Takfarinas

Born in 1958 in Tixeraine, on the outskirts of Algiers, Takfarinas — real name Hacène Zermani — is the heir to a family of musicians spanning four generations. Living in France since 1979, he modernized Kabyle song by fusing the ancestral yal rhythm with electric guitar. After his Paris debut as the opening act for Idir at the Olympia, the Agraw duo he formed with Boudjemaa Semaouni brought him to prominence in the early 1980s. His 1986 albums Way Telha and Arrach, which sold over a million copies, made him one of the most popular Kabyle singers of his generation.