, I don’t have a landscape, I don’t have a country”, in the next one, La Niña de Los Peines dreams of returning to fantasied Armenian mountains.

Nostalgia

15: Sodade, Cesaria Evora, Cap Verde

16: Assouf, Tinariwen, Mali

17: Sawah (the wanderer), Abdel Halim Hafez, Egypt

African-Americans call nostalgia the Blues, Spanish Roma call it El Duende. In Brasil, Cap Verde and Angola, it is called Saudade or Sodade. For the Tuareg in Mali is is called Assouf.

Desire to Return

18: Sanarjaou Yaoumann, Fairouz, Lebanon

19: Africa Unite, Bob Marley, Jamaica

For Palestinians, exile means “the Right of Return”, for Rastafarian tradition in Jamaica, out of Babylon and back to Africa?

Today

20: Ou veux-tu que j’aille, Tiken Jah Fakoly et Mouss & Hakim
Ivory Coast / Algeria / France

21: Maktoubi (my destiny), 23 and Kader, Algeria / Canada

22: Oran Marseille, Khaled et IAM, Algeria / France

Today, migrants around the world continue adapting music and lyrics to the taste and the problems of the day. Music incorporates reggae or hip-hop. Lyrics focus on fear of deportation. In Montreal, Abdelkader Belaouni has been facing the risk of deportation for more than two years, while living in church sanctuary and has expressed this tragedy through music, with the hip-hop artist Tu-Three.