“Dalida gathered us, my aunts, my cousins, my mother, my sister and me”

My life in music – this Thursday, the singer participates in a tribute to Oum Kalthoum during the Printemps de Bourges. And this, while the oriental divas and the North African music that punctuated her life always influence her music.

Dyears The clip of his title Win Rak, She wanders her face decorated with Amazigh tattoos, the fingertips blackened by henna. A mixture of French, Spanish and Arabic, this title mixing pop with oud is like the turn borrowed by Camélia Jordana since her album Lost. The young woman descending from Algerians has undertaken a return to her roots, drawing in traditional North African music to enrich her music. Like the oriental divas, she embraces her all-powerful femininity as much as she celebrates the richness of her history. This April 17, she will pay tribute to Oum Kalthoum during the Printemps de Bourges, as part of a cover of her repertoire with other artists (Danyl, Maryam Saleh, Natacha Atlas, Osama Abdelfattah, Rounhaa and Souad Massi). Armed with her playlist “Divas Méd” who has long been installed in her phone, Camélia Jordana looks back on the music that has fueled this part, as an involuntary ode to women who have marked her life.

Your first musical memory?
It’s my mother singing Carmen, de Georges Bizet, at the Anglican church in Hyères-les-Palmiers, with a polka dot skirt and large Creoles. She has no microphone, but the vibration of her voice is magnificent and takes the whole church. At that moment, I tell myself that I really want to do this. There is also Dalida, who gathered us, my aunts, my cousins, my mother, my sister and me. We put on his music and we danted day and night. I loved the Arabic version of Safe Salma. For one of my birthdays, my mother had taken me to the culture department of the casino in our city, at La Londe-les-Maures and she had let me choose what I wanted. There was this booklet sold with a cassette on which was a documentary on Dalida. I had taken love for this woman, with her big hair, her light clothes. She was she and she sang incredibly well, but above all she sang in Arabic. Dalida was a Mediterranean diva who really inspired me.

In the book Arabic for all. Why my tongue is taboo In France, Nabil Wakim’s personal investigation, journalist at Monde, You say that the Arabic language reminds you of the afternoons with your grandmother. What music accompanied them?
At my maternal grandmother, there was not too much music in the afternoon. Music was that of the family language and our meetings where uncles and aunts spoke very hard in Dalijah. On the other hand, there is one which is linked to her home, the city of the Poncette de Toulon in which my uncles and aunts spent the second part of their childhood. When there was a wedding, we descended from one tower to another, from the accommodation of the bride’s parents to her new home. And during this procession, all women sang and repeated a Muslim prayer in Arabic in a loop. I pay tribute to this in my song. I’m talking about the Za3ret in Arabic, it is the Youyous that women shouted in chorus.

Music that makes you dance instantly?
Some, of Raïna Raï, or Choufou l’amour Madar FIA, of bilel tacchini. They cause instant joy to me. But above all, they have a saving side. In our cultures, there is this relationship to the body where to exult, we must dance. There is always a time when someone begins to sing, dance or make percussion on the table, dishes, whatever … When I was little, we did it spontaneously, but today it makes me feel good. Since October 7, there has been intra-community support for anyone who identifies as Arab in the many events organized in support of Palestine. Many North Africans meet there and celebrate culture. As Palestinians or Lebanese say, joy is also an act of resistance, and there is almost something political in these celebrations.

In the spring of Bourges, you present with other artists a show in tribute to the repertoire of Oum Kalthoum. When did you discover this artist?
When I entered the first confinement in early 2020, I had a memory of my Hind heart sister and I listening to Oum Kalthoum while dancing. During this period, I could no longer listen to something else, in particular Enta Omry. This is the title that moves me the most, I cannot live without. I didn’t realize right away, but artists and composers with whom I collaborate pointed out to me that the ranges of traditional Egyptian music are increasingly present in my work for a few years. My ear got used to the music of Oum Kalthoum and other Egyptian artists. It completely inspired what I do today.

What piece of the show you would not take away from the world?
Enta Omry, It’s impossible! This title represents Oum Kalthoum in my eyes. When Zeid Hamdan asked me what I wanted to sing, I proposed this title, but also Ala Baladi El Mahboub, Because these are music that I used to sing at home. Besides, this is the first time that I have been so impressed with the idea of ​​going on stage. It is the absolute queen, and I do not find that it is a repertoire that I master. She entered my life only five years ago and it’s hard to appropriate it. I want to sing like her, but since I’m not Oum Kalthoum, as much as I do my thing. At the same time, I don’t want to get too far away, since what she does is just extraordinary.

Is there another ultimate diva?
There are several: Warda al-Jazairia, Faïrouz, Asmahan… These women are queens. I discovered them by sailing from artist to artist, and reconnecting to this music did me a lot of good. She is part of me, but I had never really dug. Batwanes Beek, Wa habibi, ya habibi Taala Elhaani… These are music that I listen to in a loop.

And a more rebellious diva?
Cheikha Remitti is right in it. She is an Algerian woman, one of the pioneers of the rai in the 1950s. A kind of rock star with her traditional outfits, her huge very dark brown hair and her henna on her hands. She played at the same time that she sang with a big rock voice. I will never get tired of his title It’s over, I’m fed up. She knew how to speak of love, religion and sensuality. It is also for these reasons that she was a big punk, but she always did it with poetry. There is a known sentence that says that Arabic is the true language of love, because in the way grammar is structured, words can intermingle with each other and have a sensuality that cannot be created in other languages.

A protest music that galvanizes you?
There is a Palestinian song called Lover’s Hymn. It is supposed to be a wedding song, but in reality it is a coded song of resistance. Since the Nakba in 1948, the Palestinians have developed an Arabic language in which they add syllables to get messages, without the oppressor being able to understand. I sang it during L’Hyper Weekend Festival the 2024.

A concert of traditional music that marked you?
Traditional music live is absolute purity. There is a concert of traditional North African music that upset me. That of Dorsaf Hamdani, an extraordinary Tunisian singer, accompanied by the Iranian singer Alireza Ghorbani. Together, they made an album Drunk – The coronation of Khayyam That I discovered ten years ago, thinking that it was an old project as he seemed sacred. One day, I show up at the Alhambra for a traditional music festival which takes place every year in Paris, and they were there as part of a tour linked to this project which had actually came out. I was dazzled, I still remember it. Drunkenness is one of the music that marked me the most.

In January, you released Win Rak. Does this title represent the direction you want to take now, between pop and traditional music?
I had already tried to do this on Lost, Except that it was very intimate and committed, without any approach to the public. For the first time now, I make an album that I think for the scene. I want it to be a great celebration, something brighter and perhaps more accessible. I want to allow myself to do what I always wanted to do without ever allowing myself: having a frank image when I have my musician cap. I want to feel free to be able to express myself as much in pictures as in music.

Women’s voice, A celebration of the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of the “Eastern Astre” Oum Kalthoum, under the musical direction of Zeid Hamdan. Thursday April 17, spring of Bourges. The show will also be given at the Avignon Festival on July 14, in the Honor Court.