'A love letter to my people': Franco-Algerian artist DJ Snake pays homage to his roots in new release

After producing numerous international hits, the Franco-Algerian artist DJ Snake has finally decided to pay homage to his Algerian roots in his new track "Disco Maghreb". 

Bringing together electro, raï, percussion, and ghaïta (a kind of flute), the hit-maker released Tuesday a music video featuring a montage of old and young Algerian men and women dancing side to side to the rhythms of the brand new track.

Snake's new song was named after the Disco Maghreb production house in Oran, which produced the biggest Rai stars in the 1980s such as Cheb Khaled, Mami and Hasni.

I imagined "Disco Maghreb" as a bridge between different generations and origins, linking North Africa, the Arab world and beyond... This is a love letter to my people. 🇩🇿

LISTEN/WATCH NOW- https://t.co/puhFenR4yV pic.twitter.com/SUqHNF5AqH

— DJ SNAKE (@djsnake) May 31, 2022

For the many fans who enthusiastically cherished the release of this track, Disco Maghreb pictured perfectly the ambience of the North African country where the 80's Rai music continues to be celebrated along with the new generation of Rai musicians, who added their touch to this legendary genre.

The music video depicts a superimposition of images of traditional Algeria, as inspired by zaouïas, marriage celebrations, Baroud show, camel racing, and a contemporary Algeria.

A group of well-known Algerian celebrities appeared in the video including Boualem, the famous publisher of raï from Oran, in the process of opening the legendary record company Disco Maghreb at the start of the video. 

Meanwhile, the King of Rai Cheb Khaled concluded the video with a "mawal" over a scene of dozens of young men racing on motorcycles on the highway.

The video has also featured the track producer dancing in Climat de France, a popular district of Algiers, under the inhabitants' cheers while singing in Algerian dialects a few typical incantations of Algerian weddings.

Since its release on Tuesday, the music video has been viewed more than 4 million times on DJ Snake's official YouTube page. It's trending on Twitter in France, Algeria and Morocco.

The song will be the dance floor anthem for this wedding season, yet there was some criticism from those who believe that DJ Snake "could do better".

"(...) Apart from the festive sound, nothing is happening in this clip, the image is really bad!!! The opening with #DiscoMaghreb gives you the impression that you are going to witness something great, but nothing happened after, " one social media user tweeted in French.

Nevertheless, Snake's new release has caused North Africa to fall under a fever of nostalgia and good humour at a time when the beauty of music still shines under the darkness of authoritarianism and economic crises.

Historically, Algerian Rai musicians never stopped singing for freedom even during the darkest periods in the North African country. Cheb Hasni's provocative songs led to his murder in 1994. Singer Lounès Matoub and the raï producer Rachid Baba-Ahmed were murdered a few days later.