Fella Ababsa

Biography

Fella Ababsa was born in the Paris suburb of Plaine Saint Denis, then moved to Algeria with her family a couple of years later. She comes from a well-known Algerian artistic family. Her father Abdelhamid Ababsa was a poet, musician and singer. Her brother Najeeb is a popular singer and so is her sister Naima.

From a very young age she was surrounded by Andalousian and Algerian music, and learnt the piano and the Oud as well as other musical instruments. At 15 years old, she joined musical groups in the capital, then aged 20 she left for a series of shows in London where she had built up publicity and stayed for several years and perfected her knowledge of oriental music. She also performed in the United States in the early 1990s.

Though she's Algerian she often sings in Egyptian-Arabic, as she never could get popularity in the Maghreb, she went later on to Egypt and the Middle-East and with success. However Ababsa's first songs were sung in Algerian-Arabic, she also sings occasionally in English, like in 'Rani Jay'. Probably the most remarkable point about her is that she never sung in French, which is widely used by North-African singers.

Discography