Abdelwahab Doukkali
Late fifties of last century. The country had just shaken off its shackles, found his carefree, sketched life to the full on catchy tunes. They rained. Not a month passed without a lot of melodies, and singers and musicians grew like primroses in spring. There was one side of the "classics" like Ahmed Al Bidaoui Abdelwahab Agoumi or Abdessalam Amir, jealous of the Arabic language and poetry enthusiasts, on the other, the 'modern', the image of Fouiteh Mohamed, and Ahmed Jabrane Benkacem Maati, had taken advantage of Moroccan Arabic and jingle lightly. The two had in common surf romance. They had the song but not the feathers.
With their balding, their windows, their whiskers and their suits, they were more like round-the-leather only crooners catcher hearts of crowds. They were rather on the side of Cairo. They called Abdelhalim Hafez and Moharram Fouad. But Abdelwahab Doukkali came to fill this serious gap in our music scene.
It is in a conservative religious family and he was born
Born twice, on 1 January 1941 and the 7th of April following a stay in an incubator, one who would enjoy several lives was born in a large family (13 children), modest and deeply religious. The father was a religious man, who behaved like a true patriarch, brooding offspring while never failing to reprimand the slightest indiscretion. To this man both loving and strict, Abdelwahab had a remarkable deference.
He kissed her hand morning and night, he brought the ewer with food and has never permitted, even in adulthood, to smoke a cigarette in his presence. Docile, disciplined, good as gold at home, the child was transformed when he came out. Taking advantage of the absence of his father, he loved hanging around the streets of Fez aimlessly, if not that of committing pranks.
"I remember the time I found myself Ayn Chqaf, a few miles from Fez. I made a bet with friends cycling down the top of the hill. I failed in a river with a severe injury. Usually, I gave my father the tass.
He noted that this evening I handed him the left hand. I had to confess my fault. I still have memories of the correction that I received, "remembers Abdelwahab Doukkali. Prodigal in denominations, he likes to survey the territory of his childhood to revive the joy and happiness, as his first kiss lip plumper picked some Sana'a, under the bombs of the French army.
Bold, he proved already focused on the fair sex, he unveiled unvarnished. This does not prevent him, probably for fear of paternal wrath, to take the hard road to school and succeed Moulay Idriss honorably his studies. Without excessive zeal. The music has lived, from an early age, the namesake of the first name of the great Egyptian composer.
He had promised to make his rationale. Meanwhile, he was scratching like a madman on his lute and asset vocalized wildly away from the paternal gaze.
Futurist Mahdi Elmandjra incited to engage in the musical way
1959. At the age of eighteen years, Abdelwahab Doukkali found that the time had come to take off. The climate of Fes was not conducive to the satisfaction of his ambitions singers. Then he took his bundle and went on an adventure. In Rabat it landed. He quickly found a job at the RTM.
He immediately began to get bored farm. It was not built for the paperwork, so he hid it in the song, he pushed all day long. This was not the taste of Ahmed Al Bidaoui, his chief bogeyman. He sanctioned for nothing, if only for his habit of melon seeds.
However, Mahdi Elmandjra, then director of RTM, took a liking to the youngster with a promising talent. He strongly encouraged to follow the path on which he seemed so destined. Abdelwahab Doukkali did did not repeat twice. He headed for Casablanca, where the work was done player.
Like the hero of Balzac Rastignac is responsible for the look of defiance that the future idol of young and old alike landed at the bus station Benjdia. Spotting the imposing building Freedom, he promised his mother, who accompanied him, to acquire, one day, an apartment. What he did a few years later. With a staggering aplomb, he began to spread among the musical galaxy Casablanca. His arguments were convincing, but his fiery determination annoyed them installed and seated. They did not opened their doors. Impressed by his skill, Tayeb Ahmed El Alj him, did not hesitate to write the lyrics of a jingle, Ya lghadi ftomobil, with whom he made his entrance on stage. A sensational debut and successful. We do not understand that the singer has denied this ode to the automobile, which he owes his birth. When he says: "I regret a period where I had to sing songs that I did not want, in places that do not honor me so. I was by any means I have a place in the sun ", perhaps he was wrongly in our view, referring, among other things, his first song.
From the outset, it upsets the decorum stage
Still, as Abdelwahab Doukkali quickly changed his tune. A Ya lghadi ftomobil succeeded Anti, Habibati, The tatroukini designed course in the same vein of romance, but cast in a classic form of good quality. With these titles, the singer broke the hut too well ordered Moroccan song. It was agreed that until then stood politely on stage, they mimed and danced without being excessive, they opened their arms and they bowed low. Certainty dynamited. Abdelwahab Doukkali torturing his lute, played the lyrics of his songs, had an intense, closed his eyes to better penetrate and it fell into a trance at times. He was represented throughout his performance. Purists sneered at them. Especially since Doukkali jostled other conveniences, with his hair mad he tried to tame his incongruously watch worn on the right hand, and her jewelry spread insolently. But precisely because of its disregard for established standards he was lionized by a youth who was his idol. To imitate it began to wear the watch on the right hand, used and abused the decrepit Stiff way to get a smooth hair like hers, and whitening toothpaste Diamond.
Abdelwahab Doukkali came quickly in the legend. Some were relaxed. They had a sovereign contempt for the place of the "fop" the cynosure of the 'working girls' attacker was from a press arrows with curare, history down the statue which was erected by his fans. Harnessing its good fortune with the ladies, they spread the rumor that a teenager was found dead outside his apartment. Sbaï Larbi, who was long his intimate, says he did not eat this bread. It is true that Doukkali had a weakness for women, but not maintaining connections, more or less stormy, with celebrities, including Sabah and Lebanese Egyptian dancer Nadia Lotfi. However, neither sarcasm nor slander and even less the rivalry between Abdelhadi Belkhayat welled up and he did manage to break the momentum of Doukkali. Free electron, vibrio, elusive, always between two planes, two trains, two television interviews, he went after his fiery fate.
Abdelhalim Hafez with, he was bound by a stubborn enmity
Doukkali upset, irritated to the authorities, who despatched the purgatory of the unwanted. Embittered, he decided to emigrate. Cairo was his destination. The city fought under his feet the red carpet. He inherited the famous neighbors: the composer Baligh Hamdi and star Abdelhalim Hafez. With the first, the current passed, the second took it, immediately, with flu. Prelude to a stubborn enmity. The two men spent much of their time each scuffed. To blows, was the winner Doukkali.
Sbaï Larbi said that when they occur, rivalry forces in two separate locations, Hafez was snubbed by the public, while the latter rushed to Doukkali. It must be said that he had managed to conquer the heart of the Egyptians, even that of their icon, Nadia Lotfi, Hafez was struggling with the seat. For seven years, Cairo was at the feet of Doukkali. But one day he decided to return home.
Chiche and lavish, depending on the mood of the moment
This was the return of the prodigal son, that Doukkali sang a song in praise of King Hassan II, Habib Ljamahir. Followed by a melody taken over by no less than fifty Arab singers, Sabah, head, Ma ana illa Bashar. Versatile, the author of Habibati had once again changed course. With happiness.
The man who, treading the ground Casablanca, had vowed to buy an apartment building in Liberty, purchased two, which must be added a pied-à-terre boulevard Lalla Yacout a farm eight hectares out of a villa in Marrakech and the London suburbs. Doukkali is not complaining about his financial situation. But it is also known covetous propensities.
A witness to the parties he organizes in Marrakech claims he always manages to pay the musicians for its guests. Improbable, his intimate contend it would be rather generous. And list its largesse to new artists, his attentions towards Mohamed Lahyani when he was penniless, his support for actor Ismail Yassin when he found lost and penniless in Morocco.
Judgement contrast, then, but it is not surprising that it is both chick and lavish, depending on the mood of the moment, as it is rippling.
Constant, however, he is in his love for his young wife and his children and Aida Nour. Among them, he observes, what he claims, retirement mute, the top of which he examines the musical Moroccan laments lack of creativity of its peers, reduced to recycle old tubes or emigrate adventurously to other heavens. But Doukkali Abdelwahab, it can not be invented only once every twenty years, and more! A musician of this caliber is wanting and the entire musical landscape is desolate. Kan Kan is my ...
Et-Tayeb Houdaïfa
Published: 30/03/2007
http://www.lavieeco.com/Culture/quand-abdelwahab-doukkali-lancait-la-nouvelle-vague
