A: I think it’s a pretty normal evolution, because when I was a kid, with my friends, we used to reject traditional Arab music or traditional music of Algeria, and Western and contemporary music was like a dream. For us, the goal was somehow to escape, but after leaving Algeria and as I grow older, I have become more attached to ancestral types of music. When you’re far away from where you come from you just hold on to it more. It’s your origins. You don’t want to forget that. You cannot forget that.
Q:So is the challenge, then, not just for Algerians in France, but say, Mexicans in the United States, to hold on to the past while negotiating with the present?
A: My roots are part of my past and my present life. There are not separate time zones. They are more, you know, simultaneous. I live my present musical life while attached to very ancestral kinds of music. In some cases, I’ve even tried to find ancient books of poets from the 13th and the 14th century and make them contemporary. That’s how I manage it, by not keeping them apart.
Q:And what is your reception by Algerian audiences when you go back to Algeria?
A: Most people are very proud of my success over there and they’re very happy when I go back to the country. But some of them view my music as, you know, having a bit too much of Westernism in it.
Q:And has being a modern Muslim woman — who for example is politically outspoken, who doesn’t wear the hijab — ever been an issue for you?
A: No, it hasn’t been a problem. Most Muslim women do not wear the hijab. That may be the dominant image of Muslim women in the media, but it’s not true. Despite what people may think, the way I dress or look is not an anomaly. Whenever you see something in the media, that’s what you’re gonna see. More than ever right now, we should remember that the realities are quite different.
On the Web
Souad Massi: http://souadmassi.artistes.universalmusic.fr/
