Cheikh El Hasnaoui

The child grew up in the culture of the Zaouias where he attended Timaâmrin, where he learned the Koran and the Arabic language, the script of which he would later use to transcribe his songs.

He then lived on rue Mogador in the Casbah of Algiers and was even part of the Hadj M'hamed El Anka orchestra.

He therefore took off and, like many of his colleagues, began his artistic career in Parisian North African cafes, transformed every Saturday evening and Sunday morning into Chaâbi performance halls.

He became friends with certain great figures of the Algerian artistic scene and song based in France (Mohamed Iguerbouchène, Kaddour Cherchalli, Dahmane El Harrachi, etc.).

Everything that El Hasnaoui sang about Tamurt (the native land), this affliction and these setbacks of exile, we find them in legendary songs like La Maison Blanche, Ad Ruhegh, Aqlagh Nesbek, Ya Noudjoum Elil,...

He first lived in Nice, in a small retirement, before settling for the last twelve years of his life in Saint-Pierre (Reunion), where he died on July 6, 2002.