Hichem Sallem

Mezwed (also spelled mezoued/mizwad) is a popular, working‑class wedding and party music from Tunisia that grew around local modal traditions and lively social occasions. It is centered on the mizwad (a North African bagpipe with a goatskin or ewe’s leather bag) and the darbouka/tabla (goblet drum), producing a raw, reedy timbre over insistent hand‑drummed rhythms. The genre draws on Tunisian and wider Maghrebi scales that include microtones, and its vocal lines are typically delivered in Tunisian and Algerian Arabic varieties. Songs often use call‑and‑response refrains, short strophic verses, and communal clapping, making mezwed a high‑energy, dance‑forward style. Although rooted in rural and peri‑urban contexts, it became an emblem of popular culture in cities, especially for celebrations such as weddings and neighborhood festivities.

Raï is a popular music genre from the port city of Oran (Wahran), Algeria, whose name comes from the colloquial Arabic word for "opinion" or "point of view." It began as a raw, vernacular form of urban song led by cheikhas (female singer-performers) accompanied by gasba flute and guellal drum, addressing everyday life, love, alcohol, social hypocrisy, and desire with unusual frankness. Across the 1970s and 1980s, raï electrified: acoustic ensembles and Bedoui/chaabi-rooted melodies merged with electric guitar, synthesizers, drum machines, and global dance grooves (funk, disco, reggae, and pop). This produced the internationally famous “pop raï” sound—at once danceable and emotionally direct—carried by stars such as Khaled, Cheb Mami, Cheb Hasni, and Cheikha Rimitti. Today, raï remains a living tradition and a flexible pop form, equally at home with traditional gasba/guellal timbres and glossy electronic production, while its lyrics continue to alternate between hedonistic celebration and aching nostalgia for home and lost love.