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Artist
Rachid Taha (Arabic: رشيد طه, Sig, Algeria, 18 September 1958 – 12 September 2018) was an Algerian musician based in France. His music is influenced by many different styles such as rock, techno, and raï. Taha was born in 1958 in Sig (Mascara Province), Algeria, although a second source suggests he was born in the Algerian seacoast city of Oran. Oran was the "birthplace of raï" music, and 1958 was a key year in the Algerian struggle for independence against French authority. He began listening to Algerian music in the 1960s, including street-style music called chaabi. And music from the Maghreb region was part of his upbringing. He moved with his parents to France when he was ten years old, settling in an immigrant community around the French city of Lyon in 1968. His father was a factory worker. While working in a heating appliance factory in the late 1970s, Taha founded Les Refoulés ("The Rejects"), a nightclub where he would spin mashups of Arabic pop classics over Led Zeppelin, Bo Diddley, and Kraftwerk backbeats. Based in Paris where he began his solo career after his beginnings as the leader of the French rock band Carte de Séjour, he usually sings in Arabic. In 1981, while living in Lyon, Taha met Mohammed and Mokhtar Amini. The three of them, Rachid, Djamel Dif and Eric Vaquer would later form the band "Carte De séjour" (green card) and record their first maxi Album "Carte De Séjour" in 1983. Their first LP Rhoromanie, came out in 1984. Their second and last LP en