9. Cheikha RimittiSaida

The queen of Raï music. I’ve loved Algerian Raï music for so long, and she’s the top for me. There’s a very defiant quality in a lot of the songs, traditionally. This one I’ve always loved. She did it a little bit later in her life – she passed away in the aughts sometime. I think this one has a sort of reflective quality to it that I like. But that defiance is something I admire a lot, you know? Folk music is the music of the people.

I found this quote of hers that I love. She was illiterate her whole life, and something that she once said that I found in one of her obituaries is, "Words sing silently in my head until I sing them loud. No need to take either a pencil or a notebook." I think that’s really beautiful.