Samy El Maghribi-Lghali

Samy Elmaghribi (born in 1922 as Salomon Amzallag, in Safi) was a Moroccan musician. He lived in Paris and Montreal. He died on 9 March 2008.
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Samy Elmaghribi: the happiness of a generation

Lovers of traditional Moroccan music remember Samy Elmaghribi, the artist who left his marks on the years 50 and 60.His real name is Salomon Amzellag He was born in 1922 in Safi. His Jewish family,moved to Rabat in 1926. He inherits from his father, a tailor traditional gift for singing. Fascinated by music, he plays with his friends in the Jewish quarter. He learned to play the oud (lute) and improves his playing by taking courses in the Casablanca Conservatory of Music.

At 20 years old, he left his post as commercial director to devote himself entirely to singing and music, performing particularly qaçaids (poems) of Sidi Qaddour Al Alami, Mohamed Benslimane and other great tenors of malhoun. His choice to become a singer was influenced by Salim Hilali, an Algerian singer. Later Samy Elmaghribi has the audacity to skip from spiritual songs, he learns from his childhood, to secular and popular song.

He asserts as an artist between 1950 and 1954 through a series of compositions and recordings. With a broad repertoire, Samy Elmaghribi takes noubas from gharnati to the malhoun, through popular song. He popularized the poem Bensoussan, written by Benyechou like "Al Kawi" or "Mal Hbibi Malou".

In 1955 he welcomed by one of his poetic and musical compositions, the return of King Mohammed V and is even invited to Saint-Germain-en-Laye to sing in front of the Sultan of Morocco, "Alf Hniya Wa Hniya", "Koulou Ala Esslama Sidna Mohammed Alkhamis Soltan Al Maghrib". He pursued his career in Paris, where he gave numerous concerts and created his own record label, Samyphone.

He made a great international success, especially among immigrants from North Africa. In 1960 he sang "Qacidat Agadir" dedicated to victims of an earthquake. The same year, when installed in Canada, Samy Elmaghribi decides to return to his early music: the spiritual songs. So he devoted himself to the interpretation and explanation by the music of sacred texts, for example with "Hodou Ladoshem Bekinor", "Bekinor Vekol Zimerah" or "Aleh Higayone Bekinor".

The decision to return to the sacred is hardly understood by his admirers, especially when he became rabbi of a synagogue in Spain and Portugal. So he refrains from appearing in public because of his religious offices. In front of the misunderstanding, he chose to answer questions from his fans with the song Sâloun nnâs (People asked me). Samy Elmaghribi has a unique musical erudition and mastery of Hebrew and classical Arabic.

Thus he is the first to transcribe the music of Andalusia. His study of the various répertoires has allowed the birth of a new generation of music lovers in the tradition of sung poetry Judeo-Moroccan of malhoun, noubas and chaâbi. Upon his death in 2008, the newspaper Aujourd'hui le Maroc wrote in his honor: "Without saying goodbye, we say thank you Sami to have crystallized the expression of joy and happiness for more than a generation".
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