Slimane Azem

12+ albums

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about

Slimane Azem (September 19, 1918 – January 31, 1983) was an Algerian singer and poet, originally from Kabylia, that composed hundreds of songs in more than 40 years of artistic life. A great connoisseur and admirer of the poet Si Mohand, Slimane Azem included in his songs different isefra by this author. Slimane Azem was born September 19, 1918 at Agouni Gueghrane, a small village located on the foothills of Djurdjura. Nothing predestined this son of a poor farmer to a musical career. A rather mediocre student, he had a passion for the La Fontaine's Fables that would later influence his writings and compositions. At the age of 11, he became a farm worker for a colonist in Staouéli, a small resort near Algiers (the very beach were the French army landed in 1830). In 1937, he landed at Longwy as part of the Service du travail obligatoire and found work in a steel mill operation before being mobilized during the "Phoney War" in Issoudun. In 1940, he was discharged and went to Paris where he was hired as an assistant electrician in the Paris Métro. In 1942, Slimane was in Paris. The capital fascinated him and yet the work was hard. He was accustomed to life in the village in the great outdoors, but was now confined in tunnels and underground eight hours a day in the metro. Two years later, he underwent deportation by German troops in the Rhineland and remained there until its liberation in 1945, by the Americans. Having received death threats during the independence of Algeria,