Rabah Driassa is a painter, composer and especially Algerian performer of popular music, hawzi and sahraoui born in Blida in 19341. He is known around the years 1960 to 1980 with many songs of the soil which remain chiefs of work in the field, such as Yahya wlad bladi, Hizia, Nejma Katbia, El Goumri, El Aouama and many others that have marked Algerian music in the 1960s and 1980s.
In the 1990s, his son Abdou embarked on the world of singing with mostly covers of his father’s songs. Often, they sang in duo.
Rabah Driassa was born in Blida, he will not come immediately to the song. His first art was painting, and in particular, the miniature he had learned on his own inspired by Mohamed Racim. He will exhibit his works in Blida and Algiers where he won the Jules Ferry Prize at the Salon des artistes Algeriens et Orientalists in Paris and Metz on the occasion of the twinning between Blida and Metz.
He became interested in the song in 1953, he began writing songs for most stars of the time, then he tried to sing his own words, in a very famous radio show, written and presented by ME Hachelaf entitled “Men Koulfen Chouia”. It has been noticed by famous masters of the song, such as Mustapha Skandrani, Abderrahmane Aziz, Mustapha Kechkoul, etc. who helped him in this way.
The success was immediate for this young man, who already made the music of his own songs. He thus created a new genre by amalgamating genres as different as the Alaoui and the Sahraoui, since his success never stopped growing with a public surprised by the novelty of the rhythms and especially for the texts concerning the social problems he pushed and led this young artist to record several singles, which had a great commercial success, with major record companies such as Pathé, Tepaze, Philips etc.
Since the independence of Algeria, he has introduced into his style an amalgam of patriotic themes and charm. He participated in various tours at the request of the Algerian community in Europe, to celebrate with him the joy of independence of the new Algeria, which recognized him as one of the ambassadors of the Algerian song, and participated in all cultural weeks of Algeria organized in the friendly countries: Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, as well as the neighboring countries Morocco, Libya and Tunisia where he was asked to animate a recital at the International Carthage Festival, where the song “Nedjma Kotbia” was a great success. Equipped with great moral qualities, poetic and professional, and loved for his kindness, he is up to now, recognized as one of the best songwriters of new Algeria .
The hit songs can not be counted anymore, so much so that the Director of Olympia called on him in 1975 to open a series of galas dedicated to the stars of the Arab world for the first time. In his recital, he presented a series of new songs all marked at the corner of “The Good Maker” that he became and all called to meet the best welcome to the public.
In April 2003, Atlas Publishing Director Mr. Blouziane R had the privilege of enriching his catalog with the songs of this artist. In this new compact disc are his greatest new hits “Ya Abdelkader”, A song about Emir Abdelkader, Hizb Ethouar, Quesset Sidna Youcef, and in tribute to the great poet Sidi Lakhdar Ben Khlouf “Quasid and ya Ras Bnadem” that artist has enriched by his own words and musical arrangements. The songs presented in this compact disc, both of them, gave a panorama of his creations of composer and poet.
Having lost his mother at the age of 12, then his father three years later, he had to assume the care of his five brothers. To provide for their needs he worked as a glass engraver devoted to his passion, painting. He succeeded in exhibiting his works in 1952 both in Algeria and in France4.
He will be interested in the song from 1953 by participating in the public broadcast of Hachelaf “men kol fen shuiya” and all the galas that organized the broadcasting of Algiers at the Salle Ibn Khaldoun. He had a great success which earned him the title of “nightingale of Algeria” .
