In contrast, Morocco was under French and Spanish rule for a combined 44 years, from 1912-1956.

In Algeria, the duration of the colonial presence marked the longest among the Greater Maghreb countries, lasting for 132 years from its initial colonization by France in 1830 to its independence in 1962. I will limit this overview to only two countries, Morocco and Algeria, for the rest of the countries are not as relevant to this discussion.īy the beginning of the First World War in 1914, the countries of the Greater Maghreb had fallen under European control.

In this blog, I am going to view how these foreign elements have been exploited by those singers – from the Greater Maghreb – to make their songs more appealing to an international audience.īefore I start with my own interpretation of the two songs I am discussing in this paper, I will first begin with a brief overview of the countries in Greater Maghreb in regards of their contacts with Europe. Such foreign elements are seen through the language used by those artists or musicians in their communications with their love partners in the songs. This hierarchical classification has led a number of musicians from North Africa, or the Greater Maghreb, to incorporate foreign elements in their music in order to gain international recognition. The tension between the colonizer and the colonized created levels of superiority of the former and inferiority of the latter.

Sa la vie cheb khaled