The recent death of French Algerian superstar Rachid Taha brought to mind the musical genre called raï, so I decided to feature it this week by highlighting a few raï artists.… It’s not hard to ...

Cheb Mami’s name may not be on the tip of your tongue, but odds are his music is. Over the past decade, this Algerian native has skyrocketed to the top of the world’s Arabic rai (pronounced “rye”) ...

Ro Cham Tih, a master of Gia Rai music, shares the sound of the highlands through hand-crafted bamboo instruments on global stages.

Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1135764/135764" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> NPR's ...

Born in southern Tunisia in 1977, MC Rai proved so adept in the native chaabi folk music tradition that he was performing on local radio stations before his eighth birthday. Like most teenagers, his ...